Reading the math textbook or handouts or extended response problems presents built-in challenges. The vocabulary of mathematics can be confusing, with some words meaning one thing in a mathematical context and another in everyday settings. Symbols can look alike, and different symbols can represent the same operation (for example, *, x, and • for multiplication). […]

Science, like other disciplines, has a specialized vocabulary, encompassing both terms that represent scientific concepts and those that describe process skills. Although science education focuses on inquiry and hands-on experiences, current research shows that teachers must also help students develop vocabulary to be successful in both the content and methods of science.
However, this is often […]

Do you find that your middle school students still become confused with decimals? Not unusual! The resources here offer support in explaining the concepts underpinning addition and subtraction of decimals, in particular, place value. They also include demonstrations of addition and subtraction and opportunities for practice. The goal for students, as stated in NCTM’s Focal […]

Your textbook has many, many problems on finding the measurements of a circle, so I looked for problems that are off the beaten track. The result is an unusual set of applications to the circle, therefore challenging but intriguing, I think, for middle school classes. Let your colleagues know of your own ideas  and comments […]

This article was written by Stephanie Chasteen and originally published in the May 2009 Integrating Technology column of Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears, an online magazine for elementary teachers. All versions of this article are licensed under a Creative Commons License. Stephanie is a science teaching fellow at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She […]

These resources offer practice in operating on decimals and, moreover, opportunities to think about the processes of multiplication and division. As stated in the NCTM Focal Points, students should make sense of these procedures, become fluent in performing them, and be able to apply them in solving problems. I believe these sites, as a whole, offer […]