On the first day of Principles of Accounting classes, students learn the fundamental accounting equation from which all financial accounting practice emerge. The accounting equation is the criterion by which companies are valued and by which company performance is measured. This activity simplifies assets, liabilities, and owners' equity to the…

Cooperative education (co-op) and internships are forms of experiential education that allow students to complement their classroom experiences with work experience. This study examines the influence of co-op and internships on engineering problem-solving skills by answering the following research questions: (1) Does experience in cooperative…

This article addresses how metacognitive skills contribute to the teaching and learning of problem solving in mathematics. It describes the development and use of a metacognitive journal activity in the classroom. (Contains 2 figures.)

In the 1970s, the movement to the metric system (which has still not completely occurred in the United States) and the advent of hand-held calculators led some to speculate that decimal representation of numbers would render fractions obsolete. This provocative proposition stimulated Zalman Usiskin to write "The Future of Fractions" in 1979. He…

Project-Based Learning (PBL) connects standards-based content to real-world scenarios through the use of projects to improve student achievement. By engaging students in authentic problems that do not have a predetermined solution, students learn both subject matter and critical 21st-century skills. This "Focus On" addresses what…

In order to collaborate effectively in group discourse on a topic like mathematical patterns, group participants must organize their activities in ways that share the significance of their utterances, inscriptions, and behaviors. Here, we report the results of a ethnomethodological case study of collaborative math problem-solving activities…

This document presents ideas and activities for teaching algebra. The section on "Week by Week Essentials" provides seven resources in a weekly format. It includes writing ideas that provide an algebra prompt and requires students to organize their thoughts and present them in a coherent fashion, and connections to the real world that…

The article describes the theory of synectics, an idea producing process, and shows how upper elementary gifted students can be taught to use synectics in more effective problem solving. Steps in the synectics process are reviewed. (CL)

Learning-by-doing centers, an approach based on theories by J. Piaget and The High Scope program's cognitively oriented curriculum, strengthens the problem-solving skills of learning disabled students. (CL)

The author reviews the role of logic problems in teaching thinking strategies to LD students. Devising one's own written logic problems is advocated to present less wordy tasks. (CL)

The article offers examples from two publications (supported by the U.S. Office of Education) with more than 200 problems suitable for use in elementary methematics curriculums for gifted students. Three activities are outlined in terms of the problem, a hint for solving the problem, and the solution. (SW)

Twenty skills are identified and illustrated by example activities which should help the student receive, organize, and analyze data; manipulate it at a symbolic or model level; and treat it in imaginative ways through purposeful distortion and fantasy. (CL)

Presents student methods for finding out the number of different squares on a chessboard. Includes extensions of the activity. (MKR)

Calibration is a technique that is commonly used in science and engineering research that requires calibrating measurement tools for obtaining more accurate measurements. It is an important technique in various industries. In many situations, calibration is an application of linear regression, and is a good topic to be included when explaining and…

This article discusses two sequences of activities that were developed to support middle school students' and preservice teachers' construction of algorithms for dividing fractions. One sequence is intended to promote understanding of the common-denominator algorithm; the other sequence is intended to promote understanding of the…