We focus on how democratic practices occur during the modeling activity "The Candy Bag of Dreams." With democratic practices, we refer to approaches supporting inclusivity and active participation aimed at empowering students. We investigated one group of preservice teachers implementing an optimizing modeling activity during practicum…

This article details the development of design principles to support teachers in planning for a Community-Based Mathematical Modeling task with a focus on social justice in the elementary grades. By reflecting on the dilemmas we encountered in the design and enactment of the tasks, we developed five design principles that allowed us to address…

Understanding of fractions is difficult for Indonesian students. This often leads to misinterpretation in solving fractional problems. In this study, a task aiming at identifying students' struggles in understanding the basic concept of part-whole relationships in fractions was developed and tested with six 4th-grade students. The task uses…

Students in grades 3-5 are undergoing significant cognitive growth and beginning to understand what fairness and equity mean in a diverse and interconnected world. "Modern Math Tasks to Provoke Transformational Thinking" presents carefully crafted tasks that nurture multi-disciplinary literacies, including ecological and cultural…

Meaningful and enjoyable experiences are important in the education of children. In this qualitative case study, the garden program (incl. market garden shop, garden care, Kid's Kitchen, and chicken coop) in one Australian primary school was explored to determine its impact on the mathematical learning of children. Data were collected using focus…

Tootsie Pops, manufactured by Tootsie Roll Industries of Chicago, Illinois, are spherical hard-candy lollipops with a chocolate-flavoured, chewy center. While Tootsie Pops have been around since 1931, it was a television commercial made in 1969 that captured the attention of many. The commercial, an amusing animated cartoon, posed the following…

In New Zealand and internationally, diverse groups of people are under-represented in mathematics. Disrupting deficit discourses requires educators to recognise the funds of knowledge of learners. This article focuses on stories of mathematics at home and in the community of Pacific learners to highlight what we can learn from the voices of…

This article reports the findings of a study using tasks where a family orders and considers sharing the cost of a "Fish n Chips" meal. Purchasing take-away food is an example of an everyday situation where literacy and numeracy must be applied to make sense of tabulated price information. Originally developed for use in Australia, the…

In this article, the authors discuss a special type of multiplication-and-division-of-fractions problem that elementary school teachers can use to promote children's understanding of fractional quantities and their relationships. These problems are accessible to students working at different levels of fraction understanding, and they can be solved…

Background: Students may be receiving less than an average of 4?hours of nutrition instruction per year. Integrating nutrition with other subject areas such as science may increase exposure to nutrition education, while supporting existing academics. Methods: During the 2009-2010 school year, researchers implemented the Food, Math, and Science…

Background: Teacher self-efficacy for teaching nutrition can positively impact student dietary behaviors; however, limited curricular resources and professional development can serve as barriers to the provision of nutrition education in the classroom. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of a food-based, integrative science…

This study examines if interdisciplinary teaching can be said to facilitate the learning and use of fractions by Swedish 12-year-old pupils. Home and Consumer Studies is well suited to interdisciplinary teaching, and young people can therefore find it interesting to study maths since the setting is relevant to them. Building on variation theory…

Earth Day is celebrated annually on April 22. Teachers often commemorate Earth Day with their classes by planting trees, discussing important conservation topics (such as recycling or preventing pollution), and encouraging students to take care of planet Earth. To promote observance of Earth Day in an intermediate elementary school classroom, this…

A kitchen garden is not just a place to grow food for cooking; it is a place of sensory stimulation through extraordinary explorations and investigations into the natural world. A kitchen garden contains vegetables, fruits, herbs, edible flowers, and/or ornamental plants; and animals such as chickens for supplying eggs, as well as manure for…

This article features Sweet play math, a "math by the month" activity that involves decorating and making sugar cubes. Teachers may want to substitute straws, paper squares, alphabet blocks, or such commercially made manipulatives as Unifix[R] cubes for the real sweets. Given no allergy concerns, teachers and students alike would enjoy some sweet…