Volume 102 (4), April 2002

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Table of Contents

Abstracts

Table of Contents

Abstracts

Teaching and Learning Number Sense: One Successful Process-Oriented Activity With Sixth Grade Students in Taiwan

Der-Ching Yang
National Chiayi University


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The aim of this article was to (a) describe how a teacher helped his students develop fractional number sense through a process-oriented activity, and (b) illustrate how a teacher included a worthwhile, interesting, and challenging mathematics question in his class to create a good learning environment for children. The results indicate that studentsâ fractional number sense can be promoted through a process-oriented activity, effective teaching, and good learning environment. It also illustrates how teachers can help children promote their understanding of number sense from a pictorial representation to a symbolic representation.
 

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Aligning General Chemistry Laboratory With Lecture at a Large University

Warren J. DiBiase, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Eugene P. Wagner, The University of Pittsburgh


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The laboratory and lecture components of general chemistry are commonly offered as two separate courses, with lecture typically meeting two or three times per week and laboratory scheduled to meet only once per week. The concepts, content, and relationships presented in lecture may be disjointed and asynchronous with respect to those encountered in laboratory experiments. In addition, traditional laboratory experiments tend to be confirmation labs, in which students are aware of the ãrightä answer before beginning the lab. Students enrolled in a specific lecture section do not necessarily meet for the same laboratory section. As such, learning experiences in laboratory do little to help the students construct an understanding of chemical concepts, content, or relationships. The goal of this project was to develop an inquiry-based approach to curriculum and instruction in first-semester general chemistry at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. A major objective of the project was to develop a laboratory curriculum that meshes intimately with lecture. This objective was accomplished by (a) creating a laboratory course that met for 80-minutes twice a week immediately following the lecture, (b) involving students in laboratory experiments that related to the material presented during lecture, and (c) using laboratory observations and data in lecture to help students construct an understanding of chemical phenomena.
 

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Preservice Elementary Teachersâ Use of Mathematics in a Project-Based Science Approach

Scott P. Lewis, Cengiz Alacaci, George E. OâBrien, and Zhonghong Jiang
Florida International University


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The use of a project-based science (PBS) approach to teaching encourages students to integrate mathematics and science in meaningful ways as they create projects. As a beginning study of how students use mathematics in such an approach, an analysis of 23 projects developed by preservice elementary teachers enrolled in an elementary science course was conducted. Findings showed that students made a number of different types of mathematical errors and underutilized data representation and summary forms. Implications included the importance of developing methods for supporting the use of mathematical tools in utilizing a project-based approach and considering ways that such tools mediate scientific thinking.
 

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The Role Knowledge Frameworks Play in the Ability of Preservice Elementary Teachers to Explain the Operation of a St. Louis Motor

Paul J. Bischoff
State University of New York at Oneonta


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Preservice elementary teachers (n = 30) described the operation of a St. Louis motor before and after studying a laboratory unit on magnetism and electricity. Knowledge frameworks were identified using the flow map method, and the data were further analyzed for quality of the content. The results show that knowledge framework interconnectedness of the post-unit interview was positively correlated (r = 0.36, p < 0.10) with higher quality descriptions of the St. Louis motor. This article describes an in-depth analysis of the lowest and highest performing students and compares their performance to the mean of the larger sample. The research provides insights into the roles that knowledge frameworks play in studentsâ ability to explain abstract scientific phenomena.
 
 
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