Vectors and vector addition are difficult concepts for many introductory physics students and traditional instruction does not usually sufficiently address these difficulties. Vectors play a major role in most topics in introductory physics and without a complete understanding of them many students are unable to make sense of the physics topics…

Linton Waters and Jayne Kranat ran a session on the Nuffield "Applying Mathematical Processes" (AMP) activities at BCME7 in Manchester in April this year. These 1-2 hour activities are revamps of some of the Graded Assessment in Mathematics (GAIM) resources, developed in the 1980s, and are freely available via the Nuffield website and…

Algebraic thinking is a top priority in mathematics classrooms today. Because elementary school teachers lay the groundwork to develop students' capacity to think algebraically, it is crucial for teachers to have a conceptual understanding of the connections between arithmetic and algebra and be confident in communicating these connections. Many…

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) is committed to strengthening relations between research and practice and to the development of a coherent knowledge base that is usable in practice. The need to work toward connection and coherence is not unique to the field of mathematics education. Fields such as medicine, software…

This article describes the development of the Precalculus Concept Assessment (PCA) instrument, a 25-item multiple-choice exam. The reasoning abilities and understandings central to precalculus and foundational for beginning calculus were identified and characterized in a series of research studies and are articulated in the PCA Taxonomy. These…

The use of difference and differential equations in the modelling is a topic usually studied by advanced students in mathematics. However difference and differential equations appear in the school curriculum in many direct or hidden ways. Difference equations first enter in the curriculum when studying arithmetic sequences. Moreover Newtonian…

The material in this module introduces students to some of the mathematical tools used to examine molecular evolution. This topic is standard fare in many mathematical biology or bioinformatics classes, but could also be suitable for classes in linear algebra or probability. While coursework in matrix algebra, Markov processes, Monte Carlo…

In this study, I investigated how proficiently seventh-grade students enrolled in two Southwestern schools solve algebra word problems. I analyzed various factors that could affect this proficiency and explored the differences between English Learners (ELs) and native English Primary students (EPs). I collected the data as part of the Animal Watch…

Little empirical investigation has been conducted on high school students and teachers using online instructional multimedia developed entirely from the classroom teacher's traditional live-lecture format. This study investigated academic achievement, engagement, preference, and curriculum development using screen-capture instructional…

It is widely publicized that student attitudes and achievement in math in the United States require improvement. U.S. students have shown lackluster mathematics achievement scores compared to their international peers in other developed countries. As a former high school math instructor, this author observed that the attitude of many high school…

Knowledge of the equal sign as an indicator of mathematical equality is foundational to children's mathematical development and serves as a key link between arithmetic and algebra. The current findings reaffirmed a past finding that diverse items can be integrated onto a single scale, revealed the wide variability in children's knowledge of the…

In recent years, the learning of algebra by all students has become a significant national priority (Moses & Cobb, 2001; National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2000). Algebra is considered to be a foundational topic in mathematics (Usiskin, 1988) and some have argued that an understanding of algebra is fundamental to success in today's…

The GeoGebra software is attracting a lot of interest in the mathematical community, consequently there is a wide range of experience and resources to help use this application. This article briefly outlines how GeoGebra will be of great value in statistical education. The release of GeoGebra is an excellent example of the power of free software…

The purpose of this paper is to describe the process by which a pair of undergraduate students, participating in a teaching experiment, reinvented (with guidance) the concepts of group and isomorphism beginning with an exploration of the symmetries of an equilateral triangle. The intent of this description is to highlight some important insights…

Some beginning students of statistics and econometrics have difficulty with traditional algebraic approaches to explaining regression and related techniques. For these students, a simple and intuitive diagrammatic introduction as advocated by Kennedy (2008) may prove a useful framework to support further study. The author presents a series of…