This project is in the process of developing a new curriculum, which they hope will provide senior high school inner city students with the requisite knowledge, skills, and attitudes that will enable them in later life to participate effectively in the political life of their community. Specific cognitive objectives include: 1) knowledge of the…

This twelfth grade curriculum guide explores the five behavioral sciences: sociology, social psychology, anthropology, economics, and political science. The overall objectives of the units are: 1) to survey these sciences within a complex society; 2) to realize the importance of individual to the total group; 3) to be aware of the major social…

This paper presents the results of the Science Parent, Activities, and Literature (Science PALs) project. This project aims to promote parent involvement in children's hands-on science education by using take-home, literature-based inquiry, problem solving, and design activities that connect school and home. Parents are the most effective source…

Hands-on science activities and first-hand experiences of kindergartners studying trees demonstrate the true meaning of authentic assessment. The activities and teacher interactions had several things in common: (1) they asked students to perform or create something; (2) they invoked real-world applications; (3) they showed that there is more than…

Examines the literature on the effectiveness of computers in social studies instruction and learning. Topics include drill and practice, tutorials, study guides, games and simulations, inquiry and problem solving, graphics, and word processing and writing. Contains 58 references. (LRW)

Describes a software shell, STAR.Legacy, designed to guide attempts to help students learn from case, problem, and project-based learning. STAR.Legacy supports the integration of four types of learning environments: learner-centered, knowledge-centered, assessment-centered, and community-centered. Describes how a STAR.Legacy constructed for an…

This paper examines students' mathematics learning in a social context as two versions of an instructional sequence designed to facilitate students' development of a conceptual foundation for place-value numeration are enacted in two third grade classrooms. The same instructional sequence is used in each classroom with the regular classroom…

This book describes inquiry learning during a year-long classroom exploration with 4th graders, which began with setting up a bird feeder and a journal for students to record observations. The authors argue that schools have been organized to make things easy for learners, shielding them from the messiness, ambiguity, and change of intellectual…

Help-seeking has become a topic of growing interest in the past 5 years for educators and psychologists concerned with the development and enhancement of children's active learning skills. This paper explains the instrumental role of help-seeking in learning. Major conceptualizations of help-seeking are examined and evaluated for their utility in…

The publication provides guidelines for local school personnel to use in the development of programs of study. In the preparation of this resource, the objectives were: 1) to detect and correct historic distortions, fallacies, commissions and omissions in the teaching of the history of the United States and the State of Illinois; 2) to examine…

At this seminar, educational practitioners and researchers affirmed that school curricula must be redesigned to teach the student to reason, explore, and discover for himself. The seminar participants discussed innovations currently available and the steps that should be taken by elementary schools to supplant the teaching of facts with…

Project-based learning (PBL), which is increasingly supported by information technologies (IT), contributes to fostering student-directed scientific inquiry of problems in a real-world setting. This study investigated the integration of PBL in an IT environment into three undergraduate chemistry courses, each including both experimental and…

Field Trip to the Moon uses an inquiry-based learning approach that fosters team building and introduces participants to careers in science and engineering. The program components include the Field Trip to the Moon DVD [not included here], Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)/Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) Activities, and…

The Field Trip to the Moon program uses an inquiry-based learning approach that fosters team building and introduces young people to careers in science and engineering. The program components include the Field Trip to the Moon show (either on DVD or presented in a planetarium dome) and workshop investigations. The compelling show provides…

The National Research Council is coordinating the development of national standards for science education in grades K through 12. By the fall of 1994, National Science Education Standards will be completed and published. The standards will contain narrative descriptions of what all students should be able to do to engage and understand the natural…