The Needs Assessment of Middle School Students for Practical Reasoning Home Economics Classes in the Distance Learning Environment

This work describes Techland, an OpenSim-based VW developed and owned by the author for educational purposes for middle school students. Techland is a group of islands focused on math, and science, where explore various approaches to VW, in different and mutually not exclusive learning sets and degrees of immersion. The main objectives are to simplify abstract concepts by using scripted 3D learning objects and to engage students offering a way to go beyond the classroom as the only learning environment. So Techland can be considered a giant 3D book. Activities range from viewing the contents of the world on an IWB, as a support for the teacher's lesson, to logging on the student's avatars into the world for exploration, producing machinima videos and collaborating together. Most islands are public access and reachable from other similar virtual worlds by the HG system, so other schools could take advantage from its contents or they could share projects. Techland has got the proper requirements to will become a meeting place between students and teachers who want to find new approaches to scientific matters.

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Fishy Fun under the Sun

Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School ◽

10.5951/mtms.9.2.0078 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 9 (2) ◽

pp. 78-82

Author(s):

Deborah A. Moore ◽

Maria C. Schwarz

Keyword(s):

Middle School ◽

Middle School Students ◽

Cooperative Learning ◽

Learning Environment ◽

The Sun ◽

School Students ◽

Ratio And Proportion ◽

Hands On ◽

And Mathematics ◽

Integrate Science

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.

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Relationships between Perceived Learning Environment and Intrinsic Motivation in Middle School Physical Education

Journal of Teaching in Physical Education ◽

10.1123/jtpe.15.3.369 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 15 (3) ◽

pp. 369-383 ◽

Cited By ~ 28

Author(s):

Stephen A. Mitchell

Keyword(s):

Middle School ◽

Physical Education ◽

Middle School Students ◽

Learning Environment ◽

Intrinsic Motivation ◽

Student Perceptions ◽

Perceived Control ◽

Perceived Threat ◽

School Students ◽

Perceived Challenge

In this article, a study focusing on the perceptions and motivations of middle school students in physical education classes is described. The Physical Education Learning Environment Scale (PELES) was developed to measure student perceptions of learning environment, or class climate, in physical education on dimensions of perceived challenge, perceived threat to sense of self, perceived competitiveness, and perceived control. The PELES was administered, together with the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI) to a sample (N = 622) of middle school students. Exploratory factor analyses provided evidence of adequate construct validity for the PELES, following elimination of the perceived control subscale. Multiple regression analyses indicated that perceived threat and perceived challenge predicted intrinsic motivation for both males and females. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for practicing teachers and for future research.

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