Will video games change the way we learn? We argue here for a particular view of games--and of learning--as activities that are most powerful when they are personally meaningful, experiential, social, and epistemological all at the same time. From this perspective, we describe an approach to the design of learning environments that builds on the…

Find out how environmental print can be used as an instructional literacy tool in the kindergarten classroom. This book: (1) Describes games, activities, and centers that use environmental print; (2) Shows how to use environmental print to create a curriculum and assess students print awareness and sight word vocabulary; and (3) Gives…

These three issues contain educational activities and articles on the following topics: education for the future; learning about learning; readers' responses to requests for suggested article and activity topics; tools and techniques (revisiting the one-question interview, learning students' names, and getting to know one another); multi-level…

This collection of 30 business classroom activities is designed to help students become active thinkers and doers. It provides a variety of ways for reinforcing concepts, practicing problem-solving and critical-thinking skills, and having fun. This manual provides an objective, instructions, and a material list for each activity. Several…

Presenting a wide array of Internet addresses and sample lessons, this fourth edition shows how teachers can integrate the Internet into their K-12 curriculum to actively involve students. The first section of the book (chapters 1-6) deals with the programs needed to use the Internet, as well as 100 great web sites for teachers, how to manage the…

Based on Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula," this lesson plan presents activities designed to help students understand that some fictional literary characters become so famous that they enter popular culture in other forms (movies, games, toys); and that working on a product such as a game often demands collaborative effort. The main activity of the…

This paper reviews a set of studies that examined what students learn in various virtual reality environments (VREs) designed to promote an understanding of environmental science. The goal of the reported studies was to provide an update to the classic distinction between the role of media versus method in promoting learning (Clark, 1999). Media…

This guide to a unit on a simulation game about the stock market contains an instructional text and two separate simulations. Through directed lessons and reproducible worksheets, the unit teaches students about business ownership, stock exchanges, benchmarks, commissions, why prices change, the logistics of buying and selling stocks, and how to…

This CD-ROM is the second in a series of CDs allowing students to explore the trees and animals of the northern boreal forest. Using QuickTime Virtual Reality (QTVR), the Central Hardwood Virtual Forest is designed so that students are able to see views from inside the central hardwood forest and look up or down or spin around 360 degrees. The…

This CD-ROM presents a computer game that introduces students to the world of archaeology through attempting to solve a mystery. It gives students the inside story on this fascinating science and contains five missions for solving the mystery, over 20 video sequences, a variety of activities, a glossary with 53 entries, over 40 photos, 20…

This CD-ROM allows students to discover the key factors and major dates in the development of the science of chemistry. It includes 93 scientific concepts, 20 minutes of narration with animation, 14 interactive activities, an illustrated periodic table, a complete Portable Document Format (PDF) user guide, a dictionary explaining over 40 terms, a…

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of a learning game, of student teams, and of the games-teams combination on classroom processes. (Author)

Specific examples of activities that have been effective in classrooms are described. (LS)

More than 50 starter ideas for social studies projects and units for the primary and intermediate grades are presented. These help develop children's skills in social studies, reading, handwriting, and language arts, and stir their interest in local history and government. Activities can be used for new projects or to enrich ongoing ones. (PP)