This article presents an original puzzle that supports students’ development of visual thinking and geometry ideas based on the Van Hiele levels of geometric thought.
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Construct It! Triangle Puzzle Challenges
Enrique Ortiz
Discuss It! Collaborating on the Tortoise and Hare Task
K. Ann Renninger, Maria Consuelo De Dios, Annie Fetter, Maeve R. Hogan, Moe Htet Kyaw, Ana G. Michels, Marina Nakayama, Richard Tchen, Stephen A. Weimar, Helena Werneck de Souza Dias, and Feven Yared
The authors share an online collaborative problem-solving activity that integrates support for students’ developing conceptual understanding, focused engagement, and positive feelings of agency and identity.
Model It! Revamping High School Schedules
Elizabeth B. Harkey, Kathryn Early, Ronnie D. Hall, and Marilyn E. Strutchens
Learn how the authors used changes happening in the community to create a mathematical modeling task.
See, Think, and Wonder Geoboard Art
Enrique Ortiz
Two original images were inspired by the use of an art studio app for digital drawings. This artistic process could be used to help created other original art and during See-Think-Wonder routines emphasizing meaningful observations and questioning skills.
Teaching Angle as Turn Using a Code.org Lesson
Stacy K. Boote and Terrie M. Galanti
Elementary school students use physical manipulatives (e.g., pattern blocks) to make sense of the geometry and measurement ideas in a Code.org block-based programming lesson.
Adaptations to Support the Flint Water Task
Dana L. Grosser-Clarkson and Joanna S. Hung
This Perspectives on Practice manuscript focuses on an innovation associated with “Engaging Teachers in the Powerful Combination of Mathematical Modeling and Social Justice: The Flint Water Task” from Volume 7, Issue 2 of MTE. The Flint Water Task has shown great promise in achieving the dual goals of exploring mathematical modeling while building awareness of social justice issues. This Perspectives on Practice article focuses on two adaptations of the task—gallery walks and What I Know, What I Wonder, What I Learned (KWL) charts—that we have found to enhance these learning opportunities. We found that the inclusion of a gallery walk supported our students in the development of their mathematical modeling skills by enhancing both the mathematical analyses of the models and the unpacking of assumptions. The KWL chart helps students document their increase in knowledge of the social justice issues surrounding the water crisis. Using the mathematical modeling cycle to explore social justice issues allows instructors to bring humanity into the mathematics classroom.
Keeping Your Finger on the Pulse of SEL
José Martínez Hinestroza and Vanessa Abreu
Children analyzed data to read their bodies and manage their emotions. To avoid controlling children’s bodies and emotions, the authors encourage teachers to embrace children’s unanticipated responses.
Mathematical Connections: Many Faces of the Truncated Icosahedron
Enrique Ortiz
Examine this geometric figure in light of a set of connections among fields such as architecture, geometry, science, sports, technology, and associated uses, models, and discoveries.
Give Plants an Inch; They’ll Take a Yard
Katherine N. Vela, Michelle Parslow, Rita Hagevik, and Kathy Cabe Trundle
A real-world integrated activity allows middle school students to design a scale drawing for a garden at their school.
Golden Circles
Paula Beardell Krieg
An artist uses graphic tools and circles to illuminate the illusive concept of the golden ratio.
