A monthly set of problems targets a variety of ability levels.
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P. Reneé Hill-Cunningham
Hundreds of species of animals around the world are losing their habitats and food supplies, are facing extinction, or have been hunted or otherwise negatively influenced by humans. Students learn about some of these animals and explore multiple solution strategies as they solve this month's problems. Math by the Month features collections of short activities focused on a monthly theme. These articles aim for an inquiry or problem-solving orientation that includes four activities each for grade bands K–2, 3–4, and 5–6.
Sarah Ferguson
Explore the creation of a unique problem-based learning (PBL) experience.
Wayne Nirode
To address student misconceptions and promote student learning, use discussion questions as an alternative to reviewing assessments.
Natasha E. Gerstenschlager and Jeremy F. Strayer
Short, mathematical discussions can elicit students' reasoning and focus on foundational ideas.
Stephen Phelps
Edited by Anna F. DeJarnette
A monthly set of problems is aimed at a variety of ability levels.
Günhan Caglayan
The Platonic solids, also known as the five regular polyhedra, are the five solids whose faces are congruent regular polygons of the same type. Polyhedra is plural for polyhedron, derived from the Greek poly + hedros, meaning “multi-faces.” The five Platonic solids include the tetrahedron, hexahedron, octahedron, dodecahedron, and icosahedron. Photographs 1a-d show several regular polyhedra
Erin E. Krupa, Mika Munakata, and Karmen Yu
Can you remember your typical elementary school field day? In this article, we provide details on hosting a mathematics field day, focused on embedding rich mathematics into authentic fun-filled field day experiences.
Elaine M. Purvinis and Joshua B. Fagan
In first- and second-year algebra classrooms, the all-too-familiar whine of “when are we ever going to use this in real life?” challenges mathematics teachers to find new, engaging ways to present mathematical concepts. The introduction of quadratic equations is typically modeled by describing the motion of a moving object with respect to time, and typical lessons include uninspiring textbook practice problems that portray dropping or shooting objects from given distances or at particular time intervals. For a novel approach to exploring quadratics, we chose to step outside the classroom to look at some phenomena in the field of acoustics. Our activity incorporates mathematical modeling to provide a multirepresentational view of the math behind the physics and to provide a conceptual basis for analyzing and understanding a real-world quadratic situation.
