Along-standing energy lab involves dropping bouncy balls and measuring their rebound heights on successive bounces. The lab demonstrates a situation in which the mechanical energy of a system is not conserved. Although students enjoyed the lab, the author wanted to deepen their thinking about energy, including the connections to motion, with a new…

This book examines learning science from multiple perspectives--especially a child's. The whimsical character of Mary Froggins guides readers through the steps of igniting students' natural sense of wonder, incorporating brain research, integrating science concepts with other subjects, and applying science to daily life. The authors demonstrate…

Describes how the 16 permanent lists used by a first grade reading teacher (and mother of 6) to manage the household represents the whole range of documents covered in the 3 major types of documents: matrix documents, graphic documents, and locative documents. Suggests class activities to clarify students' understanding of the information in…

Observes that competition is one of the most important concepts in economics, and that students typically learn a great deal about static competition but very little about dynamic competition. Presents a graphical method for illustrating and contrasting both views of competition. Notes other economic concepts that can be similarly illustrated.…

Presents an activity in which students learn how to label graphs in order to make them meaningful. (ASK)

Presents different real-world mathematics activities on data display and data analysis with pie charts from different time periods. (ASK)

Offers tips on creating interactive bulletin boards and displays designed to help elementary students develop thinking skills and number concepts and to help teachers with such daily tasks as taking attendance, keeping track of birthdays, doing lunch counts, maintaining job lists, and exploring individual student characteristics. (SM)

Observes that the textbook explanation of the relationship between the international substitution effect and the downward slope of the aggregate demand curve is generally presented uncritically. Argues that the international substitution effect is sufficiently flawed and that it should be eliminated in teaching as a justification for the slope of…

Introductory college level geography textbooks can be enhanced by using scatter diagrams and double criteria classifications, both of which reveal generalizations and specific facts about location. Scatter diagrams, a series of dots on a graph, illustrate relationships among phenomena that covary, e.g., national birth and infant mortality rates.…

Discusses the types and functions of graphic displays found in textbooks, whether they facilitate learning, how well students read graphic displays, and what classroom teachers can do to help students read and interpret graphic displays. (SR)

This document contains reproducible black and white materials for teaching about the 1990 United States census. There are maps, charts, and graphs of population projections by region; historical census data; projections of populations changes; world population; minority population figures; age charts; number of dependents; housing units;…

Uses question-and-answer relationships (QARs) to help students identify the purposes of various multiple-choice questions. Shares how the authors taught fifth-grade students to use the QAR framework as they attacked charts, tables, figures, and other graphics. Details the sequence of their instruction and describes the success that they had using…

Perhaps because the United States is undergoing a video revolution, perhaps because of its increasing sales of goods to non-English speaking markets where graphics can help explain the products, perhaps because of the decreasing communication skills of the work force, graphic aids are becoming more and more widely used and more and more important.…

Uses student reading interests as a context for data collection, and asks them to represent their findings in different ways using tables, bar graphs, pictographs, and pie graphs. (ASK)

Developed by educators from the Emily Griffith Opportunity School, this teacher's guide was developed for a 4-hour workshop to teach employees how to read the charts and graphs they need in the workplace. The unit covers four types of graphs: pictographs, bar graphs, line graphs, and circle graphs. The guide is divided into four sections: reading…