The National Science Education Standards (NSES; National Research Council [NRC], 1996) include Science and Technology as one of the eight categories of content standards. The science and technology standards establish connections between the natural and designed worlds and provide students with opportunities to develop decision-making abilities.…

Imagine--you must bring water to a hurricane-ravaged area. There is only one bridge and only one truck, and the bridge can only hold so much weight. Your calculations determine if the truck--and its load of water--can make it safely over the bridge. This is a typical challenge during two-week summer camps for third-through fourth-grade students…

This study investigated the differential effects of two problem-solving instructional approaches--schema-based instruction (SBI) and general strategy instruction (GSI)--on the mathematical word problem-solving performance of 22 middle school students who had learning disabilities or were at risk for mathematics failure. Results indicated that the…

To understand the current apparent upsurge in classroom incivility, the authors turn to the literature for possible causes and solutions.

Students often look for real-life situations where they can apply the concepts they learn. A project of measuring the speed of moving cars demonstrates that they learn communication skills, teamwork skills, and develop patience specially when work in a group with a common purpose.

The students need not compute dependent values required in making line graphs but to teach the students the usage of graphing calculator to plot, calculating and graph linear equations, which are best suited to real world data. In this initial learning process, the teacher should give minimum support to the students in arriving at a solution as…

The mathematical depth that is potentially present, even in simple problems is illustrated. An extended analysis of a problem that is an analysis from a mature mathematical perspective with careful attention paid to mathematical reasoning and to using good mathematical habits of mind is used.

Students should be encouraged to focus on a big mathematical idea and to look for connections between problems and solution strategies. This unified view suggests that the students are developing computational fluency with fractions.

Teaching methods often promote fact gathering and memorization rather than the use of those facts to solve complex, realistic problems. Students easily memorize basic facts, steps and procedures, repeating them flawlessly from memory when asked. The problem, however, lies in teaching students how to use these facts and procedures creatively in…

There is an increasing focus on deficiencies in problem solving as a vulnerability factor for suicidal behavior in general and hence a target for treatment in suicide attempters. In view of the uncertainty of evidence for this in adolescents we conducted a systematic review of the international research literature examining the possible…

The US Department of Education designated T. C. Cherry Elementary School in Bowling Green, Kentucky, as a Blue Ribbon School, an honor awarded to only few schools across the nation. The same became possible because they changed the culture of the school from rowdy to calm, from irresponsible to responsible, from noncooperative to cooperative, from…

The way in which students can improve their comprehension by understanding the geometrical meaning of algebraic equations or solving algebraic equation geometrically is described. Students can experiment with the conditions of the absolute value equation presented, for an interesting way to form an overall understanding of the concept.

The strategies that expose learners to the large volume of knowledge, enables them for creative thinking, self-management and deep reading. The different ways of creating knowledge with the help of creativity, communication, organization, problem solving and decision-making are discussed.

Four experiments investigated transformation problems with insight characteristics. In Experiment 1, performance on a version of the 6-coin problem that had a concrete and visualizable solution followed a hill-climbing heuristic. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the difficulty of a version of the problem that potentially required insight for…

In 4 experiments, instructions to plan a task (water jugs) that normally produces little planning altered how participants solved the problems and resulted in enhanced learning and memory. Experiment 1 identified planning strategies that allowed participants to plan full solutions to water jugs problems. Experiment 2 showed that experience with…