This paper reviews an approach for finding optimal solutions to the traveling salesman problem, a well-known problem in combinational optimization, and describes implementing the approach using the MAPLE computer algebra system. The method employed in this approach to the problem is similar to the way ant colonies manage to establish shortest…

The University of South Carolina at Hilton Head offers a major in Hotel, Restaurant, and Tourism Administration (HRTA). Many students in the HRTA major take both the HRTA Tourism course and a business calculus course. An interdisciplinary research project was designed in an effort to interest these students in the power of calculus as a…

Input must be both contextualized and natural if it is to be coterminous with actual communication, in which interlocutors participate in a cooperative and dialogic process. However, when input becomes decontextualized, discourse shifts to a superficial plane. As is commonly the case in theater, verbal act meaning in the classroom setting is…

This study investigated the kinds of self-regulated learning strategies used by kindergarten children related to effective problem-solving and examined their awareness of self-regulated behaviors. Participating in the study were 40 kindergarten children attending a primary school in the southeastern United States. Twenty-one high self-regulated…

This study assessed the impact that reflective journals used in an introductory college science course had on preservice teachers' science literacy. Fourteen preservice teachers enrolled in an introductory physical science course taught using a variety of constructivist instructional methods (hands-on activities, cooperative group work,…

The purpose of this study was to describe the depth and accuracy of sixth grade students' content understanding as a result of engaging in information seeking activities using Web-based resources in the University of Michigan's Digital Library. Eight student pairs received scaffolded pedagogical support from classroom teachers while completing…

Instructional resources that employ multiple representations have become commonplace in mathematics classrooms. This study will present computer software, LaborScale which was designed to improve seventh grade students' word problem-solving skills through computer-based multiple representations including graphic, symbolic, and audio…

The Massachusetts General Hospital/Surgical and Special Services study, an information processing system for redesigning an outmoded existing hospital, structured information into small-scale elements that could be analyzed, reassembled into different solutions, and the solution selected that best accommodates all of the complex requirements. (MF)

The authors developed, over a one-year period of time, a Human Interaction Laboratory designed to allow participants to deal with several interpersonal issues: the intrapersonal self, the interpersonal self, communication skill development, trust formation, conflict management, confrontation techniques, developing feedback systems, working…

In this review, it is suggested that language influences the young child's thinking and behavior at an age earlier than commonly reported. Three areas are discussed: concept formation, communication, and problem solving. (CS)

This section concerns pattern recognition activities related to the properties of cubes and is suitable for reproduction in worksheet and transparency form for classroom use. (JP)

Research supported by the Center for the Study of Social Organizaion of Schools, Johns Hopkins University, under a grant from the U.S. Office of Education. (DS)

Article considered different ways in which subjects at different age levels solved a musical task involving melodic permutation. The differences in responses to the musical task between age groups were judged to be compatible with Piaget's theory of cognitive development. (Author/RK)