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practices from face - to - face to online can be done successfully to continue to build thinking class rooms, where students are engaged in mathematical thinking. The article “ COVID - 19 And The Chain Rule Are Linked: Understanding R 0 Through Calculus , ” ex plains the meaning of R 0 , its value, and its relation ship to herd immunity. The author takes the reader through the modeling process using mathematics appropriate for students enrolled in a calculus course in high school, a community college, or a university. The students see how the Chain Rule is used in a real - world situation, and the related graphs of the functions demonstrate how the math ematics modeling unfolds. “ Teaching Place Value in Elementary Mathematics to First Grade During a Global Pandemic – Reimagining COVID, ” the author shares another way to interpret COVID: C – caring for children and the community; O – once daily lesson; V – vi vacious teaching that is active, lively and animated; I – independent at - home learning; and D – direct instruction using asynchronous videos. This article shared how teaching place value to first grade stu dents can maintain rigor while remaining hands - on and engaging. The Technology Review section introduces us to MathBot, a virtual manipulative that has many ap plications. In this section, we learn about its strengths and limitations. In the NASA section, we share links to ways that NASA is studying and exploring the COVID - 19 pandemic from space. Students seeing the pandem ic from a new and global perspective reveals the pandemic as a shared experience for all humankind around the world. For example, students see the changes in the heat patterns ’ levels and the nitrogen dioxide levels. The question arises as to the role that weather patterns may have played in COVID ’ s spread. The article, “ Exploring Linear Functions Using Ar row Diagrams, ” explains how linear functions can be explored using a visual representation, the arrow

diagram among the author ’ s preservice and in service teachers. The inquiry activity uses a graph ical representation, the arrow diagram, which uses ordered pairs of inputs and outputs. This represen tation shows the relationship between linear func tions and their arrow diagrams, which is a novel approach to learning about linear functions. Stu dents engage in conjecturing and reasoning as they seek patterns in the arrow diagrams. Paper folding is an engaging activity for students in grades K - 3. In the article, “ Shapes in the Octagon Wreath, ” students learn geometry. They identify shapes as they fold the paper, or they identify lines of symmetry or classify triangles while engaged in the paper folding activity. A truly hands - on activi ty, which can be used in the online classroom. For younger students, the teacher asks them geometry questions during the folding process. Older stu dents may be able to create their own octagon when supplies are provided to them. The exploration of patterns continues when explor ing waves on water in the article, “ Every Equation Tells A Story: Waves On Water. ” The author ex plains the mathematical structure of a wave and how it differs when in shallow water or deep water and how the waves also differ based on their length. The mathematics in this article is suitable for high school students enrolled in a trigonometry course. The appendix includes other types of waves, refraction or tides, the types of wave creat ed by speedboats and ships, and the hyperbola cre ated when circular waves intersect. This Special Issue, Teaching Mathematics During the COVID - 19 Pandemic , highlights the innovative ways that teachers responded to the pandemic— ways that continued to keep students engaged, pro mote the conceptual learning of mathematics, and emphasized students thinking in the classroom. We applaud all of the teachers across Virginia for their hard work during an extraordinary time in world history. We hope you enjoyed this Special Issue as much as we enjoyed working on it!

– Dr. Jean Mistele and Dr. Agida Manizade

Virginia Mathematics Teacher vol. 47, no. 1

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