Category Archives: K-12 Education

Putting Sums back into Summer

by Scott Taylor Colby College Waterville, ME  Every math teacher hears the “What’s it good for?” complaint. Even elementary students want to know what math is good for. But children, especially those who are at risk of not succeeding academically, … Continue reading

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Three foundational theorems of elementary school math

By Ben Blum-Smith, Contributing Editor This post discusses three very familiar facts from grade-school mathematics. In spite of their familiarity, I believe they tend to go under-appreciated, at every level of math education. In the elementary grades, my experience is … Continue reading

Posted in Curriculum, K-12 Education, Mathematics teacher preparation | 7 Comments

Access To Epidemic Modeling

Kurt Kreith and  Alvin Mendle, University of California, Davis Covid-19 has left teachers seeking topics that are both engaging and lend themselves to online instruction.   As a guiding force for the measures that have reshaped our lives, epidemic modeling stands … Continue reading

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In Memoriam N. N. Konstantinov

by Mark Saul This summer marks the thirtieth year since the end of the Soviet Union.  It also marks the passing of one of the great figures of Russian mathematical culture, Nicholas Nikolayevich Konstantinov.  This note concerns both events, but … Continue reading

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Mathematics as Logic

by Mark Saul Maybe it is obvious, but it is something I’ve come to appreciate only after years of experience: mathematics is logic driven, and teaching and learning mathematics is centered on teaching and learning logic.  I find this to … Continue reading

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Happy New Year(?)

Mark Saul, Editor Mathematics and mathematicians rarely make press.  So it was a bit sweet, but mostly bitter, to read in the New Yorker of the deaths of John Conway, Ronald Graham, and Freeman Dyson, three great losses to our profession.  … Continue reading

Posted in Communication, Education Policy, Faculty Experiences, K-12 Education, Mathematics Education Research, Outreach, Student Experiences | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Calculus of Context

by Yvonne Lai (University of Nebraska-Lincoln) It is 2020. You are taking a high school mathematics teacher licensure exam. Suppose you see these questions. What do you do? What do you think? (Warning: Your head may spin. These are not … Continue reading

Posted in Classroom Practices, K-12 Education, Mathematics Education Research, Mathematics teacher preparation, Task design | 1 Comment

MATH ON THE BORDER: Working with unaccompanied migrant children in Federal custody

The events recounted here happened in January 2020. The program described has been suspended during the COVID crisis.  Perhaps there will be no need for it when the crisis is over.  Nadia looked at me with big brown eyes and … Continue reading

Posted in Active Learning in Mathematics Series 2015, Communication, Faculty Experiences, Influence of race and gender, K-12 Education, Mathematics Education Research, Prison | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on MATH ON THE BORDER: Working with unaccompanied migrant children in Federal custody

THE ZOOM ROOM: Vignette and Reflections About Online Teaching

Mark Saul A child’s insight “I know how to find out how many divisors a number has. You factor it into primes….” Alejandro was with a virtual group of four enthusiastic ten year olds, in the midst of exploring a … Continue reading

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Writing Good Questions for the Internet Era

Jeff Suzuki CUNY Brooklyn The forced conversion to distance learning in Spring 2020 caught most of us off-guard. One of the biggest problems we face is the existence of free or freemium online calculators that show all steps required to … Continue reading

Posted in Active Learning in Mathematics Series 2015, Communication, Curriculum, K-12 Education, Mathematics Education Research, Online Education | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments