Seventh-Graders ’ Mathematical Modelling on Completion of a Three-Year Program

This paper addresses 7th-grade children's mathematical modelling at the end of a 3-year program. The children and their teachers participated in a series of mathematical modelling activities from the 5th grade through to the 7th grade. The problems involve authentic situations that need to be interpreted and described in mathematical ways. We examine the mathematical understandings and mathematisation processes that the children used in constructing their models for the final problem (Summer Reading). We report on the nature of the problem factors that the children chose to consider, the operations they applied, the types of transformations they made through these operations, and the representations they used in documenting their models. In a technology-based age of information, educational leaders from different walks of life are emphasizing a number of key understandings and abilities for success beyond school. These include the ability to make sense of complex systems through constructing, describing, explaining, manipulating, and predicting such systems (such as sophisticated buying, leasing, and loan plans); to work on multi-stage and multi-component projects in which planning, monitoring, and communication processes are critical for success; and t