As a self described lesson collector, author Charles Lovett enjoys gathering "interesting" lessons and teasing them apart to find out what makes them "tick", particularly the pedagogy. He often wonders what decisions the teacher made that generated such an interesting and successful learning environment. Here he describes a…

The purpose of the study was to determine the effects of type of grouping (multibase (M) or base ten (T) ) and the time that base representations are introduced (initially (EB) or after counting, reading and writing numerals (LB) ) on achievement in numeration in grade one. Four intact classes of 110 students participated, and a 2 x 2 factorial…

A list of materials needed and step-by-step directions for constructing an abacus are given. Instructions are provided which tell how to use the abacus in teaching number combinations and in working addition, multiplication, subtraction, and division problems. (Related documents are SE 015 950 and SE 015 952.) (DT)

A short story is presented which uses as its characters rational and irrational numbers and numbers involving fractional exponents. (DT)

Euler's famous formula, e to the (i, pi) power equals -1, is developed by a purely algebraic method that avoids the use of both trigonometry and calculus. A heuristic outline is given followed by the rigorous theory. Pedagogical considerations for classroom presentation are suggested. (LS)

Operations with zero and concepts associated with the use of zero are examined in some detail. Historical practices concerning zero are discussed. (CT)