Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Euler's paper on the seven bridges of Koenigsberg was the progenitor of the field of graph theory and perhaps even of topology. It did not, however, get the fields started promptly. While the ideas behind the paper are easy to express to an undergraduate audience, it can take a little more context to come up with answers for questions about why mathematics had not been brought to bear on the problem before and why the success of the paper did not generate application to other problems, even in a recreational setting. A contrast will be drawn between the response to Euler's paper and the speed with which the Four Colour Conjecture attracted attention in the next century.

Publication Type: Poster
Abstract: One Hong Kong classroom from the Learner’s Perspective Study (Clarke, Keitel, & Shimizu, 2006) is analyzed to examine two different types of problem-solving methods across 16 consecutive lessons with expository teaching. The study explores how the teacher portrays two different types of problem-solving methods to his students and how these different methods affect students’ understanding of mathematical concepts.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper explores how a social studies teacher considers standards, high stakes tests, and culturally relevant pedagogy in social studies curriculum, and how teacher education might consider these three demands.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Past research indicates that black adolescents consistently have higher self-esteem than white students. Other research demonstrates that self-esteem has positive effects on academic achievement. However, black students have lower academic achievement than white students while concurrently exhibiting higher self-esteem. This paper seeks to speak to this contradiction by examining the impact that contact with non-parental adults has on the self-esteem of adolescent black and white eighth-grade students. Specifically, it addresses three sets of questions: how contact affects students’ self-esteem; how contact affects black and white students differently; how contact affects black and white students given different racial composition in schools. Regression results indicate that non-parental contact has a significant effect on self-esteem for both black and white adolescents. Furthermore, although racial/ethnic effects still appear in the data, structural factors (in this case school racial/ethnic composition) provide further explanation into processes determining self-esteem for adolescents.

Publication Type: Poster
Abstract: Three groups of eighth- and ninth-grade students solved activities at the level of knowledge development using a geoboard. The goal was students to discover the Pythagorean theorem (and its converse) departing from activities based on the geometrical statement of The Law of Cosines, as in propositions 12 and 13 in Book II of Euclid’s Elements.