Problems with a Point: Help

Sections:
How To Use This Site
Overview of the Problems with a Point Web Site
Technical Requirements (Software and Hardware That You Will Need)
Web Site Map
Help with Searching for Mathematics Problems
Participating in Problems with a Point
About the Problems with a Point Project

How To Use This Site

Overview of the Problems with a Point Web Site

Our site is divided into two major sections:

Mathematics Problems
Teacher Resources

Our Mathematics Problems are the heart of our site. We offer problems of types that are not already widely available: carefully structured sequences that develop new mathematical ideas in the course of practicing old ones, sequences that connect mathematical ideas, and sequences that develop deeper insight into familiar ideas by revisiting them in unfamiliar ways.

To see our mathematics problems, go to the Mathematics Problems screen (click the Mathematics Problems button at the top of any page). You can then search for problems by topics, habits of mind (problem solving method), mathematics background (the background required before your students approach a problem), technology, and duration (the amount of time available for an activity). You can also search for keywords in the title, synopsis, and topics of a problem, and you can even search by date to see what is new.

Once you’ve indicated the topics, habits of mind, or other criteria you’d like to search on, our system will find a list of matching problems.

Sample Problem Synopsis

For each problem, you’ll see a synopsis that provides a brief overview of the problem sequence, letting you quickly judge the fit of a problem set for your lesson. The synopsis often mentions both a concept that is being introduced or developed, and a set of skills that are practiced at the same time. Be aware that sometimes these are in different areas of mathematics, building connections for students.

Along with the synopsis, you’ll find a set of links.

Link	Explanation
View Web (HTML) Version View Printable (PDF) Version	If you click these links, you’ll see the mathematical problem along with its answer; optionally, you may also see hints and solutions. You can also print the problems, answers, hints, and solutions by using your browser’s Print option. "View Printable (PDF) Version" produces excellent printed copy, including margin notes and pagination (use this option to create classroom handouts); however, you’ll need Adobe Acrobat Reader software installed on your computer to read these documents. (PDF is an abbreviation for "portable document format". PDF documents can be transferred easily among different kinds of computers and printers while retaining their original margins, fonts, pagination, and other formatting. For information about Adobe Acrobat Reader, see To View Printable (PDF) Versions of Mathematics Problems on our Help with Searching page.) "View Web (HTML) Version" produces a problem that’s easy and quick to view on your screen; the HTML version requires no special software but does not make good printed copies. Note! All problems are available in PDF format but just a few in HTML format. In the future, all problems will be available in both formats.
View/Add Readers’ Comments	If you click this link, you’ll be taken to a screen where you can read what others have said about the problem or add your own comments for others to see.
View Prerequisite Problems View Other Related Problems	If you click these links you’ll find mathematics problems related to the problem your search located. We recommend that you solve Prerequisite Problems before tackling the problem that your search located. You can view Other Related Problems to see problems that engage closely-related mathematical skills and strategies.

If you need more information about searching, see our Guided Tour for a step-by-step introduction. Or, if you want very detailed information, view Help with Searching.

Besides mathematics problems, we offer Teacher Resources. Teacher Resources include a guide to the mathematics problems on our site, links and print references, and a comprehensive list of middle and high school topics. We include a brief discussion of the main features of our problem sequences, and we suggest some strategies for preparing to use them in your classroom. We also include a complete list of the topics by which we classify our problems.

Technical Requirements (Software and Hardware That You Will Need)

