Three central Virginia school districts and engineering education researchers at the University of Virginia were awarded an Investing in Innovation development grant to design, implement, test, and nationally disseminate a project-based engineering curriculum for middle school students. Referred to as invention kits, the curriculum is developed to…

Students in K-12 schools benefit from career counseling as a means to improve their readiness for academic and career success. This quantitative study explored the career counseling self-efficacy of 143 practicing middle school counselors using the Career Counseling Self-Efficacy Scale-Modified and a subscale of the School Counselor Self-Efficacy…

It is no accident that the staff at Fieldale-Collinsville Middle School adopted a central tenet of "Breaking Ranks in the Middle"--to banish anonymity by creating a personalized learning environment for all of its students. The school was created six years ago when the four middle schools in Henry County, VA, were consolidated into two…

As school systems face more budget cuts, elaborate field trips are being axed. A Virginia middle school experimented with an overnight lockout in the school gym. Since seventh graders were already grouped into four heterogeneous teams for a pilot instructional program, these groups were maintained during the "gymboree." Each student wore…

The purpose of this ethnographic study was to analyze seventh grade students' and teachers' perceptions of literacy learning in language arts and reading classes. This paper includes a report of a section of this study that focused on discussions about literature. The impact of this diverse school culture on teachers' literacy instruction and…

This unit is one of a series that represents specific moments in history from which students focus on the meanings of landmark events. By studying a crucial turning point in history students become aware that choices had to be made by real human beings, that those decisions were the result of specific factors, and that they set in motion a series…

This practicum report describes the development and implementation of a middle school program in King and Queen County in Virginia's Middle Peninsula designed to improve the achievement of sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade students whose achievement scores were consistently lower than national and state averages. A literature review and…

Research indicates that thoughtful technology use can positively influence learning process inside and outside the classroom, and one-to-one computing has been gaining popularity. Although some view such initiatives as passing, others look at the mounting research and see opportunities to reshape the nature of instruction and learning. This brief…

Designed to supplement the Agriscience Education for the Middle School curriculum guide, this instructional packet provides lessons to enable agriscience teachers to bring basic science concepts into the classroom through practical, hands-on activities and experiments. The course is designed to assist seventh-grade students in exploring science as…