Describes a project in which third and fourth graders in a special education writing skills class learned how to design a house and make blueprints. Discusses the project's beneficial effects on student writing and public speaking skills, vocabulary, telephone skills, and effective peer interaction. (SV)

Describes how one rural school district in Loogootee (Indiana) has incorporated educational technology in its schools. Discusses the media-retrieval center linking all the classrooms, student television news projects, the computer-assisted design lab, special education rooms, the Internet, funding, policy decision making, and staff development.…

Discusses the use of fortune cookie fortunes in a middle school class combined with computer graphics, desktop publishing, and word processing technology to create writing assignments, games, and discussions. Topics include cultural contexts, and students creating their own fortunes. (LRW)

Describes an undergraduate Psychology of Social Problems course. The course focuses on the psychological aspects of legal abortion for adolescents and women, the consequences of denied abortions on unwanted children, and psychological ramifications of alternatives to abortion. Summarizes student evaluations of the course. (CFR)

Discusses the role of middle-school children supported by the community in organizing a project to feed needy children: running the project, and providing an educational activity prior to each meal. Describes academic outcomes of project, such as developing skills in language arts, math, and creative problem solving; and learning about nutrition.…

Presents a high school unit about the U.S. Industrial Revolution featuring the Boott Cotton Mills of Lowell, Massachusetts. Includes student objectives, step-by-step instructional procedures, and discussion questions. Provides two maps, five illustrations, one photograph, and three student readings. (ACM)

Maintains that educators can use Vietnamese history and culture to teach about human-environment interaction, adaptation, and modification. Describes Vietnamese water puppetry and recommends its use in U.S. classrooms. Includes five photographs, a description of water puppetry, and instructional suggestions. (CFR)

The University of Birmingham (England) Product and Manufacturing System (PAMS) design project is a major engineering design project undertaken by student teams and is spread over three undergraduate years. The project's objectives, open-ended student task, team member selection method, focus on transferable skills, supervision, and peer assessment…

Reports on two studies of student responses to increased emphasis on experiential activities in an undergraduate developmental psychology course. Finds that students in the experiential sections rated the value of and interest in the subject matter higher. (CFR)

A project of the Talented and Gifted Program in Torrington, Connecticut, is described. The project involved classroom teachers, the gifted teacher, art teacher, and physical education teacher leading fourth-grade students in developing a life-size skeleton, a tape-recorded narration explaining the skeletal system, and a song. (JDD)

Describes a project in which students in a community college basic mathematics class worked collaboratively to write their own book on fractions. Students reinforced their math and cooperative skills, gained confidence, organized and revised their ideas, and created their own examples. Relates teacher and student responses to the project. (DMM)

Describes an eighth grade teacher's efforts to integrate talk and writing, questioning and discussion, and learning as a shared responsibility between students and teacher. Outlines several projects related to the theme of work that achieved these goals, including interviews with parents and community members, journal entries projecting into the…

Presented is an activity which shows how mathematics is used in real life and helps to establish a need for mathematics in students' futures. Adapted from a scavenger-hunt idea, this activity helps students to discover that almost every career makes use of mathematics. (KR)

Four techniques used to incorporate writing and active learning into mathematics classrooms are described. They include summary sheets, short focused writing, medium length writing, and student presentations. Examples of how each technique can be used are included. (KR)

Describes a student project for an introductory course in U.S. history in which students gather oral or written recollections of the Depression era of the 1930s. Includes a sample questionnaire and other suggested projects. Discusses discovery of the relevance of textbook material to students' families. (DK)