Describes a fifth-grade student solving the "Food for Thought" problem featured in the February 1998 issue. (ASK)

Discusses the advantages of teaching with open-ended tasks and compares students' responses to open-ended, closed-area, and perimeter tasks. (ASK)

Discusses ways to help students improve their problem-solving skills. Presents some mathematics problems to be used in classrooms. (ASK)

Introduces an activity in which students design and experiment to determine the mass of a sample of copper without using a balance. Uses water displacement to find the mass of copper. (YDS)

Presents an activity that highlights the mechanism and power of natural selection. Allows students to think in terms of modeling a biological process and instills an appreciation for a mathematical approach to biological problems. (JRH)

Presents a prototype of an instructional task that aims at improved problem-solving skills based on the understanding of domain knowledge. (Author/CCM)

Presents a problem that uses the design show and asks students to find a series of moves to take the design from the top-left corner of a piece of paper to the bottom-right corner while remaining in its original orientation. (ASK)

Presents answers to the problem appearing in the January, 1999 Problem Solvers section of this journal, which was a strategy game called "Take Two" in which two players played by placing seven chips in a row and removing one or two chips each turn. (ASK)

This article examines the benefits and teaching procedures resulting from a classroom activity in student problem posing. The benefits included an enhancement of student reasoning and reflection and a heightened level of engagement. "Principles and Standards for School Mathematics" indicates that one of the critical requirements for successful…

Human children 18-24 months of age and 3 young chimpanzees interacted in 4 cooperative activities with a human adult partner. The human children successfully participated in cooperative problem-solving activities and social games, whereas the chimpanzees were uninterested in the social games. As an experimental manipulation, in each task the adult…

Field Trip to the Moon uses an inquiry-based learning approach that fosters team building and introduces participants to careers in science and engineering. The program components include the Field Trip to the Moon DVD [not included here], Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)/Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) Activities, and…

This book presents extensive sampling of a "whole math" curriculum for preschool and kindergarten children ages 3 and older. An introductory chapter is followed by seven curriculum chapters that discuss math manipulatives, collections, grid games, path games, graphing, math and gross-motor play, and the "math suitcase." Each chapter is divided…

This book, composed of nine chapters, provides a guide for creating an interdisciplinary literacy program for middle schools. The first part of the book, which incorporates chapters 2-4, describes the role of the media specialist when literature is the content to be taught. The second part, incorporating chapters 5-7 describes the role of the…

As students observe plant growth, the questions that naturally arise can provide opportunities for student exploration and discovery. This guide presents a collection of activities for students in grades K-8 that turn students' questions into life sciences learning experiences. The guide contains four chapters, each with background information and…

This book grew out of an actual experience developing and implementing a problem-solving process, using the Paulo Freire approach, for teaching English as a second language (ESL) adult students. This process implies a serious and long-term commitment to developing critical thinking skills. The first part of the book discusses who the students are,…