The study of mathematics is often described as the science of patterns (Resnik 1981), and the cognitive tasks involving the search, recognition, and assessment of patterns are fundamental to learning mathematics. Patterning activities lead students to a better understanding of dependent relations among representations, create a transparent way for…

SCAMPER is an acronym that stands for Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to Another Use, Eliminate, and Rearrange (Eberle 1972). Each word in the acronym is related to a question stem designed to prompt creative thinking about a given topic (Flannagan and Sawyer 2015). Using these question stems requires students to systematically think…

Generalizing patterns is an important feature of algebraic reasoning that is accessible to students across grade-levels because it connects their numerical reasoning to algebraic reasoning. In this article, the authors describe how teachers can use the game Crack the Code to introduce generalizing to their students or can extend students'…