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 paper describes a "hands-on task" called Number Tiles, which is Task 43 in the collection constructed for the Mathematics Task Centre Project, and available at www.blackdouglas.com.au or www.curriculum.edu.au. This task is rich in possibilities and directions. It should be used as a planned curriculum experience at several year levels to…

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.)

One classroom using two units from a "Standards"-based curriculum was the focus of a study designed to examine the effects of real-world contexts, delays in the introduction of formal mathematics terminology, and multiple function representations on student understanding. Students developed their own terminology for y-intercept, which was tightly…

Over the years the technology behind displaying the image of the unit circle has changed, but the defining features remain constant. The key question for the author as a teacher is this: are the relationships embodied in the image simple, memorable and rich enough to be grasped by any KS3 student at his school? It needs to be simple enough to…

The National Science Foundation's (NSF's) Math and Science Partnership Program (MSP) promotes the development, implementation, and sustainability of exemplary partnerships to produce high-quality math and science education at all K-12 levels. The MSP Program anticipates that the partnerships will be instrumental in improving student achievement,…

This final article focuses in particular on the engagement of year 8 students who were taught trigonometry using dynamic geometry software ("Geometer's SketchPad"), as outlined in "MT214" and with resources from the ATM website. The project was implemented in three different classrooms in two different, multiracial,…

Group activities are an excellent way to enhance learning. When students are actively involved in a relevant project, understanding and retention are improved. The proposed activity introduces a timely and interesting project typical of the type encountered in statistical practice. Using the computer to successfully developing an appropriate model…

The goal of this study was to explore the long-term effects of all-day kindergarten programs on children's academic performance. The study used three waves of data from a nationally representative database from the United States, the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS), with the first wave at the beginning of kindergarten and the third wave…

In this article, the author shares how she successfully engaged families with mathematics. She also suggests ways to incorporate mathematics activities into established family-school events to connect parents, students, and mathematics. (Contains 3 figures.)

This submission contains the Proceedings of the 2011 Annual Meeting of the Canadian Mathematics Education Study Group (CMESG), held at Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John's, Newfoundland. The CMESG is a group of mathematicians and mathematics educators who meet annually to discuss mathematics education issues at all levels of learning.…

In 2004, the U.S. Department of Education's Policy and Program Studies Service contracted with SRI International and its partner, Policy Studies Associates, to undertake an evaluation of the 21st Century Community Learning Centers. The following evaluation questions informed this study: (1) What is the nature of activities in centers that are…