Development of a Rubric for Assessing Middle School Students’ Conceptual Understanding about Dew Point

2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (6) ◽  
pp. 684-694
Author(s):  
Kiyoung Lee ◽  
◽  
Jaebong Lee ◽  
Hyunseok Oh
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Middle School Students ◽  
Conceptual Understanding ◽  
Dew Point ◽  
School Students

Developing Number Sense on the Number Line

2001 ◽  
Vol 6 (8) ◽  
pp. 448-451
Author(s):  
Jennifer M. Bay
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Middle School Students ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Conceptual Understanding ◽  
Rational Numbers ◽  
Number Line ◽  
School Students ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Learning Mathematics ◽  
And Algebra

One of the most important lessons that I have learned as a teacher is that seemingly boring problems on paper can come alive if I can find a way to lift them off the page. This transformation took place when the number line in my classroom became a brightly colored rope that stretched the length of the room, held by a student at each end. I first saw this idea as an approach to help young children order numbers from 1 to 10, then adapted it for middle school students. The scope of the activity eventually expanded to include explorations of large numbers, rational numbers, and algebra. As I saw improvement in students' conceptual understanding and their enjoyment of the life-sized number line, I used it more often in my classroom. I also found that the activities with the number line involved communication, reasoning, and justification— important processes in learning mathematics (NCTM 1989, 2000).

Take Time for Action: Perimeter or Area? Which Measure Is It?

1999 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-23
Author(s):  
Michaele F. Chappell ◽  
Denisse R. Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Middle School Students ◽  
Conceptual Understanding ◽  
Physical Environment ◽  
Mathematics Curriculum ◽  
School Students ◽  
The Past ◽  
Fundamental Understanding ◽  
K 12

During the past twenty years, documents have recommended that the mathematics curriculum include measurement for all grades, K–12 (NCTM 1980, 1989). Indeed, students interact daily with measurement in their physical environment, for example, by finding the distance from home to school, their height and weight, and wall space for posters. Adolescents bring to the classroom varied conceptions of measurement, which may be in the form of basic applications or general formulas. All too often, a fundamental understanding of these ideas is sacrificed while students learn general formulas. This situation is particularly true for attributes of perimeter and area. To what extent do middle school students possess a conceptual understanding of these measurement concepts?

Polygon Capture: A Geometry Game

1998 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 90-94
Author(s):  
William M. Carroll
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Middle School Students ◽  
Conceptual Understanding ◽  
Sixth Grade ◽  
Fifth Grade ◽  
School Students ◽  
Problem Solving Skills ◽  
Evaluation Standards ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
School Curricula

The curriculum and evaluation standards for School Mathematics (NCTM 1989) calls for an increased role for geometry in the primary and middle school curricula. An important mathematical strand in its own right, geometry also provides opportunities to promote and assess mathematical communication, reasoning, and problem-solving skills. Unfortunately, many students lack the vocabulary and the conceptual understanding needed to desctibe geometric relationships. This atiicle describes a game, Capture the Polygons, that I have designed to help middle school students think about geometric properties and the relationships among them. A version of the game has been tested in firth- and sixth-grade classes as part of the field test of Fifth Grade Everyday Mathematics (Bell et al. 1995). Observations of classes playing the game, as well as feedback from their teachers, indicate that students find the game challenging but fun. Depending on the background of the students, it can be played at different levels of difficulty.

Teaching the Mean Meaningfully

1996 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 112-115
Author(s):  
John C. Uccellini
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Middle School Students ◽  
Conceptual Understanding ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Pythagorean Theorem ◽  
School Students ◽  
Life Context ◽  
The Mean

Ask a group of middle school students what the average (mean) of 2, 8, 4, 6, 3, and 7 is; they will probably give the answer 5. Ask these same students what the number 5 represents in relationship to the six numbers given and the response usually heard is an explanation of the algorithm, “Add them up and divide by the number of them that you have.” The response is no different if the problem is given in a real-life context. For example, the foregoing six numbers could represent the number of pencils that six students have in their desks. In either situation, the almost universal response of students when questioned about the meaning of 5 from the “add and divide” algorithm demonstrates that students have not gained a conceptual understanding of this basic statistic. This same phenomenon exists throughout mathematics and is demonstrated whenever students try to explain subtraction by describing the vertical algorithm or the Pythagorean theorem by stating that c2 = a2 + b2. Through the use of simple manipulative activities and graphing, however, middle school students can be taught the mean meaningfully.

Using Attribute Blocks to Develop a Conceptual Understanding of Probability

2001 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 290-294
Author(s):  
Robert J. Quinn
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Middle School Students ◽  
Conceptual Understanding ◽  
Middle Grades ◽  
School Curriculum ◽  
Seventh Graders ◽  
Time Block ◽  
School Students ◽  
Formal Curriculum ◽  
Ability Levels

Middle school students continue to rely on concrete experiences to construct knowledge but are starting to develop the ability to think abstractly (NCTM 1989, p. 68). Thus, the middle school curriculum should provide a “bridge between the concrete elementary school curriculum and the more formal curriculum of the high school” (NCTM 1989, p. 102). This article describes a series of activities using attribute blocks designed to help middle school students construct knowledge about, and develop conceptual understanding of, probability. Depending on the ability levels of the students, these activities can be completed in a single twohour time block or can be spread over three or four sessions of about one hour each. These introductory probability explorations are appropriate for seventh graders but can be adapted for students at other levels. Attribute blocks are frequently used in the primary grades, but this article shows that they can be quite useful in the middle grades, as well.

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