Describes how the stakes are high for the few seniors at the University of Southern California's film school who are chosen to direct a movie as their final project. (EV)

Reexamines what it means to conduct research. Emphasizes the importance of collaborative research, and recommends ways to encourage collaboration in students' research projects. (MM)

Children are naturally fascinated by mechanical things, and simple machines can be used to teach them how things work and how complex machines are made up of simple ones. (SK)

This chapter from a book titled "A New View: Economics and the Zoo" provides three classroom learning activities which use principles and activities of zoos to teach about such concepts as scarcity of resources, opportunity costs of decisions, resource use, and designing the perfect zoo. (DB)

Presents methods and materials needed to involve students in designing and maintaining Web sites while they learn valuable computer skills. (SK)

Using systematically colored circles to represent the elements, students are guided to a discovery of the important factor that leads to the periodic system. (DDR)

The project based learning by using Campus Calgary/Open Minds programs encourages schools and teachers to participate in a variety of learning methods. The use of on-site learning techniques makes it an integral part of planning and implementing variety of projects, which in turn encourages huge participation from students.

In project-based learning, students work in groups to solve challenging problems. They decide on an approach and what activities to pursue. Their teachers guide and advise them rather than direct the work. The process that students use is to gather information from many sources, analyze the value of what they find, and derive knowledge from it.…

Mr. Johnson has discovered that the higher the level of student engagement and creativity, the lower the probability of plagiarism. For teachers who would like to see such desirable results, he describes the characteristics of assignments that are most likely to produce them. Two scenarios of types of assignments that avoid plagiarism are…

This study examines ability of an interdisciplinary group project to develop student's abilities to work successfully in groups in a creative context. Group dynamics were investigated via interaction effects between students in a Graphic Design and Marketing class project. A repeated measures survey technique was used to assess student's…

Early adolescence is a time of transition, change, and growth. At no other time after gestation and early infancy are the human body and mind undergoing such rapid developmental changes. The bodies of young adolescents are physically and sexually maturing. Cognitive changes expand thinking abilities; social and emotional changes move adolescents…

The National Research Council's "National Science Education Standards" call for science education to be "developmentally appropriate, interesting, and relevant to students' lives, emphasize student understanding through inquiry, and be connected with other school subjects." This description captures the three major trends in science education…

Communication of scientific and medical information and collaborative work are important skills for students pursuing careers in health professions and other biomedical sciences. In addition, group work and active learning can increase student engagement and analytical skills. Students in our public health microbiology class were required to work…

The purpose of this study was to analyze the impact of a professional development (PD) program on teacher self-efficacy and classroom practice. Thirty-eight in-service teachers from a foundation school in Izmir participated in this study. Multiple sets of data for this study came from the Turkish teachers' sense of efficacy scale, classroom…