Students in two teams compete to design a product and mass-produce it. (Editor)

Profiles "Odyssey of the Mind," an international competition that challenges students, kindergarten through college, to find creative solutions to bizarre problems. The unique design competition demands creative problem-solving, teamwork, and understanding of basic principles to complete projects that last for several months. (LZ)

Discusses successes and failures in project-organized education during the last 10 years in the Electronics Department at the Engineering College of Copenhagen. Describes elements of successful problem solving and practical experiences and problems in project organization. (JRH)

Giving students good feedback on all their schoolwork is one of the toughest challenges every teacher faces. But here at last is a guide that helps you always know how to give the right feedback for all kinds of assignments, in every grade level and subject area. Susan M. Brookhart covers every possible aspect of the topic, including: (1) What…

Service-learning projects help students make connections to their community and help them to think about civic participation. The projects can range from very simple short-term philanthropy to very complex direct involvement by the students across multiple years. Students learn both social problem-solving skills and academic knowledge through…

Inquiry-based learning was used to enhance an undergraduate molecular biology course at Georgia Southern University, a primarily undergraduate institution in rural southeast Georgia. The goal was to use a long-term, in-class project to accelerate higher-order thinking, thereby enabling students to problem solve and apply their knowledge to novel…

This article describes a two-semester general chemistry laboratory teaching approach to assist students in gaining experience with science-process skills. The ultimate goal is successful completion of a second-semester service-learning project requiring use of their newly developed science-process skills. The project entails creating an…

Art teacher attempted to give color and sparkle to the twenty-five foot long wall in his high school's media center without resorting to the "anonymous mural" class project approach to wall painting. (Author/RK)

Views the teaching of materials as content oriented, while teaching design is process oriented. Advocates the integration of design teaching with materials teaching through design problems in which the materials component plays a large part. (GS)

By using analogies, artists and engineers have made many imaginative creations; moreover, when ninth-grade vocational students received training in synectics (an analogy-based technique) there was a highly significant increase in their originality and elaboration (Torrance creative-thinking tests), and their approach to shop projects and careers…

An approach to the understanding of history be letting students participate actively as historians. Topics researched were student family origins, aspects of the Civil War, Slavery, and school history. (AP)

Presents a question designed to launch a discovery journey through conjecture, research, serendipitous encounters, proof, answers, and new questions. Reports some discoveries and suggests ways in which to incorporate this strategy into classrooms. Presents a geometry project that incorporates this problem-solving approach to mathematics. (JRH)

Gifted intermediate-level students in Greenville, South Carolina, held a Future Fair in which students completed projects and developed critical and creative thinking skills as they investigated real problems. Projects such as models, inventions, photo essays, and creative writing focused on future schools, art, fashions, space travel, and other…

Discussed is how a high school physics class designed and built a human-powered hovercraft. (KR)