Abstract
The problem regarding the home generation of electricity from sunlight was taken up as a teaching material for mathematical modeling, and some junior high school students volunteered to tackle this material. We focused on making assumptions and validating results in mathematical modeling and tried to capture the state of Japanese junior high students’ problem solving skills. This kind of problem solving skill is indispensable to mathematics classes dealing with mathematical modeling, which can be considered formative in developing people who will play leadership roles in our society. As a result, it was confirmed that, in general, Japanese students are not able to make assumptions appropriately from complicated real-life problems, and that students' modeling skills in handling uncertain numerical values and conditions are insufficient, though they can arrive at the correct answers to a certain degree. In addition, we learned that it was possible for a ninth grader to perform this kind of problem solving.
