Teaches data interpretation using the example of world running records for men and women. Explains different ways of plotting data. (YDS)

Most people learn to drive without knowing how the engine works. In a similar vein, the author believes that students can learn economics without knowing the algebra and calculus underlying the results. If instructors follow the philosophy of other economics courses in using graphs to illustrate the results, and draw the graphs accurately, then…

This article describes how we used the context of mailing a package with seventh-grade students to explore and connect the different representations of step and linear functions. (Contains 2 tables and 7 figures.)

Using MAPLE enables students to consider many examples which would be very tedious to work out by hand. This applies to graph plotting as well as to algebraic manipulation. The challenge is to use these observations to develop the students' understanding of mathematical concepts. In this note an interesting relationship arising from inverse…

Geometric constructions have previously been shown that can be interpreted as rays of light trapped either in polygons or in conics, by successive reflections. The same question, trapping light in closed Fermat curves, is addressed here. Numerical methods are used to study the behaviour of the reflection points of a triangle when the degree of the…

Sorting networks, used in graph theory, have instructional value as a skill- building tool as well as an interesting exploration in discrete mathematics. Students can practice mathematics facts and develop reasoning and logic skills with this topic. (Contains 4 figures.)

This article is concerned with the meanings that employees in industry attribute to representations of data and the contingencies of these meanings in context. Our primary concern is to more precisely characterize how the context of the industrial process is constitutive of the meaning of graphs of data derived from this process. We draw on data…

It is in the field of numerical analysis that this "easy-looking" function, also known as the Runge function, exhibits a behavior so idiosyncratic that it is mentioned even in most undergraduate textbooks. In spite of the fact that the function is infinitely differentiable, the common procedure of (uniformly) interpolating it with polynomials that…

The 11th International Conference on Educational Data Mining (EDM 2018) is held under the auspices of the International Educational Data Mining Society at the Templeton Landing in Buffalo, New York. This year's EDM conference was highly competitive, with 145 long and short paper submissions. Of these, 23 were accepted as full papers and 37…

The Cognitive Tutor Authoring Tools (CTAT) support creation of a novel type of tutors called example-tracing tutors. Unlike other types of ITSs (e.g., model-tracing tutors, constraint-based tutors), example-tracing tutors evaluate student behavior by flexibly comparing it against generalized examples of problem-solving behavior. Example-tracing…

In contemporary academic literature and in many national curricula, there is a widespread acceptance that critical thinking should be an important dimension of Education. Teachers and researchers recognize the importance of developing students critical thinking, but there are still great difficulties in defining and assessing critical-thinking…

This study documented efforts to facilitate ideas of beginning inference in novice grade 7 students. A design experiment allowed modified teaching opportunities in light of observation of components of a framework adapted from that developed by Pfannkuch for teaching informal inference with box plots. Box plots were replaced by hat plots, a…

This study of student performance in an online Algebra course looked at the development, implementation, and evaluation of interactive tools for graphing linear equations. The study focused on an interactive tool that was evaluated with virtual school Algebra students for a challenging component of the course. The performance of these students in…

When technologies are used in mathematics education it is important to assess how activities will support the development of mathematical understanding and the technical expertise that students will need. The two issues are discussed in this paper. Literature is reviewed and findings from a recent study in a high-school class are reported. The…

Every student should understand and use all concepts and skills from the previous grade levels. The standard is designed so that new learning builds on preceding skills. Communications, Problem-solving, Reasoning & Proof, Connections, and Representation are the process standards that are embedded throughout the teaching and learning of all…