Teacher to Teacher: Letting Your Students “Fly” in the Classroom

1997 ◽  
Vol 2 (5) ◽  
pp. 348-349
Author(s):  
Thomas Adams

Teachers are always looking for new ways to help their students explore mathematical concepts. Many worthwhile activities use cooperative groups and hands-on learning, but few involve any real action. This article presents an activity for middle school students that really moves-in fact, it flies!

1999 ◽  
Vol 92 (2) ◽  
pp. 166-174
Author(s):  
Louis Feicht

Modern spreadsheets can make powerful mathematical concepts accessible to students at a younger age than ever before. Contours and three–dimensional graphing are topics that were previously reserved until well into the first year of college calculus. Three–dimensional graphing now can be successfully taught to middle school students with the assistance of a computer spreadsheet. This combination of the computer with hands-on activity exposes students to numerical and graphical representations of data on the same spreadsheet “page” and forces them to make connections between the two forms of data.


1996 ◽  
Vol 1 (9) ◽  
pp. 688-693
Author(s):  
Bonnie S. Spence

For the past several years, i have sought out opportunities outside mathematics for personal enrichment and enjoyment. These experiences have caused me to become more aware of the connections between mathematics and other areas. As a result, I have begun developing lessons to show my students how mathematics is used in the real world. One summer I joined another teacher and twelve middle school students and decided to brave the eighteen-hour drive from Oklahoma to the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center in Co1tez, Colorado. The mathematical lesson discussed in this article emerged from one week of learning about the Anasazi culture and experiencing hands-on archaeology. Throughout the years, this lesson has been revised and expanded as both students and experience have given me new ideas.


2003 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 78-82
Author(s):  
Deborah A. Moore ◽  
Maria C. Schwarz

MY FAVORITE SEQUENCE OF LESSONS involves fun and creative activities that are both interesting and accessible to middle school students. The activities described in this article give a teacher one week's worth of lessons that allow geometry and measurement as well as ratio and proportion to be addressed in a cooperative learning environment. These lessons integrate science and mathematics with hands-on exploration using manipulatives.


1988 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 443-452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra V. Turner ◽  
Michael L. Land

This study investigated the effect of learning Logo on middle-school students' understanding of specific mathematical concepts and on their level of cognitive development. Students in the Logo Group ( n = 91) learned Logo for one hour a week for sixteen weeks as part of their regular mathematics curriculum. The Control Group ( n = 90) did not participate in the Logo program but received the full allotted time for their regular mathematics curriculum. No significant differences were found between the two groups in their understanding of mathematics concepts or in their growth in cognitive development. However, among the students in the Logo Group, those who learned the most Logo gained significantly more than those who learned a minimal amount of Logo both in their understanding of the mathematics concepts and in their level of cognitive development. When the High Logo group was compared to the Control Group, and also to a matched subset of the Control Group, there were large differences in favor of the High Logo group, but the results were not significant. The findings of this study suggest that cognitive development, achievement in mathematics, and achievement in Logo programming all share a common factor and that students who do well in one area are also likely to do well in the other two areas.


2011 ◽  
Vol 92 (7) ◽  
pp. 909-918 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Gannet Hallar ◽  
Ian B. McCubbin ◽  
Jennifer M. Wright

Curriculum in High Altitude Environments for Teaching Global Climate Change Education (CHANGE) uses place-based education to teach middle school students about meteorology and climate as a basis to improve climate science literacy. The curriculum provides in-school and out-of-school instruction and connects students with scientists at Storm Peak Laboratory, a high-elevation atmospheric research facility above Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Following an initial 2-h classroom lesson, students record their own measurements of temperature, pressure, wind speed, and particle concentrations while traveling up the mountain to Storm Peak Laboratory. After returning to the classroom, students graph these data and analyze their results. Evaluation of this program showed that students improved their knowledge of key concepts pertaining to climate literacy. The hands-on, place-based format of CHANGE can be used as a model for middle school students in alpine communities to teach lessons in weather and climate and can be further refined by improved lesson plans, increased feedback to students, and an independent evaluation.


Author(s):  
Saeedeh Ziaeefard ◽  
Brian R. Page ◽  
Lauren Knop ◽  
Guilherme A. Ribeiro ◽  
Michele Miller ◽  
...  

2013 ◽  
Vol 27 (S1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin M Laitman ◽  
Ariana Witkin ◽  
Amar Parikh ◽  
Anne Armstrong ◽  
Samantha Zuckerman ◽  
...  

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