Tracks five-year-old children's ideas by a range of means during and subsequent to a classroom sequence on evaporation. Explores the relationship between social and individual perspectives on learning, and questions some assumptions underlying conceptual change research. Analyzes the children's explanations of various evaporation phenomena over…

Observes an eighth grade science class in two overlapping perspectives: an action orientation and a discourse orientation. Reports that the teacher's actions encouraged univocal discourse between students and their reproductive understanding of scientific concepts. Concludes that before a class can become more like a scientific discourse…

Advocates including plants at several trophic levels when studying food chains. Presents background information on parasitic plants, myco-heterophytes (saprophytes), and carnivorous plants. Contains 20 references. (WRM)

Discusses the biology of magnetobacteria and describes how they can be used in an empirical test of natural selection that takes three to four weeks. Contains 11 references. (WRM)

Presents an activity in which students observe gelatin samples treated with substances that may or may not have an enzymatic effect on the protein on the gelatin. (WRM)

Describes an activity that explores the relationship between the impulse and the distance traveled by a projectile. (WRM)

Investigates the views of 10 university chemistry lecturers, 85 pre-service chemistry teachers, and 23 chemistry students on the particulate level of a chemical reaction. (Author/CCM)

Finds that students taught with a constructivist approach had much more increased personal knowledge concerning energy compared to students taught in a traditional manner. (Contains 15 references.) (Author/WRM)

Describes how teachers can support the learning of the most able elementary students in science in normal classroom situations. (Author)

Describes a study of Taiwanese 14-year-olds' (n=48) cognitive structures derived from the instruction of basic atomic physics. Finds that even academically above-average students tended to use relatively lower-level modes of knowledge construction, focusing on reciting or describing specific factual knowledge in physics. (Contains 27 references.)…

This rejoinder to commentaries on the authors' original article (EC 630 380) concerning the balance between science and politics in the education of students with learning disabilities first clarifies and expands particular points, then addresses each of the four commentaries individually. The authors urge increasing scientific research and…

Examines one preschooler's conversation with author to determine what concepts educators consider "difficult" for this age group. Finds that concepts such as "infinity" and "negative numbers," typically avoided by primary educators, were brought into view in the task-based conversations. Argues that individual…

Some theoretical models of scientific communication suggest science may be understood as a heterogeneous network of social actors and ideational elements. Bibliometric methods provide the means for empirical application of this perspective to investigations of the formal communication system in science. The conceptual-operational links between key…

Discusses student use of computer graphics software and presents documentation from a visualization workshop designed to help learners use computer graphics to construct meaning while they studied science concepts. Describes problems and benefits when delivering visualization workshops in the natural setting of a middle school. (Author/LRW)

Clinical interviews with eight preservice elementary teachers elicited their understanding of pest-related benchmarks. Those with out-of-school experience were better able to articulate their understanding. Many were unable to make connections between scientific, societal and technological concepts. (Contains 39 references.) (SK)