Demonstrates how the uniqueness and anonymity of a student's Social Security number can be utilized to create individualized polynomial equations that students can investigate using computers or graphing calculators. Students write reports of their efforts to find and classify all real roots of their equation. (MDH)

Presents the concept of "Fuzzy Sets" and gives some ideas for its potential interest in mathematics education. Defines what a Fuzzy Set is, describes why we need to teach fuzziness, gives some examples of fuzzy questions, and offers some examples of activities related to fuzzy sets. (MDH)

Presents an instructional approach that utilizes paper-folding activities to help students understand the concept of fractions. Utilizes an area model of multiplication to extend the concept of multiplication of whole numbers to multiplication of fractions. (MDH)

Describes two lessons in which a fifth grade teacher emphasized the mechanics of mathematics, such as carrying out various computational procedures, to her students. The first lesson introduced students to the concept of averages. In the second lesson, the teacher conducted class surveys to provide data for computing averages. (BB)

Challenges the readers comprehension of mathematical induction by presenting four examples of arguments that misrepresent the concept. Discusses the reasons why the arguments lead to false conclusions. (MDH)

Presents activities to visually explore the algebraic concepts of variable, constant, the distributive property, and combining like terms. Presents four transparencies that use visual models to understand exercises in students perform the same mental calculations on a number of their choice and obtain the same result. (MDH)

Presented is an activity which shows how mathematics is used in real life and helps to establish a need for mathematics in students' futures. Adapted from a scavenger-hunt idea, this activity helps students to discover that almost every career makes use of mathematics. (KR)

Investigated is whether children would spontaneously model problems with superfluous information and whether their modeling would facilitate problem solving. Included are the addition/subtraction story problems used in this study, introduction, method, results, discussion, and conclusions. (KR)

Described are the conceptions held by United States and Israeli students about multiplication and division that may impede their work with decimals. Included are the introduction, method, division and multiplication task results, and the implications for education and textbook development. (KR)

Four techniques used to incorporate writing and active learning into mathematics classrooms are described. They include summary sheets, short focused writing, medium length writing, and student presentations. Examples of how each technique can be used are included. (KR)

This study examines the effect of formal representation of blue and yellow color mixtures as rational numbers on students' ability to solve ratio problems comparing the mixtures. Sixty subjects participated, 20 from each of grades 7, 8, and 9 from a Haifa (Israel) junior high school. Introducing the formal representation improved performance for…

Described are three activities and variations that can help students to understand the concept of place value. Allowing students to use concrete materials and helping them to bridge the gap between manipulatives and paper-and-pencil tasks are emphasized. (KR)

Discussed is the idea that, if students are allowed to use calculators when doing classwork, they should be allowed to use calculators on tests. Examples of calculator-active items are presented that are designed to accurately assess students' learning. (KR)

Presented is a scheduling algorithm that uses all the busses at each step for any rectangular array. Included are two lemmas, proofs, a theorem, the solution, and variations on this problem. (KR)

Following a brief historical review of the mechanism of mathematical modeling, examples are included that associate a mathematical model with given data (changes in sea level) and that model a real-life situation (process of parallel parking). Also provided is the rationale for the curricular implementation of mathematical modeling. (JJK)