All posts by Daniel Scher

Daniel Scher, Ph.D., is a senior academic designer at McGraw-Hill Education. He has co-directed two NSF-funded projects: the Dynamic Number project and the Forging Connections project.

Construct a Building: Modeling Multiplication with Arrays

When Scott Steketee and I developed activities for the Dynamic Number project, we thought about ways that dynamic array models could help children to conceptualize multiplication. Rather than presenting children with arrays that were fully formed, we thought it would be instructive for them to build these arrays themselves. That design goal led to the … Continue Reading ››

Visual Models for Adding and Subtracting Fractions

How can we visualize the process of adding or subtracting fractions with unlike denominators? The Web Sketchpad model below (and here)  offers tools for representing fraction addition and subtraction on a number line as well as a parameter (called "divisions") that allows you to find a like denominator through visual inspection rather than calculation. [iframe … Continue Reading ››

Early Childhood Math Routines

Mathematics is a wonderful game. It's one that can stretch students' minds and expose them to the beauty and unexpected delights that lie behind every good problem. I've always gravitated to colleagues who share my love of math's playful, game-like side, so I quickly made friends with Toni Cameron when we met at P.S. 503 in … Continue Reading ››

Constructing the Pi-Petal Rose

When I was introduced to radian measure in high school, I knew just one thing: How to convert between radians and degrees. Had you asked me to illustrate a radian on a circle or to explain why radian measure was useful, I would have been stumped. In this post, I'll describe a Web Sketchpad activity … Continue Reading ››

Tweaking the Expanding Circle Construction

In last month's blog post, I described a parabola construction technique dating back to the work of Persian polymath  Ibn Sina  (c. 970 – 1037). After I published the post, my colleague Scott noted that my construction could be more robust to allow for parabolas that are downward facing as well as upward facing. … Continue Reading ››

The Expanding Circle Construction

There can never be enough conic-section construction techniques—at least that's my philosophy, having grown up to think that conics existed purely in the realm of algebraic equations. So to continue my conic section construction series on Sine of the Times, I'll present a parabola construction attributed to Ibn Sina (Avicenna), a Persian polymath (c. 970 – … Continue Reading ››