The great gorilla jump is an activity designed to allow calculus students to construct an understanding of the structure of the Riemann sum and definite integral. The activity uses the ideas of position, velocity, and time to allow students to explore familiar ideas in a new way. Our research has shown that introducing the definite integral as…

"Math is language, too," Phyllis and David Whitin (2000) remind everyone in their informative book about reading and writing in the mathematics classroom. This means that students in elementary school math classes are learning two distinct, yet related languages--one of numbers, the other of words. These languages of numbers and words…

Determines which chessboards contain a chromatic rectangle having all four corners the same color for any black-white coloring. Expands the problem to a three color problem. (YP)

Analyzes fifth graders' approaches for solving the problem of the distance to the horizon. Describes determining the area bounded by the horizon. (YP)

This project was based on recent interview research which suggested that in choosing operations for story problems in mathematics many students are guided by computational considerations rather than meanings for the operations. This project aimed to refine the catalogue of strategies used by students and to design and test instructional materials…