Software/Hardware	Explanation
Adobe Acrobat Reader	In order to view or download problems suitable for printing classroom handouts (documents stored in PDF—portable document format), you’ll need Adobe Acrobat Reader software installed on your computer. For information about Adobe Acrobat Reader, see To View Printable (PDF) Versions of Mathematics Problems on the Help with Searching page.
JavaScript	In your Web browser, you should make sure that you’ve enabled JavaScript. If you do not enable JavaScript, some of our forms (for example, our View/Add Readers’ Comments form) will not work properly. In addition, our buttons won’t change color to indicate they are active when your mouse touches them. Most Web browsers enable JavaScript automatically. If you want to check your Web browser’s settings, you can find them in Preferences or Internet Options (depending on your Web browser). For example, in Netscape Navigator or Communicator for Windows or Macintosh, you can select the Edit menu and highlight Preferences; then click Advanced and you’ll see a screen like this one: Make sure that the JavaScript option is selected (shows a checkmark or an "x", depending on your browser). Browsers vary considerably in the location of these preferences, so you’ll need to look carefully through the menus and options if you use a browser other than Netscape to find these settings.
Cookies	In your Web browser, you should make sure that you’ve enabled cookies. (Our site’s cookies are temporary markers placed in your computer so that our site can keep track of your search criteria as you move from screen to screen. When you Quit/Exit from your browser, the cookie is deleted from your computer.) If you don’t enable cookies, then you’ll see the error message "No items have been selected for this search" whenever you attempt to view a list of mathematics problems after you’ve entered search criteria. Most Web browsers enable cookies automatically. If you want to check your Web browser’s settings, you can find them in Preferences or Internet Options. (See the example in the JavaScript section for detailed instructions for setting these preferences in Netscape Navigator or Communicator for Windows or Macintosh. On the Preferences screen, make sure that the radio button next to "Accept All Cookies" is selected. (Your browser’s option may have a slightly different label.)
Cache	A "cache" is a copy of the Web pages you’ve visited recently that your Web browser stores on your computer. Cached pages display more quickly than pages which must be retrieved from a Web server, and your Web browser uses cached pages whenever it determines that a Web page has not changed on the originating Web server since the last time you viewed it. A few Web browsers erroneously retrieve pages from cache even though those pages have changed on originating Web server. This misbehavior may cause you to see false data. For example, you might have selected problems that use calculators and then changed your search to view problems using any technology; if your browser is misbehaving it may persist in listing the original selections. If you suspect that your Web browser is not handling cache properly, you can instruct your computer always to retrieve pages from the Web server (and ignore the cache). While this setting is slower to display Web pages, its data are more likely to be accurate. If you want to check your browser’s settings, you can find them in Preferences or Internet Options (depending on your browser). For example, in Netscape Navigator or Communicator for Windows or Macintosh, you can select the Edit menu and highlight Preferences; click Advanced and then click Cache. You’ll see a screen like this one: Click the button entitled "Clear Disk Cache Now". Then make sure the radio button entitled "Every time" is selected. (Your browser’s options may have slightly different labels.) Browsers vary considerably in the location of these preferences, so you’ll need to look carefully through the menus and options in you use a browser other than Netscape to find these settings.
Web Browser	We recommend that you use Netscape Navigator or Communicator (version 4 or higher) or Internet Explorer (version 4 or higher) for reliable results from our Web site. If you currently use an earlier version of these Web browsers, you can download free upgrades at the following locations: Netscape: http://home.netscape.com/download/index.html?cp=djudep2 Internet Explorer (Macintosh): http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/ie/ Internet Explorer (Windows): http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.htm Before you upgrade, please read the System Requirements listed on each of these sites carefully to ensure that your computer’s memory, available disk space, and operating system version are adequate to support one of these more up-to-date Web browsers.

Web Site Map

You can see our Web site map on a related page.

Help with Searching for Mathematics Problems

We offer five different kinds of help with searching for mathematics problems:

Help with Searching	Our Help with Searching page provides detailed information about searching. Read this page if you want a comprehensive understanding of how our Web site searches for mathematics problems, how to view and print those problems, and how you can view or add comments on each problem.
Guided Tour	The Guided Tour provides a step-by-step example of a typical search.
Quick Tips	Quick Tips summarize a few essential nuggets that you should always keep in mind. (Quick Tips are found in a section of the Help with Searching page.)
About Search Criteria	About Search Criteria describes the topics, habits of mind, mathematical backgrounds, technologies, and lesson durations that you can choose from when searching our site. We also discuss how and we chose these particular criteria.
About Adobe Acrobat	You’ll need Adobe Acrobat Reader, free software that extends your Web browser’s viewing capabilities, in order to see the mathematics problems on our site. (Also see Technical Requirements, above.) This page describes how to use this software and where you can get it.

Participating in Problems with a Point

You can participate in Problems with a Point in several ways.

We welcome your mathematics problems. To submit mathematics problem, please read our submission guidelines. Then send your problems via electronic or regular mail to the addresses below.
Besides sending mathematics problems, we welcome your thoughts, suggestions and comments on any topic at all. We look forward to your inquiries; one of the Problems with a Point staff will respond within a few days.

Our electronic mail address is:
pwap@edc.org

Our regular postal address is:
Education Development Center, Inc.
55 Chapel Street
Newton, Massachusetts 02458-1060

We look forward to hearing from you!

About the Problems with a Point Project

Problems with a Point is an NSF-funded project at Education Development Center, Inc. (September 1999 to August 2002). This resource of mathematical problems and sequences, appropriate for students in grades 6 to 12, is available at no cost to teachers, parents, and students worldwide. The developers are experienced teachers, curriculum developers, and mathematicians.

Problem solving is the heart of mathematical learning. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Principles and Standards for School Mathematics emphasizes that "solving problems is not only a goal of learning mathematics, but also a major means of doing so." This requires "actively building new knowledge from experience and prior knowledge" (Principles and Standards, 2000). In this spirit, our resource emphasizes multistep and non-routine problems, to help students of mathematics develop both deep conceptual mathematical understandings and technical skills.

Problems "with a Point" provide practice, but go well beyond that: They are designed to help students learn important mathematical ideas by solving problems and to help them develop new ideas while practicing old ones. Many problems also bridge among mathematical ideas; while each sequence has its focus on one mathematical idea, many will show how that idea connects with or serves another idea.

As our site grows, it will contain thousands of problems and sequences, searchable by topic, mathematical ways of thinking, mathematical background, use of technology, and in other ways. We hope it will become an ideal resource to help fill the kind of drawer many teachers make for themselves—a drawer of favorite problem sheets to supplement their curriculum, or even to become a foundation for their teaching.

To that end, one of our goals is to collect and share the great work teachers have done for their own students and have refined over years of classroom use. We invite you to send us work that you have done that you are willing to share with others. Any sets we publish on the Problems with a Point Web site will, of course, properly credit the authors.

Webmaster: Steve Benson at sbenson@edc.org