We present a simple activity that permits students to determine the coefficient of restitution of bouncing balls using only a stopwatch, a metre stick and graphical analysis. The experiment emphasizes that simple models, in combination with careful attention to how students make measurements, can lead to good results in a straightforward way.

As scholars continue to debate over the specific skills underprepared students need in order to complete their course of study, perhaps the focus should be on how to tap into students' independent thought processes and encourage students to utilize independent thought to contribute to interdependent groups. Placing value on students' independent…

The Russian-educated author describes active-learning classroom activities that she created and implemented during her first experience teaching lower- and upper-level undergraduate mathematics courses in the United States. The article begins with a discussion of how the author incorporated humorous stories and memo-pictures into the classroom.…

The Student Perceptions of Classroom Support Scale (SPCS), which measures the perceptions of students with mild disabilities of academic and social support mechanisms implemented in regular classrooms, was administered to 60 secondary school-aged students. Data were obtained with reference to curricular, instructional, physical and peer support…

For students of Indonesian, learning to identify base words is very important, but can often be quite tricky. This article describes how one of the authors used interactive digital content from The Le@rning Federation (TLF) together with an extensive range of offline activities within an intercultural language learning (ICLL) framework. It helps…

This article describes a themed classroom project designed to teach about the culture and civilization of ancient Egypt. In preparing the project, it is noted that teachers should remember that different learning styles, including activities that provide meaningful experiences, are appropriate in accommodating the various ways children learn.…

This article shares card-sorting activities that involve state-mandated test items to use with prospective and practicing mathematics teachers to teach about accountability measures while exploring reform-minded mathematics instruction recommendations. (Contains 2 figures.)

This study examines a collaborative project between a literacy professor and a classroom teacher. The professor used a Newbery Award winning novel to develop a unit for a fifth-grade classroom using curricular materials and methods that showcased research-based literacy practices. The fifth-grade teacher, in turn, used her knowledge of students'…

This book is about the energy, substance, hope, and determination that excellent teachers bring to the rhythm of classrooms every day, year in and year out. Balli offers experiences and important lessons about teaching and classroom life at all grade levels, illuminating the perspective of both teachers and students. Knitting teacher and student…

In order to collaborate effectively in group discourse on a topic like mathematical patterns, group participants must organize their activities in ways that share the significance of their utterances, inscriptions, and behaviors. Here, we report the results of a ethnomethodological case study of collaborative math problem-solving activities…

This article reviews research-based knowledge about service learning in social work education. Student learning outcomes common to both service learning and social work education are examined, and the research-based literature on service learning in social work is analyzed. Service-learning practice issues in social work education are described:…

Using activities as its analytic focus, this article compares the classroom cultures of two reading lessons taught by the same teacher. One was from a regular reading class and the other from a reading intervention class that was designed to help students pass the high-stakes state assessment. By developing fine-grained descriptions of classroom…

This article presents a proficiency-oriented approach to teaching feature films in the first- and second-year classroom. It argues that film is currently under utilized at the Basic and Independent User levels, particularly as a means to create context in the classroom. Strategies are presented to tap the potential of film for communicative…

Play is, by definition, internally motivated, flexible, spontaneous and voluntary. Yet some researchers claim to have taught children with autism to play using behavioural interventions that are heavily structured, repetitive and make use of external reinforcements. In the current systematic review, we examine the extent to which these claims are…

This article reports on lessons about climate change which pose many challenges for science teachers. The natural world today offers a broad--and dire--catalog of scientific phenomena for teachers wanting to craft classroom lessons on the topic of climate change. As public concern about global warming increases, teachers are carving out a larger…