Open inquiry offers students the opportunity to gain 21st century skills and expose them to science practices advocated by Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). While this raises the bar from lower-level inquiry classes, students initially struggle with open inquiry, because they do not know what to expect as they shift from a teacher-directed…

Article describes cross age teaching programs in five different schools and gives reasons for their success. (GB)

The author, a sixth grade teacher, explains how she was able to use cartoons as an incentive for story writing. (AS)

Describes a project in which engineering students wrote science books for children as part of a technical writing course focusing on how writers adapt to the audience. Discusses children's positive reactions to the books, and notes the engineering students' enthusiasm for the project. (MM)

Reports on a class project that used donated materials to build a replica of the George Washington Bridge. The children read books related to bridges and created "vehicles" out of milk cartons for the bridge crossing. They also created stories for their vehicles that were transcribed by older students. (MJP)

Discusses classroom application of the concept that the best way to learn something is to explain it to someone else. Science students select basic subject concepts, then develop a brief lecture and a series of demonstrations and hands-on activities to explain those concepts to younger audiences. Students present their teacher-approved units to…

Cross-age projects allow elementary and secondary school students to break out of their traditional roles and explore what it means to listen, collaborate, and lead. The 4 projects described include story and guidebook writing, interviewing senior citizens in person and through telecommunications and writing biographies, and elementary school…

Describes a cooperative writing project involving a college-level psychology class and a ninth-grade English class. Discusses different concepts of psychology held by the two student groups. Concludes with suggestions for improving writing skills and helping students become more authoritative writers. (CFR)

Because of their small size, small/rural schools could implement many of the nontraditional instructional practices found in alternative schools, such as: small group instruction, individual study contracts, block scheduling arrangements, projects, community-based learning experiences, outdoor education, cross age tutoring, development of…

Recommends a broad application of experiential learning and community service projects as a means of reinvigorating social studies and making them relevant. Describes a number of projects from service learning to local history that illustrate this approach. Discusses this approach in terms of benefits, real life application, and assessment. (MJP)