Fraction Bars Author Resume

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Author Resume

Bibliography - Vitae - Publications

Albert Bradley Bennett, Jr. was born in Camden, Maine in 1932. He attended Maine Maritime Academy and a year after graduation returned there to teach. He then attended the University of Maine at Orono and received a Masters Degree in Mathematics. While there he was strongly influenced by the writing and teaching of mathematics-historian Professor Howard Eves.

Fraction Bars Workshop

After graduating from the University of Maine he became a writer for a two-year experimental television program sponsored by the Maine State Department of Education. Next he taught mathematics at Gorham State College and became active in the summer mathematics institutes that were sponsored by the Association of Teachers of Mathematics in New England. An early bias that was reflected in his teaching at these institutes was the need to encourage intuition in the teaching and learning of mathematics.

In 1963 he was invited by Professor Charles Brumfiel to attend a National Science Foundation institute at the University of Michigan. He received his doctorate in mathematics from this university in 1966.

In 1967 he joined the mathematics faculty at the University of New Hampshire to teach mathematics to prospective teachers. In the following years he and his wife Jane raised three boys in the university town of Durham.

The lecture approach was the predominate method of college teaching in the 1960s, although there was widespread dissatisfaction with this method of preparing teachers. In 1968 Professor Bennett organized a mathematics lab at the University of New Hampshire and started writing laboratory activities for teachers. In the next few years his efforts led to the publication of Fraction Bars, Decimal Squares, and articles and textbooks for elementary and middle school teachers. In 1975 he and Ted Nelson wrote Mathematics for Elementary Teachers: A Conceptual Approach and its companion volume, Mathematics for Elementary Teachers: An Activity Approach. All of these publications support methods of using models and concrete materials in the teaching of mathematics.

Bennett/Nelson text

Bennett/Nelson activity book

In addition to teaching at the University of New Hampshire, since 1983 Professor Bennett has worked part time for the Math Learning Center in Oregon with a team of authors including Gene Maier, Ted Nelson, and Linda Foreman in writing the Math and the Mind's Eye materials and the Mathematics Alive text materials.

Math Mind's Eye Unit IV

Math Mind's Eye Unit VII

Math Alive Course III

Vitae and Publications

Business Address: Dept. of Mathematics, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824 (603) 862-2681
Home Address: 16 Thompson Lane, Durham, NH 03824 (603) 868-2730
Date and place of birth: December 11, 1932 Camden, Maine
Marital Status: Married Wife's name: Jane C. Bennett
Number of children: 3

EDUCATION

Name of institutions, Dates of attendance, Degrees, and year received

Maine Maritime Academy 1951-1954 B.S. Marine Science (1954)
University of Maine 1956-1958 B.S. Education (1958)
University of Maine 1958-1959 M.A. Mathematics (1959)
University of Michigan 1963-1966 D. Ed. Mathematics (1966)

HONORS, FELLOWSHIPS AND SCHOLARSHIPS

Maine Maritime Academy - Valedictorian
University of Maine - Graduate Scholarship
University of Michigan - two years of National Science Foundation full support University of Michigan - one year teaching fellowship

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Maine State Department of Education, Assistant Mathematics Television Teacher, 1959-61

University of Maine at Portland-Gorham, Assistant Professor of Mathematics, 1961-63 and 1966-67

University of New Hampshire, Assistant Professor of Mathematics 1967-72

University of Oregon, Visiting Associate Professor of Mathematics 1974-75

University of New Hampshire, Associate Professor of Mathematics, 1972-87

University of New Hampshire, Professor of Mathematics, 1987-2009

PUBLICATIONS - TEXTS AND ARTICLES

Bennett, Albert B. Jr., and Musser, Gary L., "A Concrete Approach to Integer Addition and Subtraction", Arithmetic Teacher, (May 1976), 332-36.

Bennett, Albert B., Jr., "Star Patterns", Arithmetic Teacher (January 1978), 12-14.

Bennett, Albert B. Jr. and Schiot, Peter, "Fraction games - versions and revisions", Teaching Mathematics: Strategies That Work, Northeast Regional Exchange, Inc., Chelmsford, MA, 1985.

Bennett, Albert B. Jr., Decimal Squares, Scott Resources, Inc., Fort Collins, CO, 1982, 2nd Edition 1992, 3rd Edition 2003. (A program of games, activities, tests and manipulative materials. Includes: Decimal Squares Step by Step Teacher's Guide and Decimal Squares Step by Step Workbook).

Bennett, Albert B. Jr., Eugene Maier, and L. Ted Nelson, Math and the Mind's Eye, Math Learning Center, Salem, Oregon, 1987.

Bennett, Albert B. Jr., "Visual Thinking and Number Relationshiops". Mathematics Teacher, (April 1988) 267-72.

Bennett, Albert B. Jr., "Visualizing the Geometric Series". Mathematics Teacher, (February 1989) 130-36.

Bennett, Albert B. Jr., and Foreman, Linda, Mathematics Alive, Math Learning Center, Salem, Oregon, 1989, 1995.

Bennett, Albert B. Jr., "Fraction Patterns - Visual and Numerical." Mathematics Teacher, 82 (April 1989) 254-59.

Bennett, Albert B. Jr. and Nelson, Leonard T., Mathematics For Elementary Teachers: A Conceptual Approach, McGraw Hill Publishers, New York, NY, 8th Edition, 2010.

Bennett, Albert B. Jr. and Nelson, Leonard T., Mathematics For Elementary Teachers: An Activity Approach, McGraw Hill Publishers, New York, NY, 8th Edition, 2010.

Bennett, Albert B. Jr. and Davidson, Patricia S., Fraction Bars, Scott Resources, Inc., Fort Collins, CO, 1973, 4th Edition, 2003. (A program of games, activities, tests and manipulative materials. Includes: Fraction Bars Step by Step Teacher's Guide and Fraction Bars Step by Step Workbook.)

Bennett, Albert B. Jr., and Nelson, Leonard T., "A Conceptual Model for Solving Percent Problems", Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School (April 1994), 20-25.

Bennett, Albert B. Jr., and Nelson, Leonard T. "Divisibility Tests: So Right for Discoveries," Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School (April 2002), 460-464.

COMPUTER SOFTWARE

Bennett, Albert B. Jr., Fraction Bars Online Games Set 2, 2009.

Bennett, Albert B. Jr. and Bennett, Albert B. III, Fraction Bars Online Games Set 1, 2002.

Bennett, Albert B. Jr., Decimal Squares Online Games, 2002.

Bennett, Albert B. Jr. and Bennett, Albert B., III, The Mathematics Investigator, software to accompany Mathematics for Elementary Teachers: A Conceptual Approach, McGraw Hill Publishers, New York, NY, 1998.

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