Utilizing the vast diversity of planktonic communities that exist in local, temperate ponds and lakes, the authors describe a simple exercise that gives students both a field and classroom experience in biodiversity. (ZWH)

Describes a project that immerses students in the world of Nazi-occupied Europe. Students study the works of Holocaust victims and survivors, examining influences on style, content, and themes as a writer. (AEF)

Discusses the value of student-designed, in-depth, modeling projects in a differential equations course and how to prepare students. Provides excerpts from worksheets, a list of computer software for Macintosh that can be used in teaching differential equations, and an annotated bibliography. (Author/ASK)

Analysis of a qualitative study of 100 eighth graders investigating the use of hypertext for story writing revealed areas of interest to students and teachers. Discusses the use of pictures, collaboration, screen-based writing, nonlinear writing, and student oral presentations with LCD projectors. Suggests further research in the use of hypertext…

Outlines seven common mistakes in student-produced videos; suggests ways to avoid them. Mistakes include too much open screen space; unnatural, abrupt transitions between camera shots; odd juxtapositions of performers with background objects; endless talk without shot changes; no space between the subject's head and top of the video screen;…

Describes instructional strategies used in project-based introductory instructional design courses taught at Purdue and Florida State Universities. Discusses use of reflective summaries instead of quizzes, in-class demonstration of sample student projects, project-based application assignments, "mastery approach" (students revise and…

Discusses how teachers can support students in primary grades by establishing an environment that is conducive to inquiry and by helping children develop basic research skills. Highlights procedures for teaching students how to write informational reports, and describes how the procedures were applied in a third-grade and a first-grade class. (KB)

Suggests using issue-centered approaches in elementary social studies instruction and discusses one example, the Reconstructive Model by Frank Simon. Argues that by using this model, teachers can develop their own issue-centered lessons and units about history. Provides an example of a sixth-grade lesson on disabled students developed using this…

Describes how students in an Advanced Literature and Composition Course specialized for business students encountered an ethics assignment used as a culminating activity which employs course skills in research, writing, documentation, oral presentation, group dynamics, and multimedia design. (SR)

Two Nebraska teachers of grades 1 and 5 describe how their classes' joint Christmas project developed into an entrepreneurial experience. To raise money for toys for needy children, students applied for a bank loan, assembled bead kits for sale, and established costs and prices. The teachers took advantage of each new idea, turning "road blocks"…

The Center for School Change (Minnesota) encourages service learning, school-based entrepreneurship, family and community involvement in schools, and the state policies that encourage such approaches. Examples are presented of school and community programs supported by the Center, as well as the Center's efforts to advocate for such programs. (SV)

Describes a rich, investigative approach to multivariable calculus. Introduces a project in which students construct physical models of surfaces that represent real-life applications of their choice. The models, along with student-selected datasets, serve as vehicles to study most of the concepts of the course from both continuous and discrete…

Describes how use of panorama theater to teach middle school social studies can aid in teaching the academic skills of defining a problem, locating and collecting data, organizing and designing tasks, drawing inferences, creating and building interpretations, revising and editing, and interpreting data. Presents a classroom example of a panorama…

Describes how an inquiry-based science project on the life cycle of butterflies provided a developmentally appropriate learning experience in a first and second grade multiage classroom. Maintains that the critical exchange of ideas among students made students' thinking available for inspection, and allowed students to use their talk as a tool…

Proposes the use of a genre-based framework, according to the Swalesian tradition of genre, for the teaching of the organizational structure of academic report writing. An analysis of 15 engineering undergraduate project reports reveals that the problem-solution pattern is prevalent in key sections of these reports and should therefore also be…