Larry Sowder is Professor Emeritus of Mathematics and Statistics at San Diego State University. He taught mathematics to preservice elementary school teachers for more than 30 years. His work in a special program in San Diego elementary schools also shaped his convictions about how courses in mathematics for preservice teachers should be pitched, as did his joint research investigating how children in the usual Grades 4-8 curriculum solve "story" problems. He served on teh National Research Council Committee that published Educating Teachers of Science, Mathematics, and Technology(NRC, 2001).