The purpose of this article is to provide suggestions for using public speaking tasks in English language teaching (ELT) and to highlight some of their many advantages. For the purpose of this article, the author will focus on two types of these tasks: student presentations and debates. Student presentations may consist of either individual or…

Project-Based Learning (PBL) connects standards-based content to real-world scenarios through the use of projects to improve student achievement. By engaging students in authentic problems that do not have a predetermined solution, students learn both subject matter and critical 21st-century skills. This "Focus On" addresses what…

This paper examines the core academic leader development course at the United States Air Force Academy. The course serves as the foundation for individual leader development that is integrated across all four years of the student's education. The basic approach uses a self-study where the student selects a current leadership role and that role…

A high school teacher describes a class project which replaced customary research papers. The high school seniors prepared a medieval banquet, a project which involved intensive research. Useful research sources on costumes, decorations, food, and general information for such a project are listed. (DB)

A teacher describes activities to increase elementary students' active involvement in their science education. Activities involve development of observational skills, increasing self-motivation, developing prediction skills, and cooperating in joint learning activities. (DB)

Presents activities for observing, measuring, collecting, and graphing data about times of sunrise and sunset to teach an understanding about arrival of Daylight Savings Time in April. Also discusses seasonal affective disorder (SAD). (TM)

Describes an American literature class project to save a covered bridge from collapse. Illustrates how student initiative in contacting government agencies and news media, learning the history of the bridge, and raising public awareness about the project led to a joint county agreement to preserve the historic span. (DHP)

Describes how use of panorama theater to teach middle school social studies can aid in teaching the academic skills of defining a problem, locating and collecting data, organizing and designing tasks, drawing inferences, creating and building interpretations, revising and editing, and interpreting data. Presents a classroom example of a panorama…

Discusses classroom projects developed jointly by students and teacher in a sixth grade gifted class. Describes projects involving ghost stories, science research, interviewing authors, the local telephone book, and holiday celebrations. (DHP)

Describes year-long "Container-of-the-Month" project, around which a number of second-grade class lessons and activities revolved. These included art, communicating through displays, oral and written reports, and family-oriented homework. (ET)

In this lesson, students compare imagined travel experiences of their own with the actual experiences of 19th-century pioneers. To learn about the experiences of the emigrants who traveled the Oregon Trial, the lesson asks students to create, as a class, oral stories about contemporary cross-country journeys; they then create works of historical…

Discusses a fourth grade class project to write a history of their community. Describes student experiences in learning to take and videotape interviews, preparing a TV newscast about the project, doing research in the county clerk's office and library, and writing the history. Includes suggestions for doing a similar project. (DHP)

This book presents 20 projects for technology education students. The emphasis is on problem solving and hands-on learning through projects dealing with a wide variety of technologies/industries, including the following: robotics, information storage and retrieval, communications, transportation, electronics, manufacturing, construction, materials…

Discusses using interdisciplinary classroom projects planned jointly by students and teacher in a language arts based gifted program for students in grades K-6. Describes projects based on the study of teddy bears and real bears, publicizing National Children's Book Week, and conducting a study of the students' school and community.(DHP)

Intended for primary teachers this booklet contains many hints for enriching classroom activities. It includes 100 ways to "publish" student writing and art work by using student created books, newspapers, magazines, letters, plays, notice boards, assembly reports, art and craft work, tape recordings, writing clubs, and "buy-a-book" days. Also…