Discusses methods for teaching elementary art students the principle of a focal point in the design of art works. Suggests beginning with well-known paintings as examples of utilizing a focal point, and then encouraging students to create their own designs. Displays examples of student art employing a center of interest. (DB)

Design and Technology activities, a required part of the British National Curriculum, are assessed by the students themselves with a framework of eight statements of attainment. The activities cover a range of skills, techniques, and processes involved in creating artifacts, systems, and environments. (SK)

A teacher describes his efforts to apply the Foxfire approach in a graduate course for teachers on integrating community resources into the curriculum. In an atmosphere of cooperative learning and teamwork, the graduate students produced a guide to using ordinary people and places as learning resources. (SV)

Successful small group science teaching techniques at the State University of New York (Plattsburgh) are described, including use of small groups for problem-solving, discussion, and research projects. Majors and nonmajors appeared to profit from this approach, and further use of small groups with diverse populations and large classes is planned.…

Provided is a perspective on the teaching of a unit on the Earth in space. The themes to be found within the unit, approaches and resources that can be used for teaching and learning the subject, and some of the typical ideas that children hold about astronomical subjects are provided. (KR)

The Public Service Electric & Gas Company in New Jersey uses graduate/undergraduate student project teams to explore promising technology that can be further explored in a more formal, contracted research arrangement between the company and academic institutions such as the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Stevens Institute of…

Explores community service learning as a way of revitalizing schools while integrating students into life in their communities. Service learning needs to be more than a single activity so that students see it in more than school terms. Several examples of student service projects are given. (SLD)

Describes a course that bridges the gap between pure science and pure technology called Pre-Engineering. This course gives junior and senior students a chance to investigate the possibility of choosing engineering as a major in college as well as to experience hands-on activities, projects, laboratories, problem solving, and computer simulations…

Presents a guiding framework (Relate-Create-Donate) for integrating World Wide Web technology into higher education and describes two specific strategies: "Encyclopedia Of" and "Open Projects." The Encyclopedia of Virtual Environments (EVE), Online Library of Information Visualization Environments (OLIVE), and Student HCI Online Research…

Describes how to measure the penultimate laboratory speed, a stress wave velocity in a solid rod. Also includes background information on stress waves, apparatus, and procedures. Employs a homemade interface for the IBM platform. (DDR)

Describes a community project (based on Kenneth Koch's book "I Never Told Anybody") in which students in a ninth-grade English class paired up with nursing home residents, making regular visits to encourage them to write poetry. Discusses finding a place, getting ready, working together, and what students learned about writing poetry and about…

Discusses the use of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) in the world of education, focusing on new paradigms, types of CALL environments, and characteristics of technology-rich schools. Several sidebars discuss technology types for CALL, what is needed to create a CALL environment, building a computer lab, and student-project Internet…

Describes a project using city and town archives to explore important issues in U.S. history for Advanced Placement American history courses. Relates how town death, birth, or marriage records can be used by students as the stimuli for research projects on larger trends in demographic, social, or political history. (DSK)

Recounts the development of a CyberPals project between Redlands Unified School District (California) and Plymouth Village Retirement Community (California) to connect students with seniors via electronic mail. Discusses how the project was incorporated into the elementary social studies curriculum and its impact on the students. (DSK)

Summarizes a geography unit for elementary school students that allows them to explore the social geography of their own local environment and compare it with those of students in partner schools around the world via the Internet. Includes suggestions for teachers who wish to create their own projects. (DSK)