This article presents an activity based on the popular book and movie "The Hunger Games." The activity was designed to engage middle school students in using the mathematics found in the book. This activity provides a meaningful way to connect probability to a work of adolescent literature that related to, was interesting to, and…

This design/problem-solving activity challenges students to design a replacement bridge for one that has been designated as either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. The Aycock MS Technology/STEM Magnet Program Virtual Bridge Design Challenge is an authentic introduction to the engineering design process. It is a socially relevant…

What does it look like to "understand" operations with fractions? The Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) uses the term "understand" when describing expectations for students' knowledge related to each of the fraction operations within grades 4 through 6 (CCSSI 2010). Furthermore, CCSSM elaborates that…

The Native Species and Natural Processes certificate at the University of Victoria is an advanced-level online program of four courses to introduce students to state-of-the-art topics in the field of ecological restoration. The program posed some unique challenges for course developers. The development team needed to find ways to create online…

The process of creating child-developed board games in a counseling setting may promote social, emotional, and behavioral development in children. Using this creative approach, counselors can actively work with children to address referred concerns and build skills that may generalize outside of counseling sessions. A description of the method is…

Efforts to promote self-determination have been a principal focus of transition planning in support of students with disabilities for nearly two decades. However, research and recommendations related to self-determination have been primarily centered on promoting student participation in the IEP process and ensuring broader preparation for…

Inequality in education and other domains of life stands in the way of economic and civic progress in the United States. It forestalls social mobility and economic productivity and impairs social cohesion. As a result, national and international leaders--from big-city mayors to Pope Francis--recognize that, as President Obama (2013) put it,…

"The World Is Flat" (Friedman 2005) describes the globalization that advances in technology have imposed on the world economy in recent decades. For the U.S. to maintain its stature in the world, future citizens must be prepared to problem solve and apply their skills to new situations. These future citizens are sitting in elementary school…

Many familiar household objects (such as sausages) involve the maximization of a volume under geometric constraints. A flexible but inextensible membrane bounds a volume which is to be filled to capacity. In the case of the sausage, a full analytic solution is here provided. Other related but more difficult problems seem to demand approximate…

Viviani's theorem states that the sum of distances from any point inside an equilateral triangle to its sides is constant. Here, in an extension of this result, we show, using linear programming, that any convex polygon can be divided into parallel line segments on which the sum of the distances to the sides of the polygon is constant. Let us say…

Most educational developers can tell a story of a moment when they stood in the breach between their enthusiasm for an educational concept and their ability to communicate that concept in a way that seemed meaningful to a colleague whose expertise was in a field other than teaching and learning. These are defining moments in articulating the heart…

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics' (NCTM's) (2000) Connections Standard states that students should "recognize and use connections among mathematical ideas; understand how mathematical ideas interconnect ...; [and] recognize and apply mathematics in contexts outside of mathematics" (p. 354). This article presents an in-depth…

Silently, invisibly, ceaselessly, our planet Earth is showered by radio waves from every direction and from every region of space. This radio energy originates in our solar system, throughout the Milky Way galaxy, and far beyond, out to the remotest reaches of the universe. Detecting and unraveling the origins of these invisible signals is what…

In this article, the authors offer a framework that identifies two critical problems in designing inquiry-based instruction and suggests three models for developing instruction that overcomes those problems. The Protocol Model overcomes the Getting on Board Problem by providing students an initial experience through clearly delineated steps with a…

Cognitive diagnosis models (CDMs), as alternative approaches to unidimensional item response models, have received increasing attention in recent years. CDMs are developed for the purpose of identifying the mastery or nonmastery of multiple fine-grained attributes or skills required for solving problems in a domain. For CDMs to receive wider use,…