Describes a study in which Australian children aged 5-8 years old (N=70) were presented with a range of measurement tasks to determine the strategies and devices that they would choose to use to measure length. Results are in conflict with the normal curriculum sequence. Contains 30 references. (DDR)

Explains that Year 5 students in ten British schools took a mathematics division test twice in the school year. The test involved context and bare problems to identify changes in approach as the standard algorithm was introduced. Reports that 52 percent of students gained a higher score on the second test. (CMK)

Presents a game of classifying objects according to their attributes using a three-set Venn diagram, then analyzing the classification of the objects to determine their accuracy. Requires students to capture opponents' game pieces (tangrams) by making mathematical arguments that identify misplaced pieces. (YDS)

Evaluated the Connected Mathematics Project (CMP), a middle school reform mathematics curriculum used in Louisiana's Lafayette parish. Analysis of Iowa Test of Basic Skills and Louisiana Education Assessment Program mathematics data indicated that CMP schools significantly outperformed non-CMP schools. Surveys of teachers and students showed that…

Focuses on elementary school teachers' perceptions of creativity and logic and their places within mathematics education. Explores themes arising from the ways in which creativity and logic were talked about, addressing the extent to which the teachers believed that mathematics was creative or logical and whether these two characteristics were…

Explores mathematical methods children use to find answers for themselves. Describes some methods used for multiplication and subtraction problems. (YP)

Several problem-solving activities involving only 0-9 to be used with sets of ceramic tiles are presented. Finding specified sums, differences, or products is the object of most of the problems. (MNS)

Describes five types of activities that elementary school teachers can use to help students understand decimals. These activities use money calculations, base-10 blocks, meter sticks, calculators, and problem solving. Specific examples are provided. (MDM)

Metacognitive behaviors of subjects having high (n=2) and low (n=2) levels of mathematical experience were compared across four cognitive processes in mathematical problem solving: orientation, organization, execution, and verification. High-experience subjects engaged in self-regulation and spent more time on orientation and organization. (36…

Describes three approaches teachers can use to help students understand multiplication and division: calculator explorations, problem solving, and discussion topics. Specific examples are provided for primary and upper grades. (MDM)

Two scheduling problems, one involving setting up an examination schedule and the other describing traffic light problems, are modeled as colorings of graphs consisting of a set of vertices and edges. The chromatic number, the least number of colors necessary for coloring a graph, is employed in the solutions. (MDH)

Discusses ways to simulate a probability problem of interest to middle school students in which students calculate the average number of packets of trading cards purchased to obtain a complete set of cards. Simulations utilize a spinner, a table of random numbers, and a computer. Includes the BASIC program utilized in the simulation. (MDH)

Discusses the problem-solving heuristics of examining for special cases, utilizing dimensions to make sense of proposed solutions, and symmetry. Presents examples to illustrate the use of one or combinations of these heuristics. (MDH)

Presents a public-key cryptosystem application to introduce students to several topics in discrete mathematics. A computer algorithms using recursive methods is presented to solve a problem in which one person wants to send a coded message to a second person while keeping the message secret from a third person. (MDH)

Clapping music for two performers provides the basis for a series of mathematical problems in combinatorics and group theory. A discussion provides insight about how to avoid overlooking global extrema in constrained max-min problems when solving systems of algebraic equations. (JJK)