Historically, some baby names have been more popular during a specific time span, whereas other names are considered timeless. The Internet article, "How to Tell Someone's Age When All You Know Is Her Name" (Silver and McCann 2014), describes the phenomenon of the rise and fall of name popularity, which served as a catalyst for the…

Recent recommendations for the teaching of mathematics place an emphasis on the Common Core's Standards for Mathematical Practice (SMP) (CCSSI 2010). The SMPs emphasize constructing viable arguments, critiquing the ideas of others, reasoning abstractly and quantitatively, and using computational procedures. These skills, including the use of…

In mathematics, students should represent, model, and work with such real-world situations as those found in the physical world, the public policy realm, and society (CCSSI 2010). Additionally, students need to make decisions and be flexible enough to improve their decisions after analyzing realistic situations. The LEGO® Pets activity does just…

The television show Deal or No Deal and an Excel spreadsheet help students see how understanding probability and mean--and the concept of expected value (EV)--can lead to game show wins.

This article describes instructional activities designed to help students develop an understanding of the multiple relationships between fractions and percents and unit price as they develop their mental-math abilities. (Contains 4 figures.)

Presents selected responses to the question "The Farmer's Dilemma" that represent the thinking of sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade students. Indicates that by being given the freedom to use a variety of methods, most students found at least one solution or demonstrated an understanding of the restrictions set by the problem. (ASK)

Explores the study of ordered pairs to allow students to demonstrate their own creativity, apply previously learned computer skills, evaluate their own work, and draw connections to other mathematical strands. Using a spreadsheet, students construct a drawing composed of connected ordered pairs, the inverse, and the negative of the drawing. (ASK)

Describes how students learn to use statistics to determine factors related to their health while employing community resources and spreadsheet technology. (YDS)

Presents historical mathematics to students. Suggests allowing students to have two methods of problem solving with a graphing calculator to allow for a visual result. Indicates that students should have more than one opportunity to experience a solution to a problem, a variety of contexts for the problem, and an opportunity to communicate. (ASK)

Describes the creation of a company purchase order complete with the names of items to be purchased, cost, quantity, discounts, sales tax, and balance due. It requires students to apply their knowledge and understanding of percentages and also gives students an opportunity to understand the mathematics they use with algebraic formulas. (AIM)

Uses spreadsheets and programmable calculators to investigate limiting behavior in number patterns. (YDS)

Describes spreadsheet activities that illustrate a problem-solving approach to teaching statistical concepts, allowing students to explore properties underlying descriptive statistics before being introduced to computational rules. (MKR)

In this article, the authors demonstrate how a simple math lab incorporating monthly height measurements can address multiple science and mathematics standards such as collecting, organizing, and describing data in context; drawing conclusions; and making hypotheses from these data. Although the yearlong math lab can be accomplished in either the…

Presents an activity through which students develop mathematical concepts connected to area and perimeter in a rich, real-life setting and use tables, graphs, diagrams, and spreadsheets to explore the problem, see relationships, and make and test conjectures about those relationships. Encourages algebraic thinking. (SYB)