Describes a four-semester course in technical communication that culminates in a student project for which students work in teams aided by faculty managers to define a project, learn about it on their own, gather evidence, choose the best solution, and defend their choices to an outside client. (SRT)

This report examines issues in the scale-up of assessment software from the Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST). "Scale-up" is used in a metaphorical sense, meaning adding new assessment tools to CRESST's assessment software. During the past several years, CRESST has been developing and evaluating a…

Describes an activity in which students construct relationships between their leg lengths, stride lengths, and movements in order to estimate the speeds of the dinosaurs that made various fossilized tracks. (WRM)

Effective problem-solving skills are critical in dealing with ambiguous and often complex issues in the present-day leaner and globally diverse organizations. Yet respected, well-established problem-solving models may be misaligned within the current work environment, particularly within a team context. Models learned from a more bureaucratic,…

Transformational leadership, an innovative learning model, grows out of the recognition that the learner's coordinate system is influenced by a variety of time, place, and person variables. The concept of a tetradigm, which graphically illustrates this model, is symbolized by an equilateral triangle within a larger equilateral triangle with the…

NASA CONNECT is an annual series of integrated mathematics, science, and technology instructional distance learning programs for students in grades 6-8. This program is designed for students to learn about the evolution of flight. The program has three components--television broadcast, Web activity, and lesson guide--which are designed as an…

There is plenty of "math on the menu" in the series of activities featured in this book. Students help the Rosada family start a Mexican restaurant featuring a variety of tostadas. Over the course of the unit, students apply different problem-solving strategies as they plan and expand the menu, determine different combinations of ingredients,…

Describes middle school students' efforts to investigate and fairly compensate the three bears, who incurred some losses at the hands of Goldilocks. Problems include investigating replacement costs of the damaged items, the cost to house Goldilocks in a state school, and the value of appropriate types of community service before determining…

Describes a classroom experience in which the teacher experiments with integrating mathematics history into a calculus class by presenting a historical problem taken from L'Hopital to be solved by the students. Extracts the role that history can play in teaching mathematics from the experience. (MDH)

Presents an example with multiple solutions that illustrates connections between mathematics and the real world. Considers five possible methods by which the voting for a convention delegate might be performed. (MDH)

Compares seven positions on media influences on learning that were presented in a previous journal issue; discusses the conflict between advocates of a given approach versus integrated approaches to the solving of complex problems; and presents a model that links cognitive processes to computer-based prescriptions for improvements in learning. (35…

This article describes an integrated activity that can teach students important lessons in recycling, manufacturing, measurement, art, and ecology, while at the same time putting old crayons to good use. The activity involved organizing fourth-grade students into a manufacturing company that would melt old crayons into molds to form a new product…

The paper argues that a relationship between visualization and mathematical problem solving ability exists. Research suggests that visual imagery leads to increased understanding of mathematical concepts at both the primary and secondary levels. Mathematical potential is not necessarily "born." Potential can be created in the least likely students…

Diverse philosophies are in evidence in teaching writing. Approaches used in teaching writing should assist students to achieve optimally as well as provide for individual differences, help them attain meaning and understanding of subject matter written, develop students' interest in communicating written content, establish purpose and reasons for…

Two beginning teachers were observed in an integrated instruction planning task. Their interpretations were studied when they worked collaboratively and when they worked independently. Data from interviews and field notes indicated that their individual planning lacked decision-choice flexibility and had limited strategy use. When they…