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.
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Kuo-Liang Chang and Ellen Lehet
Defining a quadratic function through the slopes of its secant/tangent lines leads to the fundamental theorem of calculus (FTC) and an alternative way of understanding integration.
Kym Fry and Lyn D. English
Grade 4 students engage in problem solving through inquiry in an agricultural science context.
Blake E. Peterson, Douglas L. Corey, Benjamin M. Lewis, Jared Bukarau, and Introduction by: Wendy Cleaves
From the Archives highlights articles from NCTM’s legacy journals, previously discussed by the MTLT Journal Club.
Daniel K. Siebert and Monica G. McCleod
Growing Problem Solvers provides four original, related, classroom-ready mathematical tasks, one for each grade band. Together, these tasks illustrate the trajectory of learners’ growth as problem solvers across their years of school mathematics.
Justin Gregory Johns and Chris Harrow
Problems to Ponder provides 28 varying, classroom-ready mathematics problems that collectively span PK–12, arranged in the order of the grade level. Answers to the problems are available online. Individuals are encouraged to submit a problem or a collection of problems directly to mtlt@nctm.org. If published, the authors of problems will be acknowledged.
Sheldon P. Gordon and Michael B. Burns
We introduce variations on the Fibonacci sequence such as the sequences where each term is the sum of the previous three terms, the difference of the previous two, or the product of the previous two. We consider the issue of the ratio of the successive terms in ways that reinforce key behavioral concepts of polynomials.
Emily Dennett
The author uses mathematical concepts to inform her knitting. Her knitting also helps her to experience mathematical concepts in new ways.
Eric Milou and Steve Leinwand
The standard high school math curriculum is not meeting the needs of the majority of high school students and that serious consideration of rigorous alternatives is a solution whose time has come.
Charles F. Marion
The simplest of prekindergarten equations, 1 + 2 = 3, is the basis for an investigation involving much of high school mathematics, including triangular numbers, arithmetic sequences, and algebraic proofs.
