In this article, the author talks about a hands-on, community-supported project that he initiated with a group of middle school students on Zia Pueblo, in which students used measurement and numeracy skills to build benches for the school grounds. He talks about the theoretical framework of this project and the lessons he learned from this project.

Hypothesis testing is one of the more difficult concepts for students to master in a basic, undergraduate statistics course. Students often are puzzled as to why statisticians simply don't calculate the probability that a hypothesis is true. This article presents an exercise that forces students to lay out on their own a procedure for testing a…

This article begins to unravel the question, "What curricular materials work best under what kinds of conditions?" The authors address this question from the point of view of teachers and their ability to implement mathematics curricula that place varying demands and provide varying levels of support for their learning. Specifically, the…

At United States Military Academy, a unit on biological modeling applications forms the culminating component of the first semester core mathematics course for freshmen. The course emphasizes the use of problem-solving strategies and modeling to solve complex and ill-defined problems. Topic areas include functions and their shapes, data fitting,…

Humor has been promoted as a teaching tool that enhances student engagement and learning. The present report traces the pathway from research to practice by reflecting upon various ways to incorporate humor into the face-to-face teaching of statistics. The use of humor in an introductory university statistics course was evaluated via interviews…

This article describes a collaborative model for organizing schoolwide family math nights. College instructors work with their preservice teachers and local classroom teachers to organize this event. This model allows for a sharing of the work of holding such an event and gives preservice teachers the opportunity to work on fun and engaging…

Reams of paper come in a standardised system of related sheet sizes. Most people are familiar with the international paper sizes A4, A3 and B4, but there are others. The ratio of the sides of any sheet in the series is such that if the paper is cut or folded in half on itself then the ratio of the sides remains unchanged. Due to this property of…

The authors see mathematics as an endless source of surprise, which excites and motivates them. Many writers have exploited this characteristic of the subject to nurture learning. The challenge is to create conditions for learners so that they too will experience a surprise. The authors tend to see surprise as a positive emotion; mathematics as…

We discuss mathematical tasks used in a first mathematics content course for elementary teachers at our university to foster a deep conceptual understanding of early arithmetic, including basic concepts of number, number relationships and strategies, and coordinating units of different rank. Our approach is to immerse our students in a base 8…

The purpose of these modules is to provide an introduction to the world of probability and statistics to accelerated mathematics students at the high school level. The modules also introduce students to real world math concepts and problems that property and casualty actuaries come across in their work. They are designed to be used by teachers and…

The purpose of this study was to examine the involvement of higher education STEM faculty in disciplinary departments with pre-K-12 public schools. In particular, the study focused on 15 nationally funded awards, targeted at education in mathematics, in the National Science Foundation's Math and Science Partnership (NSF MSP) Program. One important…

NCTM's Process Standards support teaching that helps upper elementary level children develop independent, effective mathematical thinking. The books in the Heinemann Math Process Standards Series give every intermediate-grades teacher the opportunity to explore each standard in depth. With language and examples that don't require prior math…

This article describes a student-oriented classroom activity for exploring polynomials. In this activity teacher candidates apply technology to explore mathematics that they will teach but that they have not studied since high school. (Contains 10 figures.)

Teachers know that real mathematical understanding includes the higher-level skills of comparing, contrasting, and making connections among different computational approaches. What mathematical connections can students make when asked to explore a task that is posed in three different ways? This article describes a unique task structure that helps…

This article presents lesson plans that use downloadable spreadsheet tools that relate symbolic and graphical representations of functions. Instructions and a template allow readers to create personalized tools without programming. (Contains 14 figures.)