Describes a partnership between the Joint Activities Program and an inner-city school that provides students with an enriched science learning experience. The program's educational beliefs, assumptions, and their implications are discussed. Also included in the article are brief descriptions of some the science experiences and learning of the…

Describes an assignment that allows students to explore the life of the Cherokee Indians during a tragic period in history when the U.S. Government removed the Cherokees from their ancestral homeland. Students demonstrate learning by creating skits that incorporate Cherokee history, culture, and herbal remedies. (ZWH)

Using a well-planned scavenger hunt, students' awareness of the significance of minorities and women in science is enhanced. Provides a sample scavenger hunt and resource list as well as activities for extension. (ZWH)

Presents six teaching ideas from teachers in Foothills Schools, Alberta, Canada. Includes suggested activities on local government, computer uses in social studies, Canadian history, current events, and world studies. Provides models of a passport application, passports, and visas. (CFR)

Describes a thematic curriculum unit in which elementary students simulate travel around the world and record their experiences using word processors and databases. Includes figures listing student directions and an actual student journal entry. Asserts that technology can heighten student motivation and improve knowledge about the world. (CFR)

Presents an activity through which students develop mathematical concepts connected to area and perimeter in a rich, real-life setting and use tables, graphs, diagrams, and spreadsheets to explore the problem, see relationships, and make and test conjectures about those relationships. Encourages algebraic thinking. (SYB)

Describes a library media skills unit for middle school mathematics that identifies specific subject material, develops questions based on the sources chosen, addresses student motivation, involves cooperative learning, and culminates in a "Jeopardy"-style game. (LRW)

Asserts that, at the time of the American Revolution, most people handled their own health care. Presents a lesson plan on illness and health care in colonial America that uses Martha Washington as a case study. Includes a reproduction of a colonial era herbal manual and excerpts from letters discussing health care. (CFR)

Maintains that the study of complex organizations has long been central to sociology. Presents and describes a college assignment based on the sociological practice perspective, a new approach to social science instruction. Includes a six-step student process, information on grading, and a sample of student questions. (CFR)

Maintains that nothing requires more meticulous preparation than guiding and supervising lessons in discovery and improvisation. Discusses the discovery learning techniques of the Orff-Schulwerk method of music instruction. Includes a teaching example based on the National Standards for Arts Education. (CFR)

Asserts that commercial online computer services provide a wealth of features that can be helpful in teaching political science. Discusses four commercial services and recommends the use of Prodigy because of its ability to link one article to other articles of related content. (CFR)

Presented are assessment techniques to help improve instruction. Included are the formative assessment techniques observation and questioning, diagnostic interviews, and problem-solving-based investigations and the summative assessment technique of performance-based tasks. Examples of these methods are provided together with at-home activities…

Discusses how children's literature can be used as a context to develop problem-solving tasks. Illustrates this idea by developing tasks to teach concepts related to multiplication through the context of "The Patchwork Quilt," a children's book by Valerie Flournoy. Suggests activity extensions to determine unit sizes, draw scale models,…

Presents five activities focusing on mental computation and estimation for the K-3, 3-5, 4-6, and 6-8 grade levels that require the student, acting as a judge, to review solutions to problems and to pronounce and justify a verdict. Provides suggested materials, questions, possible extensions, answers, and worksheets for each activity. (MDH)

Presents a series of five activities that introduce division of fractions through real-world situations. Discusses problems related to resurfacing a highway, painting dividing stripes on a highway, covering one area A with another area B, looking for patterns, and maximizing the result of a division problem. Includes reproducible worksheets. (MDH)