All posts by Daniel Scher

Daniel Scher, Ph.D., is a senior digital strategist at McGraw-Hill Education. He worked as a senior scientist at KCP Technologies, co-directing the NSF-funded Dynamic Number project.
Educational Technology, Geometry

A Dynamic Approach to Finding Pirate Treasure

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In his 1947 book, One, Two, Three...Infinity, physicist George Gamow poses a pirate treasure problem that has since become a classic. Below is my reworded statement of the puzzle.
Among a pirate's belongings you find the following note: The island where I buried my treasure contains a single palm tree. Find the tree. From the palm tree, … Continue Reading ››
Educational Technology, Geometry, Math Software

The Scaled Maps Problem

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Below are two maps of the United Sates, with the smaller map a 50 percent scaled copy of the original. The edges of the two maps are parallel. Imagine that the maps are printed out, with one resting on top of the other. Believe it or not, you can stick a pin straight through both maps … Continue Reading ››
Educational Technology, Elementary Mathematics, Math Software

Interactive Array Explorations

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Arrays can be enormously helpful tools for helping young learners to visualize multiplication.  Early work with arrays also sets the stage for more advanced mathematics, like binomial multiplication. In this blog post, I present several interactive arrays built with Web Sketchpad as part of the Dynamic Number project. The interactive array model below (and … Continue Reading ››
Educational Technology, Elementary Mathematics, Math Software

Fifth Graders Investigate a Mathematical Code

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How much tolerance do you have for puzzlement? When faced with a mathematical conundrum, do you embrace the challenge, or do you feel some trepidation at confronting the unknown? For many of us, an unfamiliar mathematical task is sure to raise our heart rate a beat or two. As teachers, it’s easy to translate these fears … Continue Reading ››
Elementary Mathematics, Math Software

Deducing the “Mystery” Fraction

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Estimation is an important mathematical skill, yet we rarely ask students to make estimates that relate to fractions. As part of the Dynamic Number project, we created a "mystery" fraction challenge  that presents a green point somewhere between 0 and 1 on the number line. The point's location can be represented as a fraction with … Continue Reading ››
Educational Technology, Math Software

Binomial Multiplication and Factoring Games

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The four Web Sketchpad activities below from our Dynamic Number project  provide a sequenced collection of challenges and games that develop an area model approach to binomial multiplication and factoring. You can click any of the images to open the interactive websketches on a separate page.

Dynamic Algebra Tiles, Part One

In the first websketch, students … Continue Reading ››
Educational Technology, Math Software

Algebra Cross Number Puzzles

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In my previous post, I wrote about cross number puzzles—puzzles that mix arithmetic and logic to introduce students to place value, commutativity, and the addition and subtraction algorithms. Now, I'd like to present a variant of cross number puzzles that adds some algebra to the mix. Below (and here on its own page) are … Continue Reading ››