Describes the sociocultural theory motivating strategy "transformative communication" as well as a specific dialogue sequence that can be used as a cultural tool for accompanying such interaction. Illustrates the utility of the dialogue sequence in four key episodes within and inquiry-based high school earth science class. (Author/SAH)

Investigates the interaction between semantic knowledge and process skills in eighth-grade students' (N=27) performance in solving two types of problems (analogies and set-membership) of inducing structure drawn from physical geology concepts. (DS)

Data on 140 eighth-grade earth science students were analyzed to see if logical thinking, instructional method, and the interaction between those two variables explained a significant portion of variance in achievement. Logical thinking was found to account for more variation in achievement than did treatment, although treatment also affected…

There have been few discoveries in geology more important than "deep time"--the understanding that the universe has existed for countless millennia, such that man's existence is confined to the last milliseconds of the metaphorical geological clock. The influence of deep time is felt in a variety of sciences including geology, cosmology,…