Children's literature can play a significant role in integrating math and science concepts into real-world applications. One particularly delightful selection is "Cucumber Soup" (Krudwig, 1998). This book can create a context--making cucumber soup--for weighing and for a real-life on adding fractions. This kind of learning context takes children…

The aim of this series of four articles is to look critically, and in some detail, at the primary strategy approach to written calculation, as set out on pages 5 to 16 of the "Guidance paper" "Calculation." The underlying principle of that approach is that children should use mental methods whenever they are appropriate, whereas for calculations…

This article describes a recent and successful initiative on teaching place value and the decomposition method of subtraction to pupils having difficulty with this technique in the 9-12-year age range. The aim of the research was to explore whether using the metaphor of selling chews (i.e., sweets) in a tuck shop and developing this into an iconic…

Piagetian tasks have more to do with the child's ability to inhibit interference than they do with the ability to grasp their underlying logic. Here we used a chronometric paradigm with 11-year-olds, who succeed in Piaget's conservation-of-weight task, to test the role of cognitive inhibition in a priming version of this classical task. The…

"Chemical Engineering Modeling" is a first-semester graduate course traditionally taught in a lecture format at Oklahoma State University. The course as taught by the author for the past seven years focuses on numerical and mathematical methods as necessary skills for incoming graduate students. Recent changes to the course have included Visual…

To build cognitive foundation for number, twenty-six low-performing, low-SES first graders did mathematical physical-knowledge activities, such as "bowling," during the first half of the year. As their arithmetic readiness developed, they tried more word problems and games. At the end of the year, these children did better in mental arithmetic and…

Few studies investigating the impacts of teacher characteristics and beliefs about the importance of early skill learning have included measures of children's learning outcomes. This study investigated how teachers' educational attainment, experience, and beliefs impact the development of letter identification and number concepts (enumeration,…

Investigations into children's number learning have been a feature of recent mathematics education research in Australasia. This book is a compilation of the major results of this research with the aim of making them more accessible to researchers, teachers, and others who may be able to use the findings to improve classroom practice. The…

The paper describes evolution of an approach to teaching mathematically disabled and slow learning students through a Piagetian framework. It is explained that a step-by-step procedure is used to internalize material actions into mental actions via perception and verbalization. Formulae are introduced early, and emphasis is placed on promoting…

When comparing rows of dots in length or number, some children used number strategies and some length strategies. After training to correct missed items, errors were made on previously correct items. These findings are interpreted with reference to the distinction between having a dimensional strategy and attaching it to appropriate situations.…

The life of Fibonacci is summarized, and his importance in the development of mathematics is assessed. Several problems first solved by Fibonacci are posed. (SD)

Several excerpts from Euclid's "Elements" are cited, and their applications to the natural, positive rational, and positive real number systems are discussed. (SD)

In a series of exercises students develop designs in which nodes are labelled according to the isolation rules defined. Strategies for creating new designs from known ones, finding the maximum number of isolation designs on a given configuration, and developing larger isolation designs are encouraged. Sample worksheets are included. (SD)