Quilt investigations, such as the Barn quilt problem in the December 2008/January 2009 issue of Teaching Children Mathematics and its solutions in last month's issue, can spark interdisciplinary pursuits for teachers and exciting connections for the full range of elementary school students. This month, North Dakota's centennial quilt problem blends the mathematical strands of measurement, data and probability, geometry, and number.
Edited by Brian Schad, schad@aaps.k12.mi.us, a fifth-grade teacher at Lawton Elementary School in Ann Arbor, Michigan; Joseph Georgeson, jgeorgeson@usmk12.org, the middle school mathematics department chair and a teacher of eighth graders at the University School of Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Sarah Bunten, sbunten@gmail.chelsea.k12.mi.us, a third-grade teacher at Pierce Lake Elementary School in Chelsea, Michigan. Each month the solutions section of the “problem solvers” department discusses classroom results of having presented problems from previous issues of TCM. See detailed submission guidelines at www.nctm.org/tcmdepartments.