Teacher and Student Quotes
The Thinking With Data unit has been extensively piloted and field tested in middle schools in Northeast Ohio. Here is what participating teachers and students thought about the curriculum:
Teacher Reflections
"I think the initial, the central idea is wonderful, the overall theme is great. They [i.e. students] walked away saying, “Yes, there’s an issue with water,” they need to share it, you know, it’s not a simple problem and not a simple solution." (Social Studies Teacher)
"I think it was definitely at grade level. The skills that they needed to do this successfully was definitely at the sixth, seventh grade level. The analyzing of the arguments was a little higher level, but they got it. I am convinced that they did well with that." (Math Teacher)
"I mean yeah, they created a treaty and what they felt was fair, and then they brought it to math and we looked at their treaty and once we did their calculations, we were able to see that 'maybe it wasn't fair. Maybe I do need to look at the calculations to get a fair distribution.' " (Math Teacher)
"I thought the whole thing was well put together and fit with my content perfectly, it had a nice variety between doing the challenges, the lab, the PowerPoint presentation, and a couple days they were doing Internet research. . . . There was also a nice variety of different media that they used." (Science Teacher)
"I know that [project team member] was just floored with their speeches and their essays. She was just floored with them, as was I. Sixteen years, I don't think I ever got an essay that good." (ELA Teacher)
"You are really getting to think...on one topic...about the social studies, about the science, about the math aspect, about the presentation aspect--on one topic about watersheds--you are getting them to think in four different arenas and boy is that training the mind." (ELA Teacher)
Student Reflections
“When you first started, you didn’t really understand it. But after switching social studies, math, science, language arts -- you do things different ways. Every class has some different way to understand.”
"I learned how to turn all of the data that we gathered into speeches. Another thing I learned is how to calculate data in a bunch of different ways."
"I do not like doing speeches because I have trouble getting up in front of people. Facing my fears I did and boy did I do it well."
"Before the whole project I really didn’t know what a watershed is, but as every subject went on I learned more and more about a watershed. Also, before this I didn’t know the effect on it, like new sewage in the Great Lakes, pollution, and maybe if it gets bad, shutting down places. If everyone did this project, they would be shocked and start changing some things."