Describes two model water education programs. The River Ecology Program teaches students basic ecological concepts related to rivers, explores the impact of human activities on rivers, and helps students develop an attitude of stewardship for rivers. The Wetlands Watch Program has students conduct studies related to local wetlands and respond…

Details an interdisciplinary video project used by an eighth-grade English teacher to tie the flora, fauna, forces of nature, and historical events in the book "Prairie Songs" to what students are learning about in social studies and in science. Describes goals and resources for the project, student questions, researching topics, writing…

Describes how a multicultural unit was added to a high school American literature course, noting that this necessitated selecting a large number of new books for the school library. Discusses goals of the multicultural project and its main interpretive assignment. Describes briefly selected works by four new African American writers and four new…

Describes an exercise for a business writing class which provides teams of students with a simulated encounter involving extended conflict with an adversarial business person, extending over several weeks, and requiring extensive problem solving and a range of business writing. (SR)

Discusses how students and teachers can produce more creative and technically proficient videotapes with an inexpensive editing system. Describes the basics of creating different shots, steps to follow in the editing process, and how to avoid mistakes. (AEF)

Describes the development and implementation of a new interdisciplinary field of study at Indiana University called Masters in Immersive Mediated Environments (MIME). Graduates will be both critical thinkers of and producers of professional-quality original media design. Discusses student skills, course requirements and content, student group…

Giving students a chance to associate numbers with subjects can be useful in speeding their location of desired print or nonprint materials and helping students feel independent when browsing. A matching game for helping students learn the Dewey numbers is presented. Instructions for the library media specialist or teacher, instructions for…

Describes how sixth graders wrote and illustrated picture books to help make abstract and difficult concepts in science (in this case, the elements of chemistry) more understandable for themselves and for younger children. Describes the steps of research, modeling, developing a plan of action, drafting, final revision and editing, and publishing…

Describes a school program in which two sixth-grade science classes researched, created, and put together an ocean museum targeted at kindergarten through eighth graders who are geographically distanced from the ocean. Details the process for investigating topical areas, organizing teams of students, researching, writing, creating displays, and…

Uses the example of a fourth-grade class working to have the firefly declared as Pennsylvania's state insect to highlight the effectiveness of dynamic social studies in elementary school. Discusses how dynamic social studies maintains a balance between seriousness and fun by offering a blend of variety, active involvement, and excitement while…

Proposes new directions for K-6 social studies, including a curriculum model focused on key concepts, questions to guide student inquiry, and civic action projects. Summarizes informal feedback from elementary students, pre- and inservice teachers, and social studies education professors revealing consensus about the need for a new framework and…

This article describes how teachers combined schoolwide enrichment and differentiated instruction models to design a fifth-grade fantasy literature unit. Small groups explored novels to learn the germane content and genre characteristics and then regrouped to refine and apply what was learned to a variety of open-ended problems. (Contains…

Reports on a study that examines the experiences of six teachers at three schools in learning about and beginning to implement or enhance project-based learning in their middle school science classrooms using a variety of resources available on the Internet. Contains 25 references. (DDR)

Discusses oral history as a means to connect national events with the lives of individual people. Relates the information from student oral term paper interviews, focusing on topics such as the Vietnam War, the Great Depression, civil rights and school integration, and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. (CMK)

Describes an art project that allows seventh and eighth grade students to participate in the "Middfest" in Middletown, Ohio, that honors a different country each year. Explains that the students created 10 feet high paintings of Greek philosophers for the Middfest focus on Greece. (CMK)