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ERIC Number: EJ1110626
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2016-Aug
Pages: 10
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1072-0839
EISSN: N/A
What's in a Name
Bush, Sarah B.; Albanese, Judith; Karp, Karen S.
Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, v22 n1 p28-37 Aug 2016
Historically, some baby names have been more popular during a specific time span, whereas other names are considered timeless. The Internet article, "How to Tell Someone's Age When All You Know Is Her Name" (Silver and McCann 2014), describes the phenomenon of the rise and fall of name popularity, which served as a catalyst for the activity these authors presented to students. The authors engaged sixth-grade students in a prediction, data collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation activity by exploring the frequency of names in three generations. Students at 11 middle schools collected and submitted first name and age data for themselves, siblings, parents (or guardians), and grandparents (or other older relatives), providing a total sample of 7435 first names and ages. A series of questions was posed about predictions; popular names and their frequencies; measures of central tendency and clustering; representative sampling; and possible reasons why some names may be prevalent during particular time periods. As a culminating project, students worked in teams to design and present a business plan for a mall kiosk selling personalized name items. This activity was implemented in a sixth-grade class taught by one of the authors. A bibliography is included.
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. 1906 Association Drive, Reston, VA 20191. Tel: 800-235-7566; Tel: 703-620-9840; Fax: 703-476-2570; e-mail: NCTM@nctm.org; Web site: http://www.nctm.org/publications/mathematics-teaching-in-the-middle-school/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Grade 6; Intermediate Grades; Middle Schools; Elementary Education; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A