Suggests a teaching strategy for water habitat studies to help students make a meaningful connection between physiochemical data (dissolved oxygen content, pH, and water temperature) and biological specimens they collect. Involves constructing a poster and using it to make predictions. Provides sample poster. (DC)

Discusses ways to use overhead projectors for astronomy demonstrations and activities. Topics include phases of the moon, star maps, light, and the sun. (SK)

Activities are suggested for helping students understand the nature of contours (lines of constant geographic elevation), including instructions for preparing a contour map with an apparatus constructed with a sharpened stake and perpendicular crossbar, plumb line (washer tied to string), and a soda straw. (SK)

To provide an activity illustrating why they encounter conceptual difficulties in physics, students constructed a "world map" of physics which defines various "seas" and illustrates relationships between them. Salient features of this approach and physics concepts fostered are included. (JN)

Procedures for constructing an inexpensive, hands-on working model of DNA are provided, as well as suggestions for using the model in a high school or college biology class. (DC)

Procedures used by a primary science class to build five different working solar furnaces are summarized. Diagrams, illustrations, and graphs of children's results are included. (DC)

Laboratory procedures, equipment, teaching ideas, and resource materials related to physics are discussed. Topics include the construction of a liquid-metal pump, a hydraulic jack, and an apparatus which helps teach time/velocity graphs; current/voltage characteristics of a tungsten filament lamp; and an electric circuit game. (DC)

Introduces a teaching method called guided design which involves a series of problems and solutions with feedback that leads students in a logical sequence through material being taught. Presents 15 worksheets to demonstrate the use of this technique in an introductory ornithology course. (Author/DC)

Presents chemistry activities suitable for elementary students. Lists chemicals commonly used in elementary science, their common names, and where they may be obtained. (DS)

Describes a preschool science-based curriculum which encompasses four broad topics: water, small creatures, gadgetry, and environmental terraria. Includes a description and list of activities for each topic. Presents research suggesting that children participating in this curriculum increased their self-directed discovery and verbalized curiosity.…

Examines the pros and cons of laboratory instruction. Complaints lodged against laboratory instruction include its high cost, and lack of research supporting the lab. Justifications listed include science education research supporting the lab, psychology, and common sense. (DS)

Suggests individual student projects for extra-credit work to enhance student individuality. Provides a sample information sheet for independent projects (with suggested activities), a listing of project requirements, and a project evaluation checklist. (DS)

Presented is an experiment investigating children's awareness of regularities in physical phenomena and their capacity for expressing these regularities. Hypothesized and confirmed is that children can use statements with the form and purpose of a physical law. Cartoons related to Archimedes' principle (and connected gravitation and fluid…

The activities for preschool through primary aged children identify ways in which teachers can encourage children to learn the functions of many everyday materials. (SA)

Several experiments are described using common laboratory apparatus and readily available materials to generate resonance spectra of air columns. The advantages of this apparatus and method of demonstration are visual impact and accuracy of results. (CS)