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This document reports on the initial phase of a project investigating how to relate formal mathematical representational and problem solving skills to informal strategies that children naturally invent to solve simple addition and subtraction problems. A program was developed that allows pupils to solve word problems on a microcomputer. A pilot study was carried out with four first-grade children. The subjects were individually instructed for a series of nine 20-minute lessons. The results of the study indicated that the program is effective in teaching representational and problem-solving skills. Before instruction, the subjects consistently wrote incorrect sentences for incorrect problems and generally did not use their number sentences for their solutions. Following instruction, three of the four children consistently used number sentences to solve a wide variety of addition and subtraction problems. It is concluded that further investigation seems warranted, and that this pilot investigation suggests that microcomputers can have important roles in instruction. (MP)

1Boy Crusoe

By Allan Eric

Also published as" A Yankee Crusoe" . A 15 year old hard working and studious farm boy finds the lure of adventure on the seas as a merchant seaman more than he can resist. This is his story. " I was born in a little town in the State of Maine, near the close of the Civil War. My boyhood life did not differ materially from that of the average farmer's son in the remote country districts of New England--except, perhaps, that I read more and thought more. Hard work on the rugged soil, two terms each year in the little yellow country schoolhouse, a day's fishing now and then filled the early years of my life full to over-flowing. " What he gets is enough excitement and adventure to overflow his wildest dreams. How he experiences disaster and uses his wits and knowledge to overcome every problem makes for a great read. - Summary by Phil Chenevert