A collaborative effort between a junior high school and a nearby university allowed 40 eighth-grade honors students to engage in a scientific investigation within a university laboratory. These students, with their science teachers and university researchers, gathered data on egg cannibalism in a beach-spawning fish and thereby contributed to an…

Many biology educators at the undergraduate level are revamping their laboratory curricula to incorporate inquiry-based research experiences so that students can directly participate in the process of science and improve their scientific reasoning skills. Slugs are an ideal organism for use in such a student-directed, hypothesis-driven experience.…

Discusses questions such as how birds fly and the meaning of bird songs. Explains the relationship between birds and ecological activism and points out the excitement in research and observation of birds. (Contains 34 references.) (YDS)

Presents methods for creating appropriate ways of collecting live specimens to use for firsthand observation in the classroom. Suggests ecological questions for students to address using these devices. This project is ideal for schools that have access to piers or bridges on a coastal body of water. (NB)

One potential asset to science learning that is often overlooked is the presence of learning institutions, other than schools, located in metropolitan areas. These "informal" learning institutions include universities, libraries, museums, science centers, and similar places. These organizations have the potential to provide resources, in the form…

In the future teachers of undergraduate biology will find increasing numbers of nonmajors in their courses and will have to modify the curricula to meet their needs. (BB)

Provided is a discussion of items covering a variety of fascinating biological topics which include: the elasticity of the furcula of starlings in flight, beavers increasing the greenhouse effect, effective invaders, traveling birds, the cuckoo deception, competitive sperm, hearing springs, heat and sight, blinking as punctuation, mutations, and…

Science should not be considered a secondary subject in elementary education and should not, as is often the case, be saved for the end of the school day when students and teachers are at a low energy ebb. Science and the three R's are not at odds but are complementary. (BB)

Presents the results of a study designed to determine student preferences with respect to outdoor (natural history) study topics. A primary objective of the study was to obtain knowledge that might assist interpreters and educators to more effectively plan programs and activities that recognize measured predispositions of children. (JR)

Authors describe a biology course for nonmajors that appealed to student interests while retaining content integrity. The other philosophical foundations of the course were to increase student involvement and to conduct at least half of the laboratory aspect of the course at field-based locations. Details of transportation considerations,…

Describes knowledge and attitudes regarding human genetics and biology among a sample of high school students. Also describes how the tests they use serve their interests in these two topics. (BB)

The author advocates the expression of wonder and excitement in biology teaching in order to convey the fresh joy of discovery to young students. (SA)

Describes a course in microbiology offered as a high school science elective. The laboratory-oriented course has proved to be very popular and provides students with the basic techniques for handling equipment and working safely with bacteria. (JR)

Discusses various kinds of symbiosis including commensalism, protocooperation, mutualism. Examples are given of each, and emphasis is on the interdependence of living things. (SA)