Inspiration from 'Confessions of a Shopaholic' led this team to explore how comics can be used for mathematics instruction about percentages. In this article, the authors describe how they conceptualised and developed a teaching package that uses comics to teach percentage concepts to Grade 7 students (age 13 to 14) in Singapore. It goes on to…

In this article, the author describes a choice-based art unit she designed for her 7th-grade students, discussing how choice impacted student motivation and how this relates to playful exploration, meaning making, and sharing. With the implementation of a personally meaningful found-object unit, students' motivation increased because of the…

Middle school students need relevant, meaningful contexts to apply emerging mathematical ideas. In this project, through the context of an architecture investigation, seventh-grade students engaged in mathematics involving area, surface area, volume, ratios and proportional thinking, number sense, and technology integration. Students, working in…

By 2020, five of the top ten in-demand jobs in the United States will be in information technology (Moeller 2012). Companies across the nation are seeking a new type of employee: one who is computer savvy and who is familiar with computer coding, data, mathematics, and augmented reality (Leber 2013). Recent reports indicate that, although students…

Engaging youth in traditional physical education exercises or ball sports can be a challenging task, especially when they prefer novelty, entertainment, or excitement in their leisure-time activities. In addition, many youth are unaware of the opportunities that exist to exercise or recreate in nature, often preferring to spend time indoors…

With the use of technology such as Global Positioning System (GPS) units and Google Earth for a simple-machine scavenger hunt, you will transform a standard identification activity into an exciting learning experience that motivates students, incorporates practical skills in technology, and enhances students' spatial-thinking skills. In the…

Each year, seventh graders at Woodlawn School in Davidson, North Carolina, learn about Japan through a compilation of literature, history, and art. They are introduced to a wide range of ideas and materials: they study the Heian and Tokugawa Periods as well as modern Japan, the code of the samurai warriors, haiku and its components, and Japanese…

In the rapidly changing globalized world, school librarians cannot prepare today's students for every possible outcome, but they can give them the skills that will make them adaptable in 21st-century learning and work settings. The mission for school library programs is to ensure that students are effective users of ideas and information by being…

Involving students in authentic science work is one way to enhance their interest in science. This paper reports a project in which Year 4-7 students actively participated in a study that involved the provision of a suitable nesting site for local turtles. The students collected data on turtle nests at the site and evidence of turtle hatchlings at…

This article describes and shares an innovative pedagogical practice that holds promise in contributing to the teaching and learning of proportions in middle school. The teaching and learning of mathematics with understanding framework was used as a vehicle to help 21 seventh grade students reason proportionally. The findings of this unit suggest…

This article describes a joint effort between a mathematics educator and a middle school art teacher who wanted their students to experience first hand how construction works in the real world. It starts with students designing and building scale models for a large inflatable item in which they display their art and extends to building the…

The spin on Frazer School Librarian Laurie LeFever's entry for Syracuse University's 2007 E*LIT competition is what made her school literacy project for children with disabilities really unique. Instead of working with students to create a project that would be targeted toward children with disabilities, she actually used students with…

Describes using published journals and books written by adolescents to spark seventh graders' journal writing. (SR)

Presents a model for motivating seventh- and tenth-grade Ethiopian students to write poetry about their personal feelings and experiences. Describes four strategies for the poetry workshop: acrostic, lune, counting pattern, and one that explores feelings and personal emotion. Notes that all exercises encouraged children to express themselves on…

Presents a day-by-day account of a beginning filmmaking course for a seventh-grade class. (MM)