The author Herbert Zim says that young children are more scientists than they are anything else. The learning activities described here build on children's natural curiosity by giving them experience and practice in basic scientific skills, such as observing, investigating, experimenting, classifying, reasoning and inferring. (Author/RK)

Offers various strategies in which students use fingerprints to help sharpen their science process skills. Includes directions for making fingerprints using just ink and paper and suggestions for additional activities. These include making "prints" from other body parts and from such objects as automobile tires. (JN)

Discusses instructional strategies that help students make and differentiate between observations and inferences, including the use of analysis, synthesis, and evaluation processes. Suggests that early activities focus on analytical procedures in such a way that they can be explained in terms of facts and principles that students will readily…

Provides a reproducible flow chart to aid students in problem-solving skill development. Steps include: determining what is asked; choosing a relationship; and checking validity of the relationship. Teacher notes are given to improve instruction. (DH)

Four papers are reviewed. They include a description of how instructional modules and small group problem-solving (PS) in a second-year plant anatomy course produced excellent PS skills and various ideas on PS in the context of chemistry. Also reviews guided-design as a strategy to help develop PS skills. (JN)

Discussed are the basic and specialized skills needed for graphing exercises. Suggests approaches and activities that can be used in the teaching of graphing skills. Includes a listing of software programs for both teaching graphing and for analyzing data. (ML)

Presents a method for solving problems related to gas laws, the mole concept, molarity, heats of reactions, and other chemical concepts. Also presents another method which was devised to simplify the teaching of stoichiometric calculations using conversion factors. (JN)

Graphing is a common and powerful symbol system for representing concrete data. Yet research has shown that students often have graphical misconceptions about how graphs are related to the concrete event. Currently, the Technical Education Research Center (TERC) is developing microcomputer-based laboratories (MBL) science units that use probes to…

The article discusses observing and quantifying as basic skills, presents a model for dealing with problems, and suggests seven activities which range from kindergarten to twelfth-grade level. (MK)

Reviews findings from three diagnostic studies which focused on the problem of tautological explanations. Includes a report on a teaching intervention strategy which resulted in the improvement of pupil performance. Suggests that avoidance of tautology can be taught. (ML)

Offers examples of activities and practical ideas for the instruction of process skills in a laboratory setting. Includes suggestions for the processes of observing, comparing, inferring, collecting data, organizing data, interpreting results, identifying variables, formulating hypotheses, experimenting, predicting, and model building. (ML)

Describes a strategy in which students complete 12 types of reports during a chemistry course. The goal is to improve their ability to communicate effectively in a variety of styles without sacrificing the traditional goals of imparting an understanding of experimental chemistry and an ability to critically analyze experiments/results. (JN)

Recognizing that success in general chemistry is dependent on the development of disciplined study habits, the author motivates his students to develop these skills through prelecture assignments that introduce them to various studying strategies. The format and use of the prelecture assignments are described. (JN)

Gives guidelines for creating activities to teach classification skills using such holiday materials as nuts, pine cones, evergreen branches, hard candy, and package stickers. Provides ideas to share with parents in developing skills at home, and precautions in selecting objects. Encourages emphasis on similarities as well as differences when…

Suggestions are presented for 23 different hikes appropriate for school grounds and other similar settings. Topics which focus on science processes and skills include, among others, motion, color, shape, size, smells, sounds, trees, litter, and snow. (DC)