Modeled in this column is the teaching of a text mapping routine that supports students reading and remembering the salient features of the text. The authors renamed the story mapping technique "text mapping plus" because they found that as students added relational words and graphics to their maps their retells of both fiction and nonnarrative…

A well-documented experience of students of elementary Euclidean geometry is "seeing" a geometric result and being sure about its truth; this sort of experience gives rise to the notion of geometrical visualisation that is developed here. In this essay a philosophical argument for the epistemic potential of geometrical visualisation is reviewed,…

To increase communication and collaboration opportunities, members of a community must be aware of the social networks that exist within that community. This paper describes a social network monitoring system--the KIWI system--that enables users to register their interactions and visualize their social networks. The system was implemented in a…

A considerable amount of research has been undertaken to provide insights into the valid assessment of team performance. However, in many settings, manual and therefore labor-intensive assessment instruments for team performance have limitations. Therefore, automated assessment instruments enable more flexible and detailed insights into the…

We examine how rectangular array model can support students' spatial structuring in learning multiplication. To begin, we define what we mean by spatial structuring as the mental operation of constructing an organization or form for an object or set of objects. For that reason, the eggs problem was chosen as the starting point in which the…

Professors who teach the introductory accounting course should ask themselves: "What are the core concepts that I wish to have my non-majors remember if I meet them at their ten-year alumni class reunion?" There is a fundamental logic to financial accounting. This teaching note presents foundational accounting concepts in a manner that…

The greatest difficulty that is encountered by students in thermodynamics classes is to find relationships between variables and to solve a total differential equation that relates one thermodynamic state variable to two mutually independent state variables. Rules of differentiation, including the total differential and the cyclic rule, are…

The civil rights and other social justice movements, neighborhood watches, local garden cooperatives, and so forth are examples of a grassroots context that is largely understudied in CSCW. In recent history, movements to fight child sex trafficking, end hunger in New York City, advocate for financial reform, or even overthrow governments have…

Dealing with uncertainty is a critical part of human decision-making and confidence reflects one's belief about the relative likelihood that various outcomes occur when making decision under uncertainty. Unfortunately, confidence often deviates from the actual quality of the decision, leading to under- or over-confidence. Calibration, the…

Teachers' perception filter operates in all realms of their consciousness. It plays an important part in what and how students learn and should play a central role in what and how they teach. This may be obvious, but having a visual model of a perception filter can guide the way they think about education. In this article, the author talks about…

Instructors are always looking for new ways to engage students in reading assignments. The authors present a few techniques that rely on a web-based data visualization tool called Wordle (wordle.net). Wordle creates word frequency representations called word clouds. The larger a word appears within a cloud, the more frequently it occurs within a…

Generations have been inspired by Edwin A. Abbott's profound tour of the dimensions in his novella "Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions" (1884). This well-known satire is the story of a flat land inhabited by geometric shapes trying to navigate the subtleties of their geometric, social, and political positions. In this article, the authors…

In this article, the author features "Flatland," by Edwin Abbott, a fantastic story about a square who lives in a two-dimensional world and who receives a visitor from the third dimension. Written in 1884 by a teacher-theologian who dabbled in mathematics, the novel is full of rich themes, including social class structure, the treatment of people…

A hands-on activity can help multivariable calculus students visualize surfaces and understand volume estimation. This activity can be extended to include the concepts of Fubini's Theorem and the visualization of the curves resulting from cross-sections of the surface. This activity uses students as pillars and a sheet or tablecloth for the…

The study of chemistry requires the understanding and use of spatial relationships, which can be challenging for many students. Prior research has shown that there is a need to develop students' spatial reasoning skills. To that end, this study implemented guided activities designed to strengthen students' spatial skills, with the aim of improving…