This article presents a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) activity, building an air cannon, in a mathematics classroom. It describes an investigation grounded in STEM concepts that elementary and middle school teachers carried out to think about ways of implementing STEM activities into their instruction. This particular…

In this paper we focus on creativity needed for geometric tasks designing, visualization of geometric problems and use of ICT. We present some examples of various problems related to tessellations. Altogether 21 students--pre-service teachers participated in our activity within a geometry course at CPU in Nitra, Slovakia. Our attempt was to…

Instructors of physics courses face the demanding challenge of creating a safe, nurturing community in their classroom while maintaining sufficient rigor. First-day activities are especially important, because they need to both motivate their students and prepare them for the course. Experienced instructors happily share their successful first-day…

The Dirac delta function is a standard mathematical tool that appears repeatedly in the undergraduate physics curriculum in multiple topical areas including electrostatics, and quantum mechanics. While Dirac delta functions are often introduced in order to simplify a problem mathematically, students still struggle to manipulate and interpret them.…

This study examined whether curriculum-based measures (CBMs) of math word-problem contributed unique variance in predictions of performance on high-stakes tests, beyond the contribution of calculation and reading skills. CBMs were administered to a representative sample of 142 third-grade students at three time points. Results indicate that…

Teachers have a lot of frustrating things to deal with in school--obdurate administrators, inane work rules, and ham-fisted policies, to name a few. Instead of speaking up for change, many teachers have just come to accept all the dysfunction and take refuge in their classrooms. But teachers have it in their power to bust out of that classroom…

The nature of mathematics teachers' knowledge specific to teaching mathematics [MTK] is of ongoing concern in mathematics education research. This article contributes to our under-standing of this knowledge with particular focus on reflective awareness. It discusses MTK based on ways it has been used in research. It highlights reflective awareness…

This article presents four inquiry-based learning activities developed for a liberal arts math course. The activities cover four topics: the Pythagorean theorem, interest theory, optimization, and the Monty Hall problem. Each activity consists of a dialogue, with a theme and characters related to the topic, and a manipulative, that allow students…

A typical mathematics assignment consists primarily of practice problems requiring the strategy introduced in the immediately preceding lesson (e.g., a dozen problems that are solved by using the Pythagorean Theorem). This means that students know which strategy is needed to solve each problem before they read the problem. In an alternative…

The purpose of this study was to identify the perceptions of elementary school principals in Southeastern Virginia regarding implementation of 21st century skills. The Partnership for 21st Century Learning Skills framework was used as a foundation to identify the skills needed for the 21st century. In addition, the framework was used to examine…

Attending to precision (ATP) is essential in mathematics. This study examined ATP instances through the lens of univocal (functioning to convey information) and dialogic (functioning to generate new meaning) discourse. Analysis of data from five secondary mathematics classrooms focused on whole-class instances of ATP with coding based on the…

In this study we examine the use of cumulative and exploratory talk types in a year 5 computer supported collaborative learning environment. The focus for students in this environment was to participate in mathematical problem solving, with the intention of developing the proficiencies of problem solving and reasoning. Findings suggest that…

This article reports the findings of research involving more than 30 teachers and their Year 5 and 6 students in 16 Victorian primary schools. The participants experienced an educational intervention where the "Money and Financial Mathematics" substrand of the "Number and Algebra" content strand was taught and learned through…

This study relates factors in nature of Mathematics and its teaching learning to student difficulties for diverse mathematics tasks. Descriptive survey was done on a sample of 300 high school students in Kerala with a questionnaire on difficulties in learning. Student perception of difficulty on 26 types of tasks, under five heads that students…

Each new version of the GeoGebra dynamic mathematics software goes through updates and innovations. One of these innovations is the GeoGebra 5.0 version. This version aims to facilitate 3D instruction by offering opportunities for students to analyze 3D objects. While scanning the previous studies of GeoGebra 3D, it is seen that they mainly focus…