Although many IS programs nationwide use capstone courses in the major, this paper reports on the use of an upper division Management Information Systems (MIS) class as a general education requirements (GER) capstone. The class is a core requirement for all majors in the Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) program at the University of Alaska…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress shows that many US students are deficient in core knowledge in geography, civics and current events. In this paper, a professor of social studies methods describes an action research project developed to assess and improve teacher candidates' knowledge in these areas. The article explains how data…

Students' observations about society often become the basis for class discussions in Peter Cipparone's fourth-grade classroom. As Chip Wood, an expert on child development, observed, nine-year-olds are often "struggling with the cognitive task of understanding ethical behavior at a new level." One of this author's goals…

The recent National Assessment of Educational Progress in Geography revealed that few American students can identify locations of current events, the scale of those events, or why those events are important. Social studies educators have found that by incorporating emerging technologies into their classroom--such as Geographic Information Systems…

It has long been lamented that Americans do not comprehend conservative and liberal ideologies and the associated policy preferences for each perspective (and the reasoning behind the associations). This research seeks to contribute to the teaching of conservatism and liberalism by creating a heuristic outlining six general characteristics for…

For many years, Earth science concepts have been taught as thematic units with lessons in nice, neat chapter packages complete with labs and notes. But compartmentalized Earth science no longer exists, and implementing teaching methods that support student development of holistic understandings can be a time-consuming and difficult task. While…

For three years, a flagship university-school partnership program developed a multifaceted approach to integrate news and current events into in-school and after-school instruction in K-6 schools. Three case studies detailing the program's impact on an undergraduate novice instructor, an in-school technology mentor, and an experienced classroom…

Journalism professors are concerned with how effectively students understand current news events and engage with mainstream news sources. This essay is based on a survey administered to students in a newswriting course and analyzed the kinds of current news that students followed in weekly assignments designed with a digital, interactive approach.…

Many social scientists have recently commented on the high levels of income inequality in the United States. Indeed, the last time income inequality was as great as it is today was 1928, the year before the stock market crash ushered in the Great Depression. In this article, the authors offer a historical look at income inequality and taxation in…

Data and primary source documents are important for understanding past and current events. The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis has committed itself to the collection and illumination of economic data and historical information for classroom teachers and researchers. The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis provides a number of services--including…

The purpose of this article is to help physical educators and coaches better understand the issues raised in recent news stories about transgender and intersex athletes and to encourage them to engage students and athletes in dialogues about these topics. In conversations with students, it is important for teachers and coaches to separate facts…

Mary Ledbetter's fifth grade students at the University of Texas Elementary School know immigration well. Some of them are recent immigrants from Mexico, or they have family members who are. Several of Mary's students are first or second generation Americans. For Mary, immigration is one of the most important units she teaches, one that integrates…

On September 17, 2011 (Constitution Day), Occupy Wall Street began as a protest movement when approximately 2,000 supporters assembled in lower Manhattan's Zuccotti Park. The group's concerns focused on the corporate role in the current financial crisis and economic inequality. Rhetoric both in support of and against the protest began to flood the…

Functional literacy is important in both English/language arts and geography. Using the "found poetry" strategy, students will summarize a piece of text, identify main ideas and find geographic connections. While using young adult literature is a great way to incorporate geography into English/language arts classroom, understanding of geography…

Where the author teaches is far from the ocean, bordered on one side by forests of ponderosa and by the High Desert on the other. So when his first graders walked into class on the Monday morning after the 2011 earthquake and subsequent tsunami along the coast of Japan--and their usual light conversations about the weekend included some sobering…