A Family Geography Night (FGN) kit can be used to bring families together, teach about the world, give parents the opportunity to share their beliefs, and participate in the educational system while having fun! Geography is an essential element of twenty-first-century education. More than just maps, geography is the interaction of cultures,…

As Brian Huot and Ellen E. Schendel assert, when assessment has more than validation in mind, it "can become a means for proactive change" (208). In response to this idea of assessment as an optimistic and opportunistic enterprise, this article describes how the structural design of our "equal opportunity" writing program and…

This paper reports on a project which is designed to increase the participation of high school students in accounting work experience placements. The focus of the paper is on an Australian-based project which overcomes the identified barriers to offering high school accounting work experience placements with a resultant increase in the number and…

Many students probably know something about space from playing computer games or watching movies and TV shows. Teachers can expose them to the real thing by launching their experiments into near space on a weather balloon. This article describes how to use high-altitude ballooning (HAB) as a culminating project to a chemistry unit on experimental…

We report a practical home-made microcentrifuge to be used for teaching purposes. It was made using a salad spinner and two polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tubes racks. It can accommodate 2 standard size 96-well plates or 24 strips or up to 192 microfuge tube. The centrifuge is hand-operated and is ideal for short spin down purposes. (Contains 3…

Living in the Adirondack Park and being an avid outdoorsman has often resulted in the author's love of the outdoors working its way into class projects. In 2010, the author gave a group of 25 students in grades 9-12 a challenge that required them to design and construct a prototype inexpensive, lightweight kayak for backpackers and fisherman. In…

Now more than ever, education leaders must focus strategically on educational technology professional development (ETPD) for teachers. Research evidence indicates that 30 hours of focused professional development is required to change teachers' professional practice. So despite positive opinions about the importance and efficacy of educational…

How can teacher educators initiate and sustain a culture of inquiry among participants in a graduate program? This was the core issue in the design of a new Masters degree program that emphasized teacher leadership. Now in their fifth year of this program, the authors decided that it was time to publicly document how they taught and studied the…

Many short-duration science outreach interventions have important societal goals of raising science literacy and increasing the size and diversity of the science workforce. Yet, these long-term outcomes are inherently challenging to evaluate. We present findings from a qualitative research study of an inquiry-based, life science outreach program…

This book is designed to be a resource tool for all environmental education advocates and supporters, particularly those seeking to fully incorporate environmental education into their state and local school system. It provides a conceptual model for understanding comprehensive environmental education programs and the steps necessary to achieve…

The purpose of a peer tutoring program is to assist those students who require ongoing and formal instruction in a subject area. If effectively run, it can have an impact on retention. There are five areas that need to be addressed when initiating a peer tutor program: (1) organization and funding; (2) supervision; (3) tutor training; (4) tutor…

This paper describes five maxims for an effective faculty mentoring program developed at Western Carolina University (North Carolina) designed to increase retention of new faculty. The first maxim, "ask what the program will do for the school," emphasizes that a program should not be undertaken until this question has been specifically…

This report describes the use of the natural approach to second language instruction to improve the teacher training program at Purdue University (Indiana). First, the report discusses the establishment of a permanent, non-tenure-track position of Assistant Director for Beginning Levels of Spanish. Second, focus is on the improvement of the…

Small, sometimes multi-cultural, rural schools need specialized preservice teacher education programs to prepare teachers. After outlining the classroom, school, and sociocultural characteristics affecting a teacher's success and survival in a rural community, this paper discusses the apparent lack of rural content in teacher preparation programs…

Distance learning programs, services and clients since 1975 at California State University, Chico, are described. Background, funding, and the teleconferencing network are discussed. (CW)