This article describes a teacher's Maths lesson that focuses on numeracy in health and physical education learning area. In the lesson, the students were learning about Directed Numbers, something they often struggle with and a topic where the teacher finds it hard to explain using real life situations when using addition and subtraction. The…

Proportional reasoning has been recognised as a crucial focus of mathematics in the middle years and also as a frequent source of difficulty for students (Lamon, 2007). Proportional reasoning concerns the equivalence of pairs of quantities that are related multiplicatively; that is, equivalent ratios including those expressed as fractions and…

Statistics is often presented to students as a series of algorithms to be learnt by heart and applied at the appropriate time to get "the correct answer". This approach, while it may in fact produce the right answer, has been shown to be minimally effective at helping students understand the underlying statistical concepts. As Holmes noted,…

Learning about the area formulas provides many opportunities for students even at the beginning of junior secondary school to experience mathematical deduction. For example, in easy cases, students can put two triangles together to make a rectangle, and so deduce that the area of a triangle is half the area of a corresponding rectangle. They can…

Several researchers have noted how children's whole number schemes can interfere with their efforts to learn fractions. An Australian study found that children who were successful with the solution of rational number tasks exhibited greater whole number knowledge and more flexible solution strategies. Behr and Post (1988) indicated that children…

This paper investigates some aspects of number patterns that have been a subject of interest and engaged students of mathematics for many years. It is left for the teacher to select and fashion any aspects they feel suit their own students.

The history of mathematics is full of rich examples that can help students to see the place of the discipline within our cultural heritage. Valuable as this can be, it also has the unfortunate side-effect of making students think that all the math has already been done and they do not get a sense that the subject is dynamic and growing.…

Describes two projects to illustrate some common principles in the design and development of projects, independent of the level of schooling. (ASK)

Argues that genuine problem solving and investigation on the part of pupils rarely occurs in mathematics classrooms in Hong Kong and other Asian countries. Provides a rationale for drawing problems from the content of a curriculum or syllabus. (DDR)

Discusses a commonly held misconception that in the throwing of two dice, if a total of seven does not come up for a period of time then its appearance is imminent. Describes an experiment to disprove the misconception and includes a discussion of the theory that frames the results. (DDR)

Shows how geometric truths can be reinforced by simple exercises with lines and dots. (MKR)

Describes a game originally published by the Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers (AAMT) as a chance and data activity. Includes a variety of modifications and extensions of the board game, and a discussion on the use of an empirical approach as an access issue. (DDR)

Presents activities related to some obscure tests for divisibility, which teachers may wish to develop as illustrative examples in the classroom, or as extension activities for groups of students. Begins with an exploration of divisibility by three, then discusses application of the technique to other numbers, and for numbers written in other…

Five graded sets of examples of alphametrics are provided. The puzzles are suggested for use in developing the traits of considering all possibilities and systematic working. (MP)

An activity is described for introducing some fundamental notions in inferential statistics to students in elementary high school statistics courses. (MP)