Calculate Total Students: 50% of 7th Graders Received Gifts

To solve this problem, we'll follow these steps:

• Step 1: Define the total number of students in terms of those who received a gift.
• Step 2: Recognize that since 50% of students received a gift and 50% did not, the total student count is indicated by the sum of both groups.
• Step 3: Compute the total based on the fraction provided (50%).

Let's work through the steps:

Step 1: Let $x$ denote the total number of 7th grade students.

Step 2: 50% of the students received a gift, which means that:

$\frac{x}{2}$ students received the gift.

Similarly, $\frac{x}{2}$ students did not receive the gift.

Step 3: Since both parts are equal in size and constitute 50% each, multiplying by 2 will yield the full amount:

Therefore, $x = 2 \times \frac{x}{2}$.

To recover $x$, we simply recognize that $x$ itself is being split evenly; hence:

The total number of students $x = 100$.

Thus, the solution to the problem is $\mathbf{x = 100}$.