Contact Information:

Mathematics Leadership Program
c/o Kay Caruso
Education Development Center, Inc.
55 Chapel Street
Newton, MA 02458
Tel: 617-969-7100
kcaruso@edc.org

SummerMath for Teachers
Mount Holyoke College
South Hadley, MA 01075-1441
Tel: 413-538-2063
Fax: 413-538-2002
jpaquett@mtholyoke.edu

More Contact Information

DMI

Developing Mathematical Ideas (DMI) Content Institute

DMI seminars are designed to bring together teachers from kindergarten through middle grades to:

  • learn mathematics content
  • learn to recognize key mathematical ideas with which their students are grappling
  • learn to support the power and complexity of student thinking
  • learn how core mathematical ideas develop across the grades
  • learn how to continue learning about children and mathematics

The one-week DMI Institute will provide an opportunity to be a participant in one of the seven DMI seminars and to learn the content and activities of the module.  Institute staff is composed of the authors of the materials and educational leaders who use DMI as a tool in their own professional development work.

The descriptions that follow detail the mathematical content of each DMI module and also include information about prerequisite experiences.

  • Building a System of Tens: Calculation with Whole Numbers and Decimals (BST)
    Participants explore the base-ten structure of the number system, consider how that structure is exploited in multidigit computational procedures, and examine how basic concepts of whole numbers reappear when working with decimals. (New edition in November 2009)
  • Making Meaning for Operations: In the Domain of Whole Numbers and Fractions (MMO)
    Participants examine the actions and situations modeled by the four basic operations. The seminar begins with a view of young children's counting strategies as they encounter word problems, moves to an examination of the four basic operations on whole numbers, and revisits the operations in the context of rational numbers. (New edition in November 2009)
  • Examining Features of Shape (EFS)
    Participants examine aspects of 2D and 3D shapes, develop geometric vocabulary, and explore both definitions and properties of geometric objects. The seminar includes a study of angle, similarity, congruence, and the relationships between 3D objects and their 2D representations.
  • Measuring Space in One, Two and Three Dimensions (MS123)
    Participants examine different aspects of size, develop facility in composing and decomposing shapes, and apply these skills to make sense of formulas for area and volume. They also explore conceptual issues of length, area, and volume, as well as their complex inter-relationships.
  • Working with Data (WwD)
    Participants work with the collection, representation, description, and interpretation of data. They learn what various graphs and statistical measures show about features of the data, study how to summarize data when comparing groups, and consider whether the data provide insight into the questions that led to data collection
  • Reasoning Algebraically about Operations: In the Domain of Whole Numbers and Integers (RAO)
    Participants examine generalizations at the heart of the study of operations in the elementary grades. They express these generalizations in common language and in algebraic notation, develop arguments based on representations of the operations, study what it means to prove a generalization, and extend their generalizations and arguments when the domain under consideration expands from whole numbers to integers. Prerequisite: familiarity with the content of the DMI module Making Meaning for Operations.
  • Patterns, Functions, and Change (PFC)
    Participants discover how the study of repeating patterns and number sequences can lead to ideas of functions, learn how to read tables and graphs to interpret phenomena of change, and use algebraic notation to write function rules. With a particular emphasis on linear functions, participants also explore quadratic and exponential functions and examine how various features of a function are seen in graphs, tables, or rules. Prerequisite: prior experience with one of the other DMI modules.

See the Schedules & Costs page for schedule information.