100 Students by Riskowski, Obricht and Wilson Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School

Summary

This article is a great example of project based learning and its use in a middle school classroom. The learning goals were that students would learn to talk about and analyze statistical data, collect a representative sample of a population and analyze the results in proportion. The project was modeled after 100 people world, which was a project by The Miniature Earth that sought to analyze how the earth would look if only 100 people lived on it, a representative 100 people that proportionally represented the Earth’s population from the 2001 statistics. The students set out to discover what their school would look like if a representative 100 students were chosen according to proportion to represent the entire school. Students were really responsible for carrying out the activity. They came up with the research questions, examined the questions in depth to analyze for bias, administered the surveys, collected the results, entered the data, analyzed the data and made an informational video about their project. In the end the teacher reported that not only did the students learn about statistics and data but that they learned about respect for others. At the end of the project the students sat down and talked about things they would have done differently and it was clear from their conversation that they understood how to get more accurate results from the school had the changed their questions, their sample and how they interpreted their data.

Application
This type of activity is so wonderful. In high school, these are the types of activities that I loved and still remember. These students were actively involved in the project because it was about them, their school, their peers and their lives. The students were involved in complex tasks that required a lot of planning and reflective practice. I admire the way the teachers taught this lesson, they allowed the students a lot of freedom; yet, they were there to ask thought provoking questions and prompt the students to analyze their research methods. I feel that this project is multidisciplinary and incorporates many advanced tasks; for instance, the students edited their own video, I have worked with editing software and that is not small feat for middle school students. I also appreciate the way that this project required students to work with their peers in coorporative groups. By the end of the project the students reported that they felt they had a better attitude toward their peers and felt that they should be less quick to judge and kinder to their classmates. If for that reason alone I feel that it was a time worthy project and its amazing how much they learned as well.

Riskowski, J. Olbricht, G. and Wilson, J. (2010) 100 students. Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School. 15(6) p 320