Walking Around: Getting More from Informal Assessment

1999 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 224-227
Author(s):  
Karen A. Cole
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
National Science Foundation ◽  
Mathematics Curriculum ◽  
Middle School Math ◽  
Similar Work ◽  
National Science ◽  
Informal Assessment ◽  
Curriculum Project ◽  
Work Done

AS A TEACHER, YOU ARE ALWAYS ASsessing your students. You walk around as they work on tasks or projects, observing groups, conversing with students, spot-teaching concepts and skills, and checking for understanding. This article describes similar work done through the Middle School Math through Applications Project (MMAP)—a comprehensive, project-based middle school mathematics curriculum project funded by the National Science Foundation. Its units are based on engaging scenarios in which students take the role of such mathematicsusing professionals as architects, biologists, and cartographers. We asked ourselves, “How can we organize this natural process to make better use of the precious information we get through informal contact with students?” We discuss some valuable techniques that MMAP teachers and researchers developed for organizing informal assessment so that it produces a coherent story of student progress; helps students make more progress with greater focus; and complements other types of embedded assessments, such as journal writing.

On My Mind: New Tricks for Old Dogs

2004 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-7
Author(s):  
Margaret Meyer
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
National Science Foundation ◽  
Middle Grades ◽  
Mathematics Curriculum ◽  
School Curriculum ◽  
Middle School Curriculum ◽  
National Science ◽  
Mathematics In Context ◽  
The Way

One of my favorite far side cartoons features Rex the Wonder Dog. Rex is shown balancing an elaborate array of objects while traversing a tightrope on a unicycle. The caption reads, “High above the hushed crowd, Rex tried to remain focused. Still, he couldn't shake one nagging thought: He was an old dog and this was a new trick.” Maybe that cartoon speaks to you the way it does to me. As one of the developers of the middle-grades curriculum Mathematics in Context (MiC), one of the Standardsbased middle school curriculum projects funded by the National Science Foundation, I have used that cartoon many times to describe to teachers, young and old, how it might feel to be a teacher who is about to implement a mathematics curriculum such as MiC. I can usually tell from the nervous laughter that although they might not be old, they recognize that the new Standards-based curricula will require them as teachers to learn “new tricks.”

Projects

1997 ◽  
Vol 90 (3) ◽  
pp. 254-255
Author(s):  
Sharon Stenglein
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Middle School ◽  
Mathematics Teachers ◽  
National Science Foundation ◽  
Secondary Mathematics ◽  
School Mathematics ◽  
High School Mathematics ◽  
National Science ◽  
Mathematics Curricula ◽  
High School Mathematics Teachers

ln this National Science Foundation (NFS) Teacher Enhancement Project, fifty Minnesota middle school and high school mathematics teachers are collaborating with three Saint Olaf CoUege mathematics professors to integrate inquiry-based geometry and visualization across their secondary mathematics curricula.

An Approach to Polar Research

ARCTIC ◽  
1963 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 151
Author(s):  
T.O. Jones
Keyword(s):  
International Cooperation ◽  
Research Program ◽  
National Science Foundation ◽  
Basic Research ◽  
Upper Atmosphere ◽  
Common Interest ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
National Science

Discusses role of the National Science Foundation in U.S. research in the Arctic and Antarctic. For the latter NSF has fostered a coordinated basic research program. Some features of it and techniques developed might be utilized in a bipolar program on problems of common interest, e.g. conjugate phenomena of the upper atmosphere, international cooperation, etc. Proposals for basic research in the Arctic are welcomed.

Integrated Curricula and Preparation for College Mathematics

2012 ◽  
Vol 106 (2) ◽  
pp. 138-143
Author(s):  
Thomas R. Post ◽  
Debra S. Monson ◽  
Edwin Andersen ◽  
Michael R. Harwell
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Elementary School ◽  
Mathematics Achievement ◽  
Secondary School ◽  
National Science Foundation ◽  
Achievement Tests ◽  
College Mathematics ◽  
National Science ◽  
Integrated Curricula

in the early 1990s, after a long series of disappointing results on national and international mathematics achievement tests—for example, TIMSS (1998) and NAEP (Campbell, Hombo, and Mazzeo 2000)—the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded the development of thirteen complete mathematics programs at the elementary school, middle school, and secondary school levels.

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