The concept of "baby research" signifies a playful investigation that takes place at a child's initiative, carried out with freedom and joy, without specific knowledge of preconceived ideas of where it will lead. A joyous firsthand experience with Cuisenaire rods is described by a teacher who once disliked teaching mathematics.…

Combine history and current events with graham crackers and crepe paper in a Washington model. (Editor)

Describes how students in a third-grade classroom were given opportunities to practice measurement activities on their school playground. Argues that the school buildings and playground can be rich sources of ways to help students make connections and extend their spatial thinking and reasoning beyond the confines of the classroom. (ASK)

Undergraduate and graduate students are often confused about several aspects of modeling physical systems. Describes an approach to address these issues using a single physical transport problem that can be analyzed with multiple mathematical models. (DKM)

Addresses the way in which adults talk about the mathematical content of young children's activities and how the child's mathematical endeavors are dependent upon adult evaluations of them. Presents two examples for discussion: (1) sorting and counting by a two-year-old; and (2) a seven-year-old working with Dienes materials. (ASK)

Describes the nature of investigations and their uses in mathematics education. The three types of investigation described, whimsical, real, and mathematical, are defined and illustrated. For each type of investigation, mathematical content and problem-solving strategies are identified, and a solution method is presented. (SLD)

While many colleges and universities have undertaken organizational change, many also have failed to produce such change. One reason may be that the failed planning processes have been overly rational, quantitative, and linear, neglecting intuition, artfulness, and sudden social and human shifts. Chaos theory, which describes systems and…

Presents two activities involving number sense in and around the shopping mall. Activities include estimation, measurement, and applications using percent. Concludes that it is appropriate to help students visualize numbers, particularly large numbers, in a context that is familiar and will be constantly reinforced. (ASK)

Describes a series of lessons designed to supplement textbook instruction of probability by addressing the ideas of "equally likely,""not equally likely," and "fairness," as well as to introduce the difference between theoretical and experimental probability. Presents four lessons using The Wind Racer games to study probability. (ASK)

Presents an alternate perspective for utilizing the action/process/object framework when discussing student development of conceptions of function. Describes a property-oriented view of function based on visual aspects of functional growth. Less emphasis is placed on how the variables are changing and more emphasis is placed on the properties that…

Considers the random sum SN+X1+X2+...+XN with a stopping rule N=min((n: SN absorbing Markov chain. (AIM)

Reports on the performance and strategies of children working in one of three gender pairs (girls, boys, or boy/girl) on Geo-Logo tasks. The case studies presented reveal that the children showed a high level of engagement and learning in the Geo-Logo environment. Activities include the Turtle Paths curriculum unit, Missing Measures, and 200…

Presents various simple activities to use with two-color counters as a vehicle for teaching concepts such as observation, classification, counting, recording, graphing, developing relational language, number sense, and beginning ideas of probability. (AIM)

Describes the construction of a marshmallow catapult to investigate trajectory concepts. (MKR)

Profiles a middle school mathematics teacher and examines her use of two problems from a pilot version of a 6th grade unit developed by a mathematics curriculum project. Reports that problem-solving-oriented curricula provide opportunities for students to make mathematics connections and leads to student confusion and uncertainty. Contains 35…