Word Problems
Problem solving, one of the NCTM Process Standards, is critical to learning mathematics. Students may feel confident with computation, measurement, and statistics, but they can feel completely lost...
View ArticleLet’s Play Math!
Math games open an arena for strategic planning and reasoning, one of the NCTM Process Standards. Many games also provide practice in basic operations or problem solving, and all motivate the active...
View ArticleSolving Equations: Lesson Ideas
Your own textbook has numerous pages on equations and their solutions. What I’ve pulled together here are scenarios that involve students in solving equations in unusual contexts. A change of pace, a...
View ArticleTesting! Beyond One-Step Math Problems
Middle school students often do well on straight calculations but feel lost when faced with more complex problems. And many tests these days require critical thinking and ask for an extended response....
View ArticleAround a Circle: Measuring a Geometric Figure
Your textbook has many, many problems on finding the measurements of a circle, so I looked for problems that are off the beaten track. The result is an unusual set of applications to the circle,...
View ArticleDynamic Math and Science Learning With Simulations
Bob Panoff, executive director of Shodor and CSERD: Computational Science Education Reference Desk is passionate about using computational science teaching methods to stimulate student engagement in...
View ArticleReading Math
You may have heard this complaint or even made it yourself: “These tests are more about reading than they are about math!” Students are increasingly asked to understand and apply math to situations,...
View ArticleCrippling with Compassion?
Strange title? It comes from teacher Ellen Berg’s article in Teacher Magazine, Teaching Secrets: Don’t Cripple With Compassion. From her perspective, “One of the major issues with American teachers...
View ArticleBIG Numbers
Those BIG numbers fascinate, don’t they? I’ve watched 5th and 6th graders gathered around the teacher just to hear more about the size of a million, or even a billion. Ths article, Thinking Involving...
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