The "National Science Education Standards" provide a vision and standard of science instruction that includes not only the factual, content-rich history of science but also an understanding of the processes and skills necessary to "do" science. Moreover, the "Standards" provide the framework for science instruction that embodies the use of…

The authors applied constructivist learning theory to environmental education to explore knowledge gains, student attitudes, and engagement among high school students exposed to a week-long unit on nonnative plant species. The authors compared constructivist and traditional teaching methods. Each class was given a pretest and a posttest. The…

Problem solving is an ideal learning strategy, especially for topics that are perceived as difficult to teach. As an example, a format is described for a problem-solving session designed to help students understand the pressure-flow hypothesis of phloem transport in plants. Five key facts and their discussion can lead to the conclusion that a…

Since the recommendation of biology (or natural history, as it used to be called) in 1893 as part of the high school science curriculum, biology was considered a descriptive subject. In the late 1890s biology consisted of zoology, botany, and physiology. The group that decided on the high school science course configuration was the Committee of…

The laboratory component of a first-semester general chemistry course for science majors is described. The laboratory involves a semester-long project undertaken in a small-group format. Students are asked to examine whether plants grown in soil contaminated with lead take up more lead than those grown in uncontaminated soil. They are also asked…

A generic teaching format in which students actively participate in a whole-class collaborative-learning experience is described. The entire class, divided into groups, made a joint effort to overcome a hypothetical outbreak of a new plant disease. High scores on an examination question concerning the project indicated successful assimilation of…

This study was designed to theoretically articulate and empirically assess the role of computer scaffolds. In this project, several examples of educational software were developed to scaffold the learning of students performing high level cognitive activities. The software used in this study, Artemis, focused on scaffolding the learning of…

The purpose of this study was to investigate and describe selected instructional strategies (traditional and constructivist) and grouping practices (homogeneous and heterogeneous) on conceptual understanding and critical thinking skills in biology classrooms in three high schools. The context of the study was the teaching and learning of plant…

This curriculum was written for youth organizations and secondary students in the County of Sacramento, California to develop their ability to: (1) recognize and evaluate how decisions are made about land use; (2) understand the roles of elected officials, property owners, citizens, and local governmental departments and agencies; (3) understand…

This is the fourth book in a sequence of four volumes written and designed for parents of students of science, particularly for those at the lower and upper elementary and junior high or intermediate level, senior high students, college students preparing to teach science, and all those individuals who are interested in science and the application…

This volume of 16 chapters by 15 contributing authors was conceived as a means of drawing together a body of basic information about the Great Lakes that is up to date, based on sound