To immerse high school students in inquiry, as advocated by the National Science Education Standards (1996), and to take advantage of the Internet's power, students are engaged in a computer data-mining exercise to solve real science problems. After formulating their research question, students scour the Internet to locate raw data they can…

Performing inquiry should enhance the intellectual development of students on numerous levels. We evaluate whether inquiry-based activities elicit inquiry behaviors by comparing these activities with traditional review sessions. We find that both inquiry-learning and teaching behaviors increase during inquiry-based activities, but that teachers…

The article describes how one Educational Psychology Service in the UK developed a service delivery based on self-organised learning (SOL). This model is linked to the paradigms and discourses within which educational psychology and special educational needs work. The work described here is dedicated to the memory of Brian Roberts, academic, close…

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…

The essays in this book are about values that are being used to drive science instruction in remarkable ways. The essays are divided into three sections. The first section contains two essays about science kits and determines the problem that the rest of the book addresses. The essays in the second section offer a glimpse of what five teachers see…

Two sections of students were randomly assigned to a lecture presentation, and one to an inquiry-oriented section in a course in electronics in a technical education program. The groups were shown to be equivalent on five measures of background and ability. At the end of the 11-week course, the inquiry group performed significantly better than the…

Discusses the development and use of flowcharts to involve students in the major stages of experimental design and hypothesizing. The progress of stages attempts to simplify the complexity involved during problem-solving in science investigations. Several illustrative flowcharts are included. (JN)

During the years 1993-96, there has existed an active discussion group entitled "Using Open-Ended Problems in Mathematics" as a part of the scientific program of the Psychology of Mathematics Education (PME) conference. This report contains revised versions of presentations given in the discussion group. Since the PME is an international…

This document presents a sample of the Arkansas science curriculum and identifies the content standards for physical science systems, life science systems, and Earth science/space science systems for first grade students. Each content standard is explained and includes student learning expectations, first grade benchmarks, assessments, and…

Describes the stages and outcomes of a junior high school science lesson on erosion and deposition utilizing a "kids as researchers" theme. Stages include awareness, discussion, investigation, experimentation, generalization, and extension. (SK)

Discovery learning, defined as intentional learning through problem solving and under the supervision of the teacher, is discussed in terms of its advantages and disadvantages, with suggestions for its application. (JMF)

Gives a step-by-step description of a problem-solving microscale chemistry laboratory to show how this implementation of problem-solving teaching can be put into practice. Pedagogical and practical issues are discussed. (DKM)

Discusses how teachers and instructional designers can encourage critical thinking in students through epistemic games, reflective knowledge-generating activities that can be created for any knowledge domain. Provides examples for various subjects. Presents a method for organizing instructional material into appropriate epistemic forms and for…

Argues that high school physics should be grounded in motivating contextual activities and connected to a philosophically and historically valid theoretical structure. Explains the large context problem approach and its effect on generating questions and problems. (DDR)