Learning About Graphs in Middle School
Brooke Vickers, a middle school mathematics teacher, created a reflection lesson that drew on content from the Internet to enhance understanding of graphs. As a lead-in to the lesson, her students accessed Thursday’s Classroom, a site that links NASA research and classroom activities, and searched for the article Meteor Mania! Ms. Vickers read the first paragraph and then asked students to read the other paragraphs for themselves. Next, using the activity sheet at the site, she asked students to write down their answer to the question, “How many meteors do you think will streak by your house during the Leonid meteor shower between moonset and sunrise on Saturday morning?” Guesses were written on the board and recorded in notebooks. For homework, students made a bar graph that displayed the information gathered in class. The graph was modeled after an example from the website.