This paper discusses the use of geometry and proportional reasoning techniques used at the United States Department of Agriculture by two of its branches: the Farm Service Agency and the Natural Resources Conservation Service. This paper discusses the agricultural agency and two branches involved, details a seven-lesson geometry module for high…

Information in the nervous system is conveyed by impulses called action potentials: large, transient electrochemical changes in a neuron's membrane. Though action potentials are a basic feature of neurons, teachers often have trouble explaining this neurophysiological concept, and students have difficulty understanding it. While easy-to-understand…

The Chinese used the idea of generating equivalent expressions for solving problems where the problems from a historical Chinese text are studied to understand the ways in which the ideas can lead into algebraic calculations and help students to learn algebra. The texts unify algebraic problem solving through complex algebraic thought and afford…

Objective: The purpose of this study is to ascertain whether there are differences among groups of children based on their social perception skills in visual perception and fluid reasoning to assist in more effective intervention planning. Method: A total of 80 children were grouped on the basis of their performance on a social perception measure…

"How ScienceWorks" is now the focus of the national science specifications in English schools. This article is a brief introduction to the philosophy of science from the Greeks to the present day that underpins this notion. It consists of a brief summary of the contributions of nine philosophers and/or scientists to the debate: Aristotle, Roger…

In this article, 41 models of covariation detection from 2 x 2 contingency tables were evaluated against past data in the literature and against data from new experiments. A new model was also included based on a limiting case of the normative phi-coefficient under an extreme rarity assumption, which has been shown to be an important factor in…

Jean Louis Nicolet is a Swiss teacher of mathematics who found his subject so fascinating that he was puzzled as to why so many pupils could not share this enjoyment in their studies. He came to a conclusion which is now supported by the results of psychological research into the learning process: he suggested that the mind does not spontaneously…

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics' (NCTM's) Process Standards support teaching that helps students develop independent, effective mathematical thinking. The books in the Heinemann Math Process Standards Series give every middle grades math teacher the opportunity to explore each standard in depth. The series offers friendly,…

We investigated the effects of transparent fraction names on children's reasoning about fractions. U.S. and Korean first and second graders were tested using verbal and nonverbal measures. On a verbal task, Korean students were worse at interpreting their own conventional fraction names than interpreting modified terms with a more familiar word…

A study investigated properties of children's naturally occurring arguments. The arguments were sampled from transcripts of 20 discussions held in 4 fourth-grade classrooms. The principal findings were that children's arguments are filled with seemingly vague referring expressions; that the arguments sometimes do not contain explicit conclusions;…

Designed to develop K-3 children's thinking skills before the children have mastered reading, this book presents 32 activities in which children learn to complete analogies--presented with an "attribute block" with 3 attributes, children choose a fourth attribute block to complete the analogy. The attribute blocks in the book are of 4 types--shape…

Suitable for secondary school students, the workbook provides flowcharting activities to help students understand the logical steps used in problem solving. Before applying the flowcharting procedures to mathematical problems, students are first introduced to familiar non-mathematical problems such as sharpening a pencil or eating peanuts. Section…

The development of paired associate learning and formal thinking during adolescence was investigated with 78 sixth and tenth grade students. The hypothesis predicting paired associate learning to be positively related to divergent thinking, and negatively related to formal thinking was not supported. (Author/DEP)

The author argues that the "least number principle" (well-ordering for positive integers) is more intuitively acceptable to high school students than mathematical induction which can be derived from it. (SD)

In an experimental sequence for students about to complete high school, mathematical fallacies, the Fibonacci series, and deeper treatments of school mathematics were studied. (SD)