This packet contains nine lesson plans for integrated academic and vocational education courses. Lesson plans for the following courses are included: industrial technology, automotive technology, English, mathematical applications, science, home economics, and mathematics. Some of the topics covered are as follows: mechanical drawing, automobile…

This study describes the emerging themes and issues that impact on learning to teach science. The study examined whether the "language of schooling" that novices have been exposed to conflicts with the actual demands of practice, and how this conflict is resolved. Study participants were 14 Australian science graduates who had completed…

Science educators and the communities they serve have made the improvement of student achievement a high priority, and they have identified more effective teaching as part of the solution to this problem. This document answers the following two questions: What does the research show about effective science teaching? and What kinds of professional…

This document reviews the research related to students' and teachers' anxiety related to science and the teaching of science in order to better understand the relationships between the variables that can predict this phenomenon. The research reports reviewed used either the Science State Trait Anxiety Inventory or the Science Teaching State Trait…

The purpose of this study was to describe and interpret teacher decision-making with ethnically diverse students. A new paradigmatic theoretical framework formed through the confluence of constructivism, multiculturalism, the teacher-as-decision-maker, and semiology guided the research. The research site was a suburban middle school located in the…

Seymour Papert, who holds the Lego Chair for Learning Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, looks back over a decade during which American schools acquired more than three million computers and assesses progress and resistance to progress. Stories about visionary teachers who have used computers to enrich learning provide a…

This paper reports on a project involving the development and formative evaluation of an interactive World Wide Web-based learning tool. The interactive graphing tool (IGT) permits students to sketch a graph on screen using a mouse and responds to a wide range of common graph types. The IGT facilitates an iterative approach to understanding…

This guide is intended to help teachers plan, design, and implement science activities for students learning English as a Second Language (ESL) in grades 4-8, in mainstream science classes, ESL classes, bilingual education programs, and also to help others serving this population. Steps for designing science experiments that integrate language and…

This annual publication contains 43 research papers on a variety of issues related to science education. Topics include the following: mature-age students; teacher professional development; spreadsheets and science instruction; the Learning in Science Project and putting it into practice; science discipline knowledge in primary teacher education;…

Comet chronicles and stories extend back over thousands of years. A common theme has been that comets are a major cause of catastrophe and tragedy here on earth. In addition, both Aristotle and Ptolemy believed that comets were phenomena within the earth's atmosphere, and it wasn't until the 16th century, when Danish astronomer Tycho Brache…

The under-representation of women and African Americans in engineering spurred the research documented in this study. This document reports the reults of a study investigating middle school (in a southeastern rural community) children's attitudes toward persistence, life goals and sex-stereotypes, as potential barriers to their pursuit of…

The science-technology-society (STS) movement is emerging at the collegiate level. In elementary and secondary school science, social studies, and industrial arts classes, there is a growing awareness of the need for students to learn about technology and the methods by which it can be directed, made more appropriate, and controlled. This issue of…

This brochure, one in a series of four, is designed to assist people working in schools and in the community as they work together to encourage girls in mathematics, science, and engineering. Six sections discuss the reasons for and ways to work together to make changes. The first section describes what special programs can offer schools, and…

This paper examines discourse among fifth-grade students in a science classroom. The authors assess students' participation in small-group activities by focusing on their roles during conversation. The issue of gender equity is raised as an important question to be addressed by teachers, students and researchers in the context of science…

This manual describes, in both Spanish and English, activities used in a high school equivalency course for Spanish-speaking adolescent mothers and pregnant adolescents. It contains 13 writing activities, one integrated social studies/science activity, five social studies exercises, and one math and three reading/writing activities. Each is…