NSF has sponsored 16 mathematics curriculum projects, four at the elementary level, five at the middle school level, and seven at the secondary level. The following are abstracts from the five mathematics curriculum projects at the middle school level.
The development of the 40 units (ten at each grade level) reflects a collaboration between research and development teams at the University of Utrecht and the University of Wisconsin, and a group a middle school teachers. The units are unique in that they make extensive use of realistic contexts. From the context of tiling a floor, for example, flow a wealth of mathematics applications such as similarity, ratio and proportion, and scaling. Units emphasize the interrelationships between mathematical domains such as number, algebra, geometry and statistics. The purpose of the units is to connect mathematical content both across mathematical domains and to the real world. The units are being revised to reflect the results from the field testing. The material will be published by Encyclopedia Britannica Educational Corporation, 310 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL 60604.
The project is creating a flexible comprehensive middle school mathematics curriculum with interdisciplinary links. The MMAP units form the core of the curriculum: Each unit puts students in an extended role play based on real-life work. Students learn and use math as necessitated by the project. Then, extensions and investigations fill out the complement of each school year. During extensions, students build more mathematical understanding on the foundations uncovered in the units. During investigations, pure math topics are developed in a mathematician's context. Topics for the units are Wolves and Caribou (formerly Lifelines), Privacy Codes, Inc. and one around a theme of cartography. A publisher has not been selected.
The STM project is developing a complete mathematics curriculum for grades 6-8. The curriculum builds upon the central theme of mathematics in the human experience. Students engage in fusing mathematics to design and build, to predict and plan, to analyze and decide, to imagine and create, to explore and understand, to play and invent, and to formalize and systematize their knowledge. As they do so, students develop mathematical processes such as representing, visualizing, conjecturing, modeling, and proving, and they come to understand central mathematical ideas, such as proportional reasoning, pattems, and functions. The curriculum will be available from Creative Publications.
Stem materials are thematic modules which last from 2 to 6 weeks and are developed around applications that middle school students are interested in studying. The materials utilize technology and provide bridges to science and social studies. The program includes many hands-on explorations. The modules provide opportunities for students to use reading, writing, and speaking as tools for learning mathematics. Cooperative learning is an important feature of the program. A variety of assessment activities within the STEM project are designed as an integral part of the instructional process, rather than as an add-on. The materials are scheduled for commercial publication by McDougal Littell Houghton Mifflin for the school year 1997-1998.
The CMP curriculum is organized around interesting problem settings. Students solve problems and in so doing observe patterns and relationships; they conjecture, test, discuss, verbalize, and generalize these pattems and relationships. This calls for an instructional model in the classroom that encourages higher level thinking and problem solving and that has at its core making sense of mathematics and its uses. The CMP curriculum is being published in 24 units, 8 at each grade, by Dale Seymour Publishing Company.
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