Shares the thinking of one seventh-grade student about his discovery concerning Pythagorean triples during the study of the Pythagorean theorem. (MKR)

Investigates how students familiar with exponentiation intuitively combined information about bases and exponents in expressions of the type a(carot)n to estimate the magnitude of these expressions. Qualitative and quantitative analyses conducted on the data revealed at least five different models of magnitude estimation. Contains 17 references.…

Presents reform efforts aiming to combat underachievement in mathematics through the introduction of successful Continental pedagogy into the teaching of number concepts. Discusses the pedagogy and its introduction into the Borough's schools. Addresses some criticisms that have been leveled at the reforms. (ASK)

Numeracy may become a focus on the teaching and assessment of basic number skills. Such a focus on numeracy may de-emphasize the aim for numeracy, which is using mathematics in real contexts where the purpose of the activity is something other than just learning school mathematics. (Contains 11 references.) (ASK)

Discusses the mistakes of Kirschner, the German philosopher and mathematician, in calculating factorials of large numbers by hand in the 1600s. Uses computer technology to calculate those numbers now. (ASK)

The notions of pentagonal numbers and partitions can be understood by students at the precalculus level, and should work well in a first course in programming for high school or college students. Presents opportunities to conjecture properties of partitions from a computer program. (Contains 14 references.) (Author/ASK)

Discusses the changing perceptions of numeracy in a changing world, and puts forward arguments for integrating calculator use into the earliest school years. (Author/ASK)

Argues for the rich development of mathematical ideas that can flow from considering the apparently simple question of finding a divisibility test for the number six. Presents approaches to teaching this topic that could be interesting to teachers. (ASK)

Presents a mathematical analysis of the game "twenty-four points" that aims to apply arithmetic operations on the four numbers to reach a specific number. This game can improve children's ability to do mental arithmetic. (ASK)

This article describes a series of enrichment experiences designed to develop young (ages 5 to 8) gifted children's understanding of large numbers, central to their investigation of space travel. It describes activities designed to teach reading of large numbers and exploring numbers to a thousand and then a million. (Contains ten references.) (DB)

Presents activities that use the Fibonacci sequence of numbers in nature. (YDS)

Darwinian selection by consequences was instantiated in a computational model that consisted of a repertoire of behaviors undergoing selection, reproduction, and mutation over many generations. The model in effect created a digital organism that emitted behavior continuously. The behavior of this digital organism was studied in three series of…

John Napier was born in 1550 in the Tower of Merchiston, near Edinburgh, Scotland. Napier's work on logarithms greatly influenced the work that was to be done in the future. The logarithm's ability to simplify calculations meant that Kepler and many others were able to find the relationships and formulas for motion of bodies. In turn, Kepler's…

Two studies were conducted to investigate, firstly, children's focusing on the aspect of numerosity in utilizing enumeration in action, and, secondly, whether children's Spontaneous Focusing on Numerosity (SFON) is related to their counting development. The longitudinal data of 39 children from the age of 3.5 to 6 years showed individual…

In Experiment 1, adults (n = 48) performed simple addition, multiplication, and parity (i.e., odd-even) comparisons on pairs of Arabic digits or English number words. For addition and comparison, but not multiplication, response time increased with the number of odd operands. For addition, but not comparison, this parity effect was greater for…