Measuring Up: A Middle School Experience is a research-based, professional development middle school project that began in 1997. This Eisenhower Professional Development Project is in its second year and currently involves 20 middle school mathematics teachers in DeKalb, Illinois. The project is co-directed by Dr. Helen Khoury and Dr. Diana Steele, mathematics educators at Northern Illinois University Department of Mathematical Sciences.
The goal of Measuring Up is to continue to engage middle school teachers (and their students) in DeKalb, Illinois in solving a variety of problems where mathematics is applied to solve real-world problems. In addition this project provides an environment in which these middle school teachers can support each other by sharing, reflecting, and discussing with each other and mathematics educators their successes and struggles in implementing authentic problem solving and mathematics education reform in their classrooms. Making mathematics meaningful, enjoyable, and alive is the project's ultimate goal.
The 20 middle school teachers participated in a variety of activities as they attended inservice group meetings which involved problem-solving, discussion and comparison of various problem- solving strategies, group discussions and reflections on research-based readings, and group discussions which highlighted the teachers successes and difficulties in implementing mathematics education reform in their classrooms. Each participant also kept a journal in which they reflected about inservice group meeting experiences, their own classroom teaching, and assigned research-based readings.
Each teacher teamed up with a colleague, collaborated together and developed a problem-based lesson, team taught this lesson to each of their respective classes, and reported their experiences and samples of students work to the other project participants and staff. A project staff member observed the lesson in action the second time it was shared with the students.
The problems used in this project focused on enhancing the teachers' algebraic-based and geometric-based thinking. The problems were conceptually-linked and centered around common themes of: ratios, proportions, rates, functions, and concepts of measure. Samples of a few of the real-world problems that were developed by the project staff and used to engage the teachers (and eventually their students) in an enjoyable and mathematically meaningful way are provided.
Come join us for a pictorial tour of the project. Snapshots of the teachers' experiences through Measuring Up are provided.
The staff of this project are research literate mathematics education professionals who collaborated with DeKalb School District #428, DeKalb, Illinois to make this project possible. The staff worked together as a closely knit team.
| Project Co-Directors: | Dr. Helen A. Khoury & Dr. Diana Steele |
| Support Staff: | Esther Billings Ellen Hines Jason Thrun Steve Vurno |
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