Discusses the mathematics learning related to NCTM standards that emerges as children engage in play in early childhood and kindergarten settings and offers suggestions for the effective use of play in teaching young children mathematics. Focuses on the use of blocks and manipulatives. Discusses how teachers' assumptions and mathematics knowledge…

Discusses the issue of deciding what is or what should be taking place in mathematics classrooms. Concludes that it is necessary to prepare the students in today's classrooms to live and work in tomorrow's world. Contains 16 references. (ASK)

Presents an investigation that focuses on estimation skills as children attempt to solve problems involving concepts of weight, volume, and counting money. (ASK)

Highlights an activity that focuses on learning the geometric concepts needed for students to design blueprints for a city park by mastering fifth-grade geometry concepts and applying their knowledge in a real-world context. (ASK)

Describes the use of experiential learning activities in a first grade classroom composed of learners at several levels, including some with learning disabilities and some with special speech and language needs. Presents learning activities to integrate mathematics with developmentally appropriate process writing, including a birthday graph, dice…

Presents a game along with several variations involving three players using three-digit numbers to help students improve their number sense on decimal numbers and fractions. (ASK)

Argues that mathematics literacy begins at birth and that all that children need to construct mathematics concepts for themselves are a stimulating environment and receptive adults. Provides suggestions for promoting emergent math for children from birth through 4 years, including using rhythm and music, incorporating mathematics concepts into…

Suggests that teachers make use of children's literature to stimulate the learning of mathematical concepts. Identifies criteria for selecting children's books for math class, and provides examples of appropriate books and questions teachers might pose to spark children's thinking about math. Cautions teachers to avoid books that are workbooks in…

This article reports on the teaching of a unit of lessons which integrates mathematics with studies of society and the environment. The unit entitled "Population Growth Rates" was taught to a double class of Year 6 students by a team of three teachers. The objectives of the unit were: (1) to provide students with a real-world context in…

This article presents an in-class Monte Carlo demonstration, designed to demonstrate to students the implications of multicollinearity in a multiple regression study. In the demonstration, students already familiar with multiple regression concepts are presented with a scenario in which the "true" relationship between the response and…

Statistical literacy is defined as "the ability to read and interpret data: the ability to use statistics as evidence in arguments. Statistical literacy is a competency: the ability to think critically about statistics" (Schield, p. 2). When a definition of statistical literacy is considered it can be seen that all students can manage a…

This article discusses how children learn to understand the decimal system in very concrete ways, while having fun using beads. When counting the beads, the children learn 5,491 is not simply "five thousand four hundred and ninety-one" but actually 5 thousands, 4 hundreds, 9 tens, and 1 unit. They begin to understand that as they get 10 units,…

The research issue in this study is how to structure collaborative learning so that it improves solving physics problems more than individual learning. Structured collaborative learning has been compared with individual learning environments with Schoenfeld's problem-solving episodes. Students took a pre-test and a post-test and had the…

This paper describes how a target group of seven students in a combined fourth and fifth grade mathematics class used structured representations to solve fraction problems situated within various realistic contexts. Emphasis is given to the ways in which students' thinking about rational number concepts influences and is influenced by the…

The first section of this guide contains detailed instructions on how to stage a Microscopic Explorations Festival and an overview of learning station activities that can be used during such an event. The main section of this guide provides concise instructions for setting up each of the festival stations. For each station there is an overview,…