Describes a teacher's experiences developing and implementing a three-week interdisciplinary unit for fourth grade students that revolves around the Alaskan Iditarod sled dog race. Students read about the race history, figure out a racing budget, learn about animal breeding and care, and follow the actual progress of the racing teams via Internet…

Many students doubt that statistical distributions are of practical value. Simulation makes it possible for students to tackle challenging, understandable projects that illustrate how distributions can be used to answer "what-if" questions of the type often posed by analysts. Course materials that have been developed over two years of classroom…

This fourth and final volume of the 31st annual proceedings of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education conference presents research reports for author surnames beginning Na- through Zod-. Reports include: (1) Mathematically Gifted Students' Problem Solving Approaches on Conditional Probability (GwiSoo Na, DaeHee Han,…

Research is only beginning to show the benefits of the effective use of manipulatives with students who have disabilities. This article highlights how teachers can incorporate three manipulative instructional strategies to help students with high-incidence disabilities.

A collection of articles from the journals "Arithmetic Teacher" and "Teaching Children Mathematics" provide ideas for the instruction and use of teacher-made instructional aids. Guidelines used to select articles for this collection called for the articles to have a clear purpose and be related to a contemporary topic in the elementary school…

This document consists of the first 39 consecutive issues of the newsletter, "E.C.E. Connection," published monthly (except August) to offer information and support to early childhood practitioners. Articles from the 1994 issues include: "Some 'Affordable' Ideas To Brighten Your Classroom"; "A Notice Board: A Way To Keep…

A project sought to improve mathematics instruction at the Winnebago Public School (WPS) on the Winnebago Indian Reservation (Nebraska) and to provide purposeful interactions between preservice teachers from Wayne State College and Native American children. WPS educators, grades K-6, improved their mathematics instructional ability by attending…

This publication is designed for families with young children ages four through eight. It aims to help families acquire methods and materials through which to make mathematics more accessible for all students. Special focus is placed on those students from groups that are not traditionally well-represented in mathematics: students of color, girls,…

How kids spend summer vacation has a direct and powerful impact on their success in school. This document presents 8 brief (600-word) newspaper columns that offer parents simple tips on how to promote learning through everyday activities. Each column ends with a referral for free resources to keep children learning outside the classroom. The…

Project Spectrum is a collaborative research and development project that offers an alternative approach to assessment and curriculum development for preschool and early primary years. The project, based on Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences theory and David Henry Feldman's nonuniversal development theory, emphasizes observing children…

Why should schools have a Family Math Night? It helps students learn essential math concepts. It gives parents a chance to serve as models of motivation, persistence and competence. It promotes math success in a supportive setting. With its step-by-step directions and suggestions for both teachers and parents, this book takes the worry out of…

Using the children's book "Tops and Bottoms" by Janet Stevens--an adaptation of the classic fable of the Tortoise and the Hare--students are given opportunities to build connections between a problem-solving situation and mathematics and to communicate solutions through writing, symbols, and diagrams. A key concept is to demonstrate to students…

Variation is a key concept in the study of statistics and its understanding is a crucial aspect of most statistically related tasks. This study aimed to extend and apply a hierarchy for describing students' understanding of variation that was developed in a sampling context to the context of a natural event in which variation occurs. Students aged…

Providing choice to individual students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has previously been demonstrated (in single-subject research) to reduce undesirable behavior but has failed to demonstrate gains that are independent of task difficulty or interests/ preferences. We examined choice of feedback type on a computerized math…

This literature review asserts that although findings indicate that children from a wide array of cultures and circumstances acquire similar mathematical understandings with little formal instruction, there is also substantial evidence that mathematical knowledge varies across social classes and cultural groups. The paper explores the literature…