Describes a scientific investigation of sexual dimorphism with regard to chela size in crayfish in which students utilize the skills, tools, and techniques associated with the formulation and testing of scientific hypotheses. Indicates that students find the investigation effective in aiding their understanding of fundamental aspects of scientific…

Introduces the project Technology Enhanced Elementary and Middle School Science (TEEMSS) which implements technology into numeracy, literacy, and scientific working. Uses a hands-on science approach. (YDS)

Criticizes methodological tendencies of economics and sociological researchers who do not ask "how large is large?" Reliance on statistical significance and existence theorems shows the limits of formalistic rather than humanistic research approaches. Argues that serious scholars develop whole arguments and understand the rhetoric of…

Explains why movements toward more progressive, inquiry-based teaching practices generally have failed. Examines resistance to change arising from school climate, greater demands of progressive teaching, nature of teacher preparation and teaching practices, deficiencies in teacher knowledge of subject matter, and controversy over purposes of…

Criticizes schooling for showing student progress toward developing questioning skills. Suggests that a student-centered classroom can give students the freedom to ask substantive questions and empower them to control their own learning. Describes how student questions can be utilized in the classroom. Urges teachers to avoid imposing knowledge on…

Describes opportunities for inquiry-based science learning which can be found in a picture, a set of comparative data, a table, an article, or a phenomenon that illustrates a space/time relationship. Provides a general model of inquiry. (RT)

Discusses the value of using photographs and pictures as a way to give meaning to facts for all students. Points out that photographs are most successfully used when accompanied by proper questions in an appropriate sequence. Gives examples of such questions and provides a sample lesson. (KO)

Hampshire College needed to create opportunities for advanced undergraduates to have extensive laboratory or field experience in experimental sciences. A general biochemistry course, taught almost entirely in the laboratory, is described. The focus of the course is enzymes as catalysts and as proteins. (MLW)

A course at Hampshire College that examines the character and history of literary natural history and surveys many of its significant American authors and works is described. Issues of the relationship between people and nature are raised and discussed in terms of current environmental debates. (MLW)

A course at Hampshire College that joins the literature and analytical approaches of anthropology with certain texts in English, American, and European literature and modern criticism is described. The problems of the relationship of observer to observed, of author to text, and of audience to text are covered. (MLW)

Librarians must help students establish basic research skills, enabling students to find their way in the pertinent indexes, bibliographies, and electronic databases. A course at Hampshire College in bibliographical instruction is described. (MLW)

Suggests steps for approaching discussion of controversial issues in the classroom, using the scandal of Canadian Olympian sprinter Ben Johnson as an example. Recommends the reflective inquiry approach, which necessitates framing the problem in relationship to student age, and with attention to the information available about the problem. (LS)

Presents a geographic inquiry lesson designed to supplement a unit on the Vietnam War. Students work in a cooperative learning situation which emphasizes critical thinking skills. Provides background information and lists references and sources from which a variety of visual activities can be derived. Reports a high degree of satisfaction among…

Analyzes a short excerpt from a high school physics class discussion to consider the value of the students' work as inquiry and to illustrate a teacher's negotiation of the tension between inquiry and traditional content-oriented concerns. (MDM)

Describes a study of 12-year-old elementary school students in Western Australia that was conducted to investigate the students' capacity to extract meaningful information from nontext sources when using a hypermedia CD-ROM package in an inquiry activity. (34 references) (LRW)