Educators from around the state, with the help of The Vermont Institutes, developed Science Grade Expectations as a means to identify the content knowledge and skills expected of all students for local assessment required under Act 68. This work was accomplished using the "Vermont's Framework of Standards and Learning Opportunities,"…

This case study applies principles derived from the Center for Regenerative Studies (CRS) to a community college in North Carolina. CRS, on the campus of California State Polytechnic Institute (California), is dedicated to the education, demonstration, and research of degenerative systems in the areas of shelter, food production, energy, water and…

In this activity, students conduct several simple lab activities to learn about the five fundamental load types that can act on structures: tension, compression, shear, bending, and torsion. In Part One, students play the role of molecules in a beam subject to various loading schemes. In Part Two, students break foam insulation blocks by applying…

In science education, it is well understood that teachers' scientific conceptions can influence students' learning, but the extent to which students' knowledge influences teachers' ideas is not known. This paper describes a study of the mutual interaction of ideas between two second grade teachers, one teacher intern, and their classrooms during…

The purpose of this study was to investigate aspects of the Nature of Science (NOS) concepts and teaching practices acquired by inservice teachers who participated in a teacher education program at the National Changhua University of Education in Taiwan. Two instructors used both case-history and demonstration approaches to help science teachers…

This report describes a program for improving scientific literacy at the primary level. The target population consisted of pre-kindergarten and second grade students in an expanding suburban Midwestern community. An intervention which included the identification of scientific skills and their integration into the curriculum, student exposure to…

Project TEAM--Teacher Education for the Approaching Millennium--represents an educational partnership designed to improve science teacher preparation, content knowledge among both students and teachers, and the desire to better connect the theoretical constructs offered in a science methods course with the practical concerns expressed by students…

Study undertaken to determine the particular areas in science which are of common interest to intermediate grade boys and girls from three different environmental settings. (Authors)

Discusses the construction of lenses made out of ice, including the arrangement for mounting an ice lens on a camera. Also discusses brewing coffee in an ibrik (long-handled container tapering slightly toward the top), focusing on the physics of the brewing. (JN)

Science education researchers have not used conceptual content of science (with some exceptions) as an important variable in their research. Suggestions are offered as to what kinds of science education research could be done in which conceptual content of science is important. (Author/SK)

Examples of the application of compound pendulum theory to the practical measurement of the moments of inertia of human beings, farm tractors, and sailing boats are presented. Suggests developing laboratory experiments to measure moments of inertia of hockey sticks, golf clubs, and frisbees, among others. (Author/SK)

Provides lists of instructional strategies for elementary school science focusing on: (1) the biological sciences; (2) forces, movement, and energy, and (3) the physical sciences. (JN)

Describes a study which determined the prevalence of the non-Newtonian view among students (N=125) and to what extent their physics teachers (N=5) were aware of this prevalence. Includes methods used and summaries of typical responses to a paper-pencil, multiple-choice format questionnaire focusing on aspects related to force. (JN)

Argues for a scientific philosophy that views theory not as absolute truth but as a model that attempts to explain reality and promote inquiry. Proposes that science teachers build upon students' existing knowledge by first presenting simple, less accurate but more comprehensive models and later discussing the weaknesses. (DC)

A university lecturer comments on the importance of adequate detail and individual interpretations of items in the core syllabus for A-level physics presented in the May 1980 issue of "Physics Education." Suggests that the syllabus fails in containing all essential elementary ideas necessary to master advanced concepts. (SK)