SProblem solving has a long and successful history in mathematics education and is valued by many teachers as a way to engage and facilitate learning within their classrooms. The potential benefit for using problem solving in the development of algebraic thinking is that "it may broaden and develop students' mathematical thinking beyond the…

Both writing and math require purposeful teaching. This article describes how one teacher discovered that she could teach math in a way that paralleled how she taught writing by researching what students know and then nudging them ahead to the next level of understanding. Just as effective writers employ creativity, perseverance, and revising,…

Problem-solving activities let students use knowledge gained in various areas of their academic education. They bring together skills and knowledge from such areas as science, math, art, and English by simulating activities and projects students will encounter later in career and life experiences. A very important feature of most problem-solving…

A web database of solved problems has been created to enable faculty to incorporate biological applications into core courses. Over 20% of US ChE departments utilized problems from the website, and 19 faculty attended a workshop to facilitate teaching the modules. Assessment of student learning showed some gains related to biological outcomes, as…

The solution-focused counseling theory provides a useful framework that can be applied to supervision of counselors-in-training. Solution-focused supervision is especially useful for school counseling site supervisors who may not have much time for supervision, who may not have had much training in clinical supervision, or who may have had…

Purpose: Huntington's Disease (HD) is a fatal, hereditary neurodegenerative disorder that is characterized by a triad of motor, cognitive and psychiatric symptoms that impact on both communicative effectiveness and the treatment techniques used to maximize communicative participation. The purpose of this article is to describe the application of…

A 2008 experiment suggests that a summer books program, when combined with teacher scaffolding lessons and parent support, can significantly improve the reading achievement of low-income children. However, just giving student books to read did not improve achievement. By having teachers provide end-of-year lessons in reading comprehension and…

Movie clips can provide data for content-rich problem solving, show students exotic phenomena, allow them to apply science concepts in a new setting, and foster connections between science and the humanities. Though the latest release will have the advantage of pop-culture currency, films old enough to be released on DVD give teachers more…

The architect for the Mauritius Auditorium project sat in his office at Larsen & Toubro's headquarters in Chennai, India, pondering the phone call he had just received from the vice president, Mr. K.P. Raghavan. The polyvalent hall of the conference center was about to be used to host its first rock concert in February 2005, but during a…

Tiny prisms in reflective road signs and safety vests have interesting geometrical properties that can be discussed at any level of high school mathematics. At the beginning of the school year, the author teaches a unit on these reflective materials in her precalculus class so that students can review and strengthen their geometry and trigonometry…

"Classroom number talks," five- to fifteen-minute conversations around purposefully crafted computation problems, are a productive tool that can be incorporated into classroom instruction to combine the essential processes and habits of mind of doing math. During number talks, students are asked to communicate their thinking when presenting and…

This paper discusses a chemistry lesson plan based on the use of ethanol as an alternative and renewable energy source. The lessons were developed by participatory action research and follow a socio-critical and problem-oriented approach to chemistry teaching. This approach specifically focuses on the handling of scientific and technological…

Social capital has been extensively discussed in the literature as building blocks that individuals and communities utilize to leverage system resources. Similarly, some families also create capital, which can enable members of the family, such as children, to successfully negotiate the outside world. Families in poverty confront serious…

The mathematical topic of inverse functions is an important element of algebra courses at the high school and college levels. The inverse function concept is best understood by students when it is presented in a familiar, real-world context. In this article, the authors discuss some misconceptions about inverse functions and suggest some…

Nonroutine function tasks are more challenging than most typical high school mathematics tasks. Nonroutine tasks encourage students to expand their thinking about functions and their approaches to problem solving. As a result, they gain greater appreciation for the power of multiple representations and a richer understanding of functions. This…