Quantitative Understanding: A Social Science Basic

With the support of a grant from the National Science Foundation, the Educational Resources Center of Boulder, Colorado, is developing and field testing thirty-five one- to three-day learning activities designed to improve students' understanding of quantitative concepts within the context of high school social studies courses. This two-year project, entitled Quantitative Understanding to Enhance Social Science Teaching (QUESST), is based on the belief that it is important for secondary-level students to learn both the value and the limitations of using quantitative data and methods in the study of social issues. This article presents a detailed rationale for the development of learning activities that infuse quantitative concepts and skills into secondary-level social studies classes, outlines the phases of project development, and briefly discusses the content of the learning activities developed by the project staff.