Algebra

Authors share results from a quasi-experimental study that examines growth in students’ algebraic thinking practices of generalizing and representing generalizations, particularly with variable notation, as a result of an early algebra instructional sequence implemented across grades 3–5.

Authors share results from a quasi-experimental study that examines growth in students’ algebraic thinking practices of generalizing and representing generalizations, particularly with variable notation, as a result of an early algebra instructional sequence implemented across grades 3–5.

Linear Algebra and Geometry is aimed at preservice and practicing high school mathematics teachers and advanced high school students looking for an addition to or replacement for calculus. The materials are organized around carefully sequenced problems that help students build both the tools and the habits that provide a solid basis for further study in mathematics. Requiring only high school algebra, it uses elementary geometry to build the beautiful edifice of results and methods that make linear algebra such an important field.

Shifting people’s judgments toward the scientific involves teaching them to purposefully evaluate connections between evidence and alternative explanations.

A first-year algebra student’s curiosity about factorials of negative numbers became a starting point for an extended discovery lesson into territory not usually explored in secondary school mathematics.

This study examines the design and implementation of a simulated teaching environment in Second Life for prospective teachers.

A symmetric polynomial is a polynomial in one or more variables in which swapping any pair of variables leaves the polynomial unchanged. For example, f(x, y, z) = xy +xz + yz is a symmetric polynomial. If we interchange the variables x and y, we obtain yx + yz + xz, which is the same as f(x, y, z); likewise, swapping x and z (or y and z) returns the original polynomial. These polynomials arise in many areas of mathematics, including Galois theory and combinatorics, but they are rarely taught in a high school curriculum. In this article, we describe an application of symmetric polynomials to a familiar problem in coordinate geometry, thus introducing this powerful tool in a context that is accessible to high school students.

A symmetric polynomial is a polynomial in one or more variables in which swapping any pair of variables leaves the polynomial unchanged. For example, f(x, y, z) = xy +xz + yz is a symmetric polynomial. If we interchange the variables x and y, we obtain yx + yz + xz, which is the same as f(x, y, z); likewise, swapping x and z (or y and z) returns the original polynomial. These polynomials arise in many areas of mathematics, including Galois theory and combinatorics, but they are rarely taught in a high school curriculum. In this article, we describe an application of symmetric polynomials to a familiar problem in coordinate geometry, thus introducing this powerful tool in a context that is accessible to high school students.