Describes "Off the Beaten Path", a program that takes at-risk students out of the traditional classroom and puts them into a camping atmosphere in order to increase academic achievement, improve self-esteem, and promote better social skills. (WRM)

Describes an activity to help students understand how feathers help insulate a bird's body. (WRM)

Presents ideas for teaching elementary school children about scientific inquiry methods. Recommends a Planning Board to scaffold students' thinking as they plan and conduct scientific investigations. (WRM)

Describes the Virginian gentlemen within the United States during the eighteenth century and illustrates the features of plantation mansions using the mansion owned by Fielding Lewis known as Kenmore. Presents a lesson that is centered around the estate inventory upon the death of Lewis. Provides the inventory and assignment sheet. (CMK)

Investigates how museum visits can be used to meet the goals of practical work. Introduces a framework to facilitate student learning in museums. Contains 31 references. (DDR)

Presents an exercise in which cutouts or outlines of dinosaur footprints placed independently or in sets on the floor and laboratory benches are used to model dinosaur trackways. The nature, size, speed, and specific behavior of the trackmaker are determined from the trackways and from student-derived data as well as from diagrams and models based…

Details an activity in which students are challenged to consider real-world problems. Students collect and organize data on two fish species, examine the data mathematically, draw conclusions about the organisms with which they work, and extrapolate the results to other environments. (DDR)

The National Science Education Standards "Science as Inquiry" recommendations include developing student abilities to conduct inquiry and enhancing students' understandings about scientific inquiry. Standards also call for inquiry-based teaching aimed at understanding subject matter and ability to conduct scientific inquiry. A…

Introduces a Storm Trackers unit that uses actual hurricane data to track hurricane movements. Uses an inquiry-based teaching approach in a cooperative learning environment. (YDS)

Discusses a research seminar for senior history majors that uses three documents: a written text, a photograph, and a material object. Focuses on how the object, a 19th-century curling iron, is used to elucidate discussion not only of the object, but hypotheses about individuals and society, and about historical research. (DSK)

Examines the influence of standards-based teaching practices on the achievement of urban, African-American, middle school science students. Indicates that teachers who frequently used standards-based teaching practices positively influenced students' achievement and attitudes. Supports the efficacy of high-quality professional development to…

Focuses on issues related to safety, education, and entertainment in classroom demonstrations. Explains to preservice teachers how to conduct a demonstration to motivate students. Lists several elements that should be included for a successful demonstration which include purpose, planning, repeatability, simplicity, safety, visibility, and…

Investigates the responses of a sample of preservice biology teachers enrolled in a teaching methods course to a casual question about why water rose in a jar inverted over a burning candle placed in a pan of water by formulating and testing six hypotheses. (Contains 43 references.) (Author/YDS)

Examined a conversation among high school physics teachers concerning a classroom discussion and teacher-written essays about their first- and second-graders' early reasoning about triangles. The examination sought to: (1) gain insight into the inquiry of teaching; (2) explore similarities and differences between inquiry in teaching and in…

Describes the use of several teaching techniques based on constructivist educational theory. The teaching techniques are used with preservice teachers to enable them to experience active learning strategies in the context in which science is practiced. (Contains 19 references.) (DDR)