Contributors to the iSTEM (Integrating Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) department share ideas and activities that stimulate student interest in the integrated fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in K–grade 6 classrooms. This article is a comprehensive Earthquake Engineering activity that includes the Designing an earthquake-resistant building problem. The task was implemented in sixth-grade classes (10–11-year-olds). Students applied engineering design processes and their understanding of cross-bracing, tapered geometry, and base isolation to create numerous structures, which they tested on a “shaker table.”
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Johnnie Wilson
Observe a first-grade teacher's use of gesture as a mathematics teaching and learning tool in his classroom.
Kelley Buchheister, Christa Jackson, and Cynthia Taylor
A kindergarten teacher uses Gutièrrez's Four Dimensions of Equity to design and facilitate geometry instruction.
Tutita M. Casa
This instructional tool helps students engage in discussions that foster student reasoning, then settle on correct mathematics.
M. Katherine Gavin and Karen G. Moylan
Research-based actions and practical ideas for implementation can help shape your differentiated instruction.
Ariel Robinson
This preschool teacher uses differentiation and scaffolding techniques as she reads an informational text about patterns with her young students.
Lingguo Bu
The rise of dynamic modeling and 3-D design technologies provides appealing opportunities for mathematics teachers to reconsider a host of pedagogical issues in mathematics education, ranging from motivation to application and from visualization to physical manipulation. This article reports on a classroom teaching experiment about cube spinning, integrating traditional tools, GeoGebra (www.geogebra.org), and 3-D design and printing technologies. It highlights the rich interplay between worthwhile mathematical tasks and the strategic use of diverse technologies in sustaining sense making and problem solving with a group of prospective teachers.
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
Annie Perkins and Christy Pettis
Students are asked to solve a problem that involves viewing the characteristics of a square.
Katie L. Anderson
Teachers share success stories and ideas that stimulate thinking about the effective use of technology in K–grade 6 classrooms. This article describes a set of lessons where sixth graders use virtual pattern blocks to develop proportional reasoning. Students' work with the virtual manipulatives reveals a variety of creative solutions and promotes active engagement. The author suggests that technology is most effective when coupled with worthwhile mathematical tasks and rich classroom discussions.
