Electronic games are proposed as a means for encouraging students of French to learn and use the language while solving problems. A computerized card game and mine-removal game are offered as illustration of the language skills and vocabulary that can be developed and the appeal that such exercises can have for students. (MSE)

Analyzes the effectiveness of introducing practical design projects at an early stage within a civil engineering undergraduate program. Traces the success of this strategy at each stage from its introduction to the final evaluation. Findings indicate that the projects were successful in improving the understanding of basic concepts and encouraging…

Describes one possible approach to solving the following problem: given a pentagon ABCDE in which triangles ABC, BCD, CDE, DEA, and EAB all have area=1, is the area of the pentagon determined? (AIM)

Presents three methods invented by fourth graders for obtaining the arithmetic mean. This presentation is in support of the idea that encouraging children to invent their own mathematical processes is a good way for them to clarify the idea of representativeness and consequently the teacher can facilitate the students' construction of higher…

Presents nine science activities to help students improve their thinking and problem solving skills. Activities cover the science process skills of classifying, ordering, space-time relationships, inferring, predicting, and elaborating. (MKR)

The goal of this activity is to solve problems encountered when preparing food for space flight. Includes student worksheets. (MKR)

Discusses strategies for overcoming common student misconceptions. Strategies include using pretests followed by teaching techniques planned to contrast new information with students' previous ideas; using pretests followed by time for students to question ideas and test their knowledge; and giving students a real-world task that can only be…

Describes an investigation that explores students' understanding of the translation, rotation, and deformation of an object. Findings illustrate that students have difficulty appreciating that these different phenomena can occur simultaneously. Discusses some implications for teaching. (DDR)

Presents an interesting problem intended to introduce students to an application of algebra and to help them make the transition from arithmetic to algebra. Uses different problem representations including making successive approximations, interpreting graphs, and solving equations. Discusses pedagogical issues involved. Contains 11 references.…

Presents examples of how students can create drawings of sets of lines whose envelopes are parabolas, cardioids, epicycloids, or hypocycloids. Provides students with experience in problem solving, reasoning, communication, and connections between numbers and geometry, between mathematics and art, and between mathematics and other applications.…

This article presents activities to help teachers explore the issue of tattling and help students learn when to tell and when to work it out themselves. Both activities require several 20-minute periods in which teachers explain the issue and involve students in discussions of appropriate behavior and responses. (SM)

Chest pain was identified as a specific medical problem space, and disease classes were modeled to define it. Results from a test taken by 628 medical residents indicate a second-order factor structure that suggests that chest pain is a multidimensional problem space. Implications for medical education are discussed. (SLD)

A curricular anchor is a complex problem that students acknowledge as worth solving and that validates learning a set of relevant skills and concepts. To motivate students, anchors must capture the imagination, be perceived as important by learners, legitimize the disciplinary content they integrate, and accommodate a variety of learning…

Presents activities related to some obscure tests for divisibility, which teachers may wish to develop as illustrative examples in the classroom, or as extension activities for groups of students. Begins with an exploration of divisibility by three, then discusses application of the technique to other numbers, and for numbers written in other…

Individual differences in the ability to connect thoughts to emotions were studied with 321 participants who read the writings of a target group and guessed the emotions of targets. Findings are interpreted to mean that some forms of emotional problem solving require emotional openness as well as general intelligence. (SLD)