In this article, the author explores her personal views on mathematics and how she solves problems. She experiences some personal revelations while attending a "Mathsjam". Organised by some of the more prominent names in the popularisation of mathematics, "Mathsjam" was billed as the UK's first Gathering for Gardner, an event…

The separation of content between science, math, engineering, and technology education should not exist. Working with the relationship between these content areas enhances students' efforts to learn about the physical world--and the Bungee Jump offers one great way to go about it. This article describes an activity called the Egg Bungee Jump which…

A chain assumes the well-known shape known as a catenary when it hangs loosely from two points in a gravitational field. The correct solution of the catenary was one of the early triumphs of the newly invented calculus of variations at the end of the 17th century. Here we revisit the catenary and show that, for a chain hanging from a horizontal…

We examine a generalization of the one-dimensional Ising model involving interactions among neighbourhoods of "k" adjacent spins. The model is solved by exploiting a connection to an interesting computational problem that we call ""k"-SAT on a ring", and is shown to be equivalent to the nearest-neighbour Ising model in the absence of an external…

Previous research has cast doubt on the efficacy of utilizing external representations as an aid to solving word problems. The present study replicates previous findings that concrete representations hinder college students' ability to solve probability word problems, and extends those findings to apply to a multimedia instructional context. Our…

In this activity, I show how high school students apply their knowledge of density to solve an unknown variable, such as thickness. Students leave this activity with a better understanding of density, the knowledge that density is a characteristic property of a given substance, and the ways density can be measured. (Contains 4 figures and 1 table.)

In this research we asked the fourth year students (N = 50) of a technical faculty of the University of Split (Republic of Croatia) to solve a partially specified physics problem related to gravitational force. The task for the students was to decide whether the situation described in the problem is feasible or not. Nevertheless, the formulation…

This study examines the manner in which learners' justifications for arguments are supported during collaborative task-solving in a virtual learning setting. In particular, it investigates the effects of a collaboration script and a content scheme on the learners' ability to provide adequate justifications for arguments pertaining to collaborative…

The involuntary relocation of people for development purposes has become prevalent across the world in recent decades. Depression is one of the documented negative outcomes of involuntary relocation among resettlers. Viewing the affected population simply as passive victims, past studies have largely ignored the coping strategies employed by…

In this study, we investigated to what extent arithmetic ability and self-regulated learning skills in the beginning of lower secondary school predicts measures of students' performance in mathematics at the end of lower secondary school. Arithmetic ability and self-regulated learning skills were tested the first two weeks in lower secondary…

Some simple chemistry is used to demonstrate how Fe(II) ions, formed during iron corrosion in acid aqueous solution, can reduce toxic Cr(VI) species, forming soluble Cr(III) and Fe(III) ions. These ions, in turn, can be precipitated by neutralizing the solution. The procedure provides a treatment for industrial wastewaters commonly found in…

Problem posing is a higher-order, active-learning task that is important for students to develop. This article describes a series of interdisciplinary learning activities designed to help students strengthen their problem-posing skills, which requires that students become more responsible for their learning and that faculty move to a facilitator…

The practice of supervision is crucial to the development of novice and future school psychologists. Given the changes in contemporary practice, it is valuable to determine the supports and continuing education opportunities that could benefit supervisors. One hundred forty-two school psychology supervisors completed a 34-item questionnaire that…

In 3 experiments, we examined the effects of using concrete and/or abstract visual problem representations during instruction on students' problem-solving practice, near transfer, problem representations, and learning perceptions. In Experiments 1 and 2, novice students learned about electrical circuit analysis with an instructional program that…

Children learn from a very early age what it means to get their "fair share." Whether it is candy or birthday cake, many children successfully create equal-size groups or parts of a collection or whole but later struggle to create fair shares of multiple wholes, such as fairly sharing four pies among a family of seven. Recent research suggests…