The notion of function is central in all of the secondary curriculum, and indeed functional models appear in almost all higher education that is based on mathematics. However, in secondary education, functions usually appear in restricted and somewhat sterile forms. In this (mostly theoretical) paper, we present a proposal -- exemplified by a…

This three-day lesson plan provides students with an introduction to reading topographic maps using multiple modalities. The goal is to give students a range of opportunities using different media to increase their map-reading skills. After hands-on modeling, a summative assessment provides students with the opportunity to put their topographic…

It has been over thirty years since the nuclear reactor meltdown at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, but why there is still an officially designated exclusion zone? The Chernobyl Disaster Task combines the learning of exponential functions with properties of radioactive substances to help students understand the ongoing effects of the meltdown.…

Assessment is usually considered as an afterthought in the instructional design process. Given the many challenges of assessment design--and the lack of ready solutions--teachers may fall back on familiar forms of assessments and hope for the best. As a result, the problem is not a lack of will on the part of teachers. Instead, it is the lack of…

Modeling is a core practice in science and is a meaningful way to learn the subject. This article introduces a modeling-based approach that highlights the idea that modeling is an iterative process and integrates the fundamental parts of scientists' work and key suggestions for teaching through modeling. The lesson "The Structure and Function…

In introductory electric circuits in middle school, students often carry strongly held alternative conceptions. Common to many of these is an idea of electric current as some kind of substance that originates from the battery and moves toward electronic components. Learners often argue that current influences those one by one as they are…

Busy educators are often faced with a dilemma--staying up to date with evidence-based practices and initiatives that support their professional growth while combating a constant barrage of superficial ideas from other contexts. Continuous improvement approaches to change offer methods for testing new ideas and adapting them to local contexts. If…

In this article, I present a new conceptual framework constructed using sensemaking theory and Actor-Network Theory (ANT) to demonstrate layers of policy enactment. The framework reimagines policy enactment as a sociomaterial ethico-political activity by considering the factors that mediate policy enactment and the assemblages facilitating the…

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), along with several other national organizations, released a joint statement indicating how crucial incorporating data analysis into lessons is (NCTM et al., 2024). Mathematics and gardening may seem like incongruent ideas, but mathematics, specifically data analysis, infiltrates activities…

Especially within the light of the current loss of biodiversity, we want our students to gain a better understanding of the issues at stake in order to take action and support plants and their pollinators. Many educational approaches focus on honeybees, disregarding the vast diversity in the context of pollination systems and the complex…

In this article, we describe a year-long superhero storytelling project we facilitated with youth in a midwestern middle school. In this project, students read "Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spiderman," designed superhero stories set in their community, and presented artistic representations of their stories to their families and peers. We…

The objective of this work is to show an educational path for combinatorics and graph theory that has the aim, on one hand, of helping students understand some discrete mathematics properties, and on the other, of developing modelling skills through a robust understanding. In particular, for the path proposed to middle-school students, we used a…

Computational modeling and thinking skill sets were previously relegated to computer scientists and programmers. As a result, computational tools are largely unfamiliar to K-12 science teachers and students. Using Mathematical and Computational Thinking and Developing and Using Models were included in the "Next Generation Science…

This article will simply expose tools and tricks for the reader to use if they so choose. The hope is that the reader relieves their fears of implementing the sports education model, applies this simplified model, and creates their own version to fit their specific classroom needs. This is not a one size fits all recipe for sports education, as it…

School leaders Lydia Cochrane and Ayesha Hoda have struggled to meet the increasingly complex needs of the students in their schools. As students' needs increase, schools are asked to do more and more, while continuing to have strong academic results. Cochrane and Hoda believe the current system is untenable and needs to change. With Linda Nathan,…