Mayim Bialik, the Emmy-nominated actress on The Big Bang Theory and real-life neuroscientist, is on a mission to help educators and parents inspire students to pursue STEM education and careers. 

The nation's number one advocate for education summarizes the Department of Education's priorities and its blueprint for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (No Child Left Behind), as well as the need for programs like Race to the Top.

Teachers who know the mathematics they teach are better at teaching it to their students. Teachers need to understand how English mathematics language challenges English language learners. This presentation will give teachers insight into the interplay of language, culture, and mathematics understanding.

Explore applications of integers, make connections in multiple domains, explore students' misconceptions and strategies, and enhance pedagogical and content knowledge to improve students' conceptual understanding, which leads to flexibility when applying that knowledge to new situations.

Mike North, who is the mastermind behind Discovery Channel's Prototype This! was the Closing Session speaker at the NCTM 2015 Annual Meeting & Exposition in Boston.

NCTM frames a core set of highly effective teaching practices for mathematics, advancing our professional knowledge of representations, struggle, fluency, evidence, and more. 

This session will discuss the relationship between equity and rigor. The definition of rigor one chooses determines which students appear to succeed and which do not. The speakers will present definitions of rigor from a variety of sources; share examples of rigorous, classroom-based mathematical task; and discuss implications of these definitions and tasks for increasing equity in the mathematics classroom.

What are the next steps we should consider with regard to curricular essentials for all students as we balance the "competitiveness issue" with the absolute need for all children to have access to a quality mathematics program?

A class of fourth-grade students with learning disabilities used investigative activities to learn multiplications and division. The students adapted many of the activities to express their individual interest, to challenge their own thinking, and to represent and communicate their mathematical knowledge.

Tired of hearing that Sudoku puzzles aren't about math? This session will explore a number of Sudoku variations that can be used in support of many different mathematical concepts, including ones from Number, Geometry, Algebra, Communication, Reasoning and Proof, and Connections Standards. Come prepared with an open mind and a sharpened pencil.

This speaker will discuss the impact of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top on the nation's schools and review research findings on such initiatives as merit pay and teacher evaluations.

This presentation will give straightforward advice on how to teach mathematics to ELLs. The speakers will describe strategies for facilitating classrooms discussions, helping ELLs read and interpret mathematics textbooks, and helping them tackle word problems.

This fast-paced session will stimulate participants to think about practical ways to bring about change in their classrooms and districts. One of the authors of NCTM's Principles to Actions, Daniel Brahier, will spotlight changes in curricular and assessment practices at the secondary level that can assist with implementation of the Common Core State Standards.

Presidential Address, "Who's Doing the Talking?"

In this session, one of its authors will explore the Equity Principle and discuss obstacles and interventions to bring this vision to reality.

A series of models will be used to demonstrate how formulas for the volumes of every solid studied in Geometry 1 - and many that are not - spring from the very shape whose name symbolized volume: the cube. The concept will be expanded to develop formulas for volumes of new shapes, culminating in the formula for the volume of the Dynamic Tower.

This session will focus on describing a set of effective teaching practices and engaging participants in a discussion of how to help teachers learn to use them.

The speakers will examine how to use the number line to help students understand fractions. Learn how to use the number line effectively to reinforce that fractions are numbers, develop an understanding of magnitude, and make comparisons. Strategies for addressing the Common Core State Standards will be presented.

Manipulatives hold a key to understanding the beginnings of algebra. Strategies for creative uses of manipulatives foster understanding so students see what expressions such as 3 br , lwh , and x +2 y really mean. A concrete foundation for math notation and symbols will demystify a complex code for students. Let's help students learn the secret code.