In this article, one teacher describes her action research with eighth-grade prealgebra students who are working on a conceptual understanding of fractions. Examining her middle school students' standardized test scores for the previous five years, Denise S. Peppers discovered that student performance on fractions was consistently the lowest…

This study investigated the impact of three commonly used cardiovascular model-assisted activities on student learning and student attitudes and perspectives about science. College students enrolled in a Human Anatomy and Physiology course were randomly assigned to one of three experimental groups (organ dissections, virtual dissections, or…

Place value is a key concept for numbers that is introduced in early mathematics. It is necessary to have a flexible understanding of place value for efficient arithmetic strategies and success in written algorithmic arithmetic. In our research we explore typical mistakes and misconceptions that occur with 3rd graders in German elementary school…

This article outlines an exercise that assesses student knowledge of food-web and energy-flow concepts. Students work in teams and use manipulatives to build food-web models based on criteria assigned by the instructor. The models are then peer reviewed according to guidelines supplied by the instructor.

The use of manipulatives to teach mathematics is often prescribed as an efficacious teaching strategy. To examine the empirical evidence regarding the use of manipulatives during mathematics instruction, we conducted a systematic search of the literature. This search identified 55 studies that compared instruction with manipulatives to a control…

Spatial reasoning, which involves "building and manipulating mental representations of two-and three-dimensional objects and perceiving an object from different perspectives" is a critical aspect of geometric thinking and reasoning. Through building, drawing, and analyzing two-and three-dimensional shapes, students develop a foundation…

LEGO blocks have been played with by generations of children worldwide since the 1950s. It is undeniable that they boost creativity, eye-hand coordination, focus, planning, problem solving and many other skills. LEGO bricks have been also used by educators across the curricula as they are extremely motivating and engaging and, in effect, make…

Technology has certainly altered the landscape in which students learn today. The use of technology in today's classrooms is continually increasing as educators seek ways to engage learners and maximize learning potential. Incorporating Web 2.0 tools into the classroom can not only encourage collaboration among learners, but also provide a way for…

Blocks are not just for play! In this article, Nicole Andrews describes observing the interactions of three young boys enthusiastically engaged in the kindergarten block center of their classroom, using blocks in a building project that displayed their ability to use critical thinking skills, physics exploration, and the development of language…

Educators often use manipulatives when teaching mathematics because manipulatives are assumed to promote learning. However, research indicates that instructional variables impact the effectiveness of manipulatives. In this article, the authors consider the relations between two instructional characteristics: (a) level of instructional guidance and…

In the current educational climate, teachers are required to find methods to give all students, including students with mild intellectual disability, access to the general education curriculum. The purpose of this study was to investigate the combined effects of the concrete-semiconcrete-abstract instructional sequence and model-based problem…

The geometrical shapes in Fig. 1 recently came into the Greenslade Collection. The semi-triangular pieces of wood looked like slices from a pie, each 22.5 degrees in angular width. They were tied together with a thin leather band tacked around their curved surfaces. What is this apparatus?

Any of the key concepts that students need to know about area measurement are covered in the third-grade expectations detailed in the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) (CCSSI 2010). However, making sense of area measurement is not always an easy task for students; it takes time. Researchers have found that young children often…

We compared 5 different statistics (i.e., G index, gamma, "d'", sensitivity, specificity) used in the social sciences and medical diagnosis literatures to assess calibration accuracy in order to examine the relationship among them and to explore whether one statistic provided a best fitting general measure of accuracy. College…

This study examines the relative instructional efficiency of virtual and physical fraction manipulatives. More specifically, this study uses a randomized experiment to determine if differences in students' knowledge of fractions magnitude exist when students use virtual rather than physical manipulatives to learn basic fraction concepts.…