In this article, the authors describe how a theoretical framework--the modeling cycle of Bliss, Fowler, and Galluzzo (2014)--came to life in their classroom as students struggled with an open-ended modeling task. The authors share their high school students' work--warts and all. They explain how they used their students' ideas and errors to help…

"Who has been to Dairy Queen® and purchased a Blizzard?®" Ms. Bosetti asked her students. During the summer, Bosetti had seen many of her former and future students at the local Dairy Queen enjoying Blizzard desserts and wondered, "Which Blizzard size is the best value?" She used this context for a ratios and proportions task…

The beginning of modern science is marked by efforts of pioneers to understand the natural world using a quantitative approach. As Galileo wrote, "the book of nature is written in the language of mathematics". The traditional undergraduate course curriculum is heavily focused on individual disciplines like biology, physics, chemistry,…

The ultimate goal of physics education research (PER) is to develop a theoretical framework to understand and improve the learning process. In this journey of discovery, assessment serves as our headlamp and alpenstock. It sometimes detects signals in student mental structures, and sometimes presents the difference between expert understanding and…

We describe the development of a course to teach modeling and mathematical analysis skills to students of biology and to teach biology to students with strong backgrounds in mathematics, physics, or engineering. The two groups of students have different ways of learning material and often have strong negative feelings toward the area of knowledge…

AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 20 ITEMS AND A DISCUSSION OF ITS SIGNIFICANCE WAS PRESENTED TO DESCRIBE CURRENT UTILIZATION OF SUBJECT THEORIES IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF AN EDUCATIONAL THEORY. ALSO, A THEORY MODEL WAS USED TO DEMONSTRATE CONSTRUCTION OF A SCIENTIFIC EDUCATIONAL THEORY. THE THEORY MODEL INCORPORATED SET THEORY (S), INFORMATION THEORY…

PIAGET'S THEORETICAL FORMULATION OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF CONSERVATION OF CONTINUOUS QUANTITY WAS EXAMINED. CONTROL SUBJECTS IN EACH OF TWO AGE GROUPS (5 AND 6 YEARS) WERE GIVEN A COMPLEX TASK SITUATION THAT IS TYPICAL OF PIAGET'S WORK. THESE SUBJECTS WERE ALSO GIVEN ANOTHER TASK, A MEASURE OF CONSERVATION OF QUANTITY THAT IS INDEPENDENT OF PIAGET'S…

Uses a (spatial-econometric) location weighing variable to examine how starting teacher salaries in one Ohio district are influenced by other regional starting salaries. A $1 increase in a neighboring district generates a $.51 to $.96 increase. Size and distance factors help account for spill-over effects. (Contains 34 references.) (MLH)

The first panel of a three-year longitudinal study was conducted to investigate the process by which youth form career expectations. The study was designed around a cross-sectional path model of career expectations drawn from the sociological literature on status attainment and is based on differential equations in which all expectation variables…

A localized system for the evaluation of investment in vocational education in Ohio is described in this four part manual. Following an instruction introduction to the manual, part II provides a description of the analytical framework for this system. Vocational education is analyzed as an investment and an explanation of the criteria used in the…

A salary-growth model is presented as a practical solution to the problem of compensating teachers equitably. An empirical validation using data from 24,785 California teachers, 15,233 Ohio teachers, and 5,489 South Carolina teachers demonstrates the general applicability of the model. A scenario for model use is presented. (SLD)

A synthetic method of estimating relative annual prevalence of severely mentally disabled (SMD) adults across Ohio's mental health board areas was evaluated. Indirect evidence of accuracy for the method, which relies on local catchment area data and local census data, is provided by comparison with actual SMD adult counts in federal programs. (SLD)

Effects of Ohio's mandatory seat belt law on seat belt use, number of car accidents, and number of fatal and severe injuries were evaluated for January 1982 through March 1988. The monthly average number of accident victims was 2,002. Implications for public policy formulation and implementation are discussed. (SLD)

A system designed to evaluate investment in Ohio's vocational education programs is described in this monograph which also serves as the system manual. Major features emphasized are (1) the system enables calculation of rate of return and of present value of investment in the training of an individual in a vocational program, when education is…

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) commissioned the papers in this publication to address advances in measuring education inflation and adjusting for it, as well as to examine the emergence of a new focus on school spending, rather than school district spending, as well as new, private sources of funding for public education, and…