Teaching about wave structure and function is a critical element of any physical science curriculum and supported by "Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)" PS4: Waves and Their Applications in Technologies for Information Transfer. To support students' learning of these ideas, teachers often rely on developing graphic models of a…

The phenomenon of outbreaks of dangerous diseases is both intriguing to students and of mathematical significance, which is exactly why the authors engaged eighth graders in an introductory activity on the growth that occurs as an epidemic spreads. Various contexts can set the stage for such an exploration. Reading adolescent literature like…

Adopting a multitiered design-based research perspective, this study examines pre-service secondary mathematics teachers' developing conceptions about (a) the nature of mathematical modeling in simulations of "real life" problem solving, and (b) pedagogical principles and strategies needed to teach mathematics through modeling. Unlike…

Describes a four-phase method of helping students who are mathematically unsophisticated and have difficulty relating their common sense, English-language understanding of a system to an abstract, mathematical description. The approach uses interactive simulation models. (Author/IRT)

This report summarizes theoretical, applied, and experimental studies in the areas of computational principles in complex intelligent systems, cybernetics, multivalued logic, and the mechanization of cognitive processes. This work is summarized under the following topic headings: properties of complex dynamic systems; computers and the language…