The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the reality of teaching and learning with the support of a calculator, examine the benefits and challenges of using a calculator in teaching mathematics in high school. The study is based on the survey data from math teachers, educational managers, and students who were selected from 24 high schools in…

The Birthday Paradox problem can be investigated either with a carefully constructed spreadsheet (for greatest precision) or a calculator process (for reasonable precision). A number of ways of approaching this problem as a class activity are provided.

Despite the importance of computational estimation skill for the improvement of number sense, little research exists on preservice teachers' estimation skills and their view on estimation in the US context. This study examined the computational estimation skill of 58 preservice elementary teachers (PSTs) and its relationship to their views of the…

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of use of graphing calculators on student achievement in Common Core Algebra I. The following are the research questions of the proposed study. To what extent does use of graphing calculators in the math classroom affect student achievement? How might the use of graphing calculators in the…

Can you solve the following Problem? There are 200 fish in an aquarium, and 99 percent of them are guppies. How many guppies must be removed to reduce the tank's guppy population to 98 percent? The key to this problem is to work backward by using the data given in figure 2 to determine the surface area of the top of the aquarium; then determine…

It seems that calculators continue to be misunderstood as devices solely for calculation, although the likely contributions to learning mathematics with modern calculators arise from other characteristics. A four-part model to understand the educational significance of calculators underpins this paper. Each of the four components (representation,…

Patterns are a ubiquitous phenomenon. They exist in nature's plant species emerging as a complete order from truncated matter. Patterns are also present in the fine arts where the aesthetic properties of form exist and conjugate through paintings and sculptures. Mathematical patterns, the focus of this position paper, dominate financial scenarios,…

Like many commodities, the price of gasoline continues to rise, and these price changes are readily observed in gas stations' signage. Moreover, algebraic methods are well suited to model price change and answer the student's question. Over the course of one ninety-minute block or two forty-five-minute classes, students build functions…

"The Language of Mathematics in Science" is an ASE/Nuffield project aimed at supporting teachers of 11-16 science in the use of mathematical ideas in the science curriculum. Two publications have been produced. This article focuses on the first of these, "The Language of Mathematics in Science: A Guide for Teachers of 11-16…

The statistical output of interest to most elementary statistics students is the p-value, outputted in computer programs like SPSS, Minitab and SAS. Statistical decisions are sometimes made using these values without understanding the meaning or how these values are calculated. Most elementary statistics textbooks calculates p-values for z-tests…

Tossing a fair coin 1000 times can have an unexpected result. In the activities presented here, players keep track of the accumulated total for heads and tails after each toss, noting which player is in the lead or whether the players are tied. The winner is the player who was in the lead for the higher number of turns over the course of the game.…

If the prospective students of probability lack a background in mathematical proofs, hands-on classroom activities may work well to help them to learn to analyze problems correctly. For example, students may physically roll a die twice to count and compare the frequency of the sequences. Tools such as graphing calculators or Microsoft Excel®…

In recent years, the topic of integrating history to mathematics lessons in teaching-learning processes has been frequently discussed among researchers. The main aim of this study is to present an example activity which enriched with history of mathematics and to take the views of students about teaching course in this way. In addition, to create…

Lesson starts are transitional events which may cause management problems for teachers. This study sought junior secondary school mathematics teachers' beliefs about calculator use in mathematics instruction in Botswana and was descriptive in nature adopting a survey design. The sample of seventeen (17) mathematics teachers from four (4) junior…

All common fractions can be written in decimal form. In this Discovery article, the author suggests that teachers ask their students to calculate the decimals by actually doing the divisions themselves, and later on they can use a calculator to check their answers. This article presents a lesson based on the research of Bolt (1982).