Course Description: Course in the Va. K-8 Mathematics Specialist Masters Degree Project. This graduate credit mathematics course for future K-8 mathematics teacher specialists will focus on the patterns and functions strands of the Virginia K-8 SOL. Instruction will cover the broad themes of algebraic reasoning, generalization, and justification together with patterns and functions topics that are encountered by K-8 students as they move from the particular and concrete thinking of school arithmetic to the abstract thinking associated with algebra.