Much of humans' success rests on foresight, the ability to predict what will happen or what is needed in the future. Surprisingly little is known about how this faculty develops. In three experiments (N = 170), 3- and 4-year-old children were presented with simple puzzles. Fifteen minutes later in a different room they were given the opportunity…

The Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC) in New York City is fourth among all community colleges in awarding degrees to minority students and in awarding degrees to African Americans. The BMCC student body is approximately 37 percent Hispanic, 33 percent black, 15 percent white, and 15 percent Asian. In addition, a significant proportion…

Learning physics often requires overcoming common misconceptions based on naïve interpretations of observations in the everyday world. One proposed way to help learners build appropriate physics intuitions is to expose them to computer simulations in which motion is based on Newtonian principles. In addition, playing video games that require…

The aim of this study was to determine whether Van Hiele's 5 phase-based tangrams activities could help to foster creativity among Grade Three primary school students. Students' creativity was investigated in terms of Torrance's Figural Test of creative thinking: Fluency, Originality, Elaboration, Abstractness of title, and Resistance to a…

The goal of this study was to examine whether a technological touch activated Collaborative Puzzle Game (CPG) increased positive social behaviors in children with high functioning autism spectrum disorder (HFASD). The CPG involved construction of a virtual puzzle by selecting and dragging pieces into the solution area on a touch screen table. The…

KenKen® is the new Sudoku. Like Sudoku, KenKen requires extensive use of logical reasoning. Unlike Sudoku, KenKen requires significant reasoning with numbers and operations and helps develop number sense. The creator of KenKen puzzles, Tetsuya Miyamoto, believed that "if you give children good learning materials, they will think and learn and…

For any given polyomino, is it possible to cut it into pieces and then hinge the pieces, so that the polyomino folds up into a similar version of itself but two levels thick? While we don't know how to do this for every polyomino, the article does show how to cut, hinge, and fold polyominoes from several infinite classes, providing an…

This paper presents an analysis of introducing active methodologies in the Computer Architecture course taught in the second year of the Computer Engineering Bachelor's degree program at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Spain. The paper reports the experience from three academic years, 2011-2012, 2012-2013, and 2013-2014, in which…

This paper provides a critical examination of the current state and future possibility of formal cognitive theory for insight problem solving and its associated "aha!" experience. Insight problems are contrasted with move problems, which have been formally defined and studied extensively by cognitive psychologists since the pioneering…

Sustainable, or "green," manufacturing and its practices are becoming more and more a part of today's industry, including wood product manufacturing. This article provides introductory information on green manufacturing in wood technology and a crossword puzzle based on green manufacturing terms. The authors use the puzzle at the college level to…

Three studies explore arithmetic tasks that support both substitutive and basic relational meanings for the equals sign. The duality of meanings enabled children to engage meaningfully and purposefully with the structural properties of arithmetic statements in novel ways. Some, but not all, children were successful at the adapted task and were…

The blue-eyed islanders puzzle is an old and challenging logic puzzle. This is a narrative of an experience introducing a variation of this puzzle on the first day of classes in a liberal arts mathematics course for non-majors. I describe an exercise that was used to facilitate the class's understanding of the puzzle.

The game "Lights Out" and its mathematical predecessor, the sigma-plus game, has inspired an extensive mathematical literature. In this paper, the original game and a borderless version played on a torus are considered. We define an easy game to be one in which pushing the buttons that are originally lit solves the game. Easy games are classified…

Science is a complex process, and we must not teach our students overly simplified versions of "the" scientific method. We propose that students can uncover the complex realities of scientific thinking by exploring the similarities and differences between solving the familiar crossword puzzles and scientific "puzzles."…

Multiple evidences in the Technology-Enhanced Learning domain indicate that Game-Based Learning can lead to positive effects in students' performance and motivation. Educational games can be completely virtual or can combine the use of physical objects or spaces in the real world. However, the potential effectiveness of these approaches…