In this article, the degrees of freedom of the sample variance are simulated by using the Visual Basic for Applications of Microsoft Excel 2010. The simulation file dynamically displays why the sample variance should be calculated by dividing the sum of squared deviations by n-1 rather than n, which is helpful for students to grasp the meaning of…

This "Professional Growth & Support Spending Calculator" helps school systems quantify all current spending aimed at improving teaching effectiveness. Part I provides worksheets to analyze total investment. Part II provides a system for evaluating investments based on purpose, target group, and delivery. In this Spending Calculator…

How do teachers teach students to count rhythms? Teachers can choose from various techniques. Younger students may learn themed words (such as "pea," "carrot," or "avocado"), specific rhythm syllables (such as "ta" and "ti-ti"), or some other counting method to learn notation and internalize rhythms. As students grow musically, and especially when…

How can teachers encourage their geography students to make sense of big numbers? The key math skills geography students need to apply are ones they learned long ago in fifth grade: estimation and place value. However, in order to recognize the size of a city, or strength of a country's per capita income, or value of a birth rate, they need…

Descriptive statistics and appropriate visual representations of scores are important for all test developers, whether they are experienced testers working on large-scale projects, or novices working on small-scale local tests. Many teachers put in charge of testing projects do not know "why" they are important, however, and are utterly convinced…

A Lattice Energy Spreadsheet by Christopher King, which can help instructors and students to easily calculate crystal lattice energies in many binary compounds, is introduced.

To align their financing strategies and fundraising efforts with their fiscal needs, charter school leaders need to know how much funding they need and what that funding will support. This cost estimation tool offers a simple set of worksheets to help start-up charter school operators identify and estimate the range of costs and timing of…

Presents five small group tasks for upper elementary students to find arithmetic averages. Provides worksheets for each task. (YP)

Mathematics in textbooks and indeed in conventional classrooms is often presented as exercises or worksheets in which the mathematics itself has been processed into a form that is easily digested. This McDonald's version of mathematics ensures that the mathematical skill or technique is laid bare and typically the sole focus of attention. In this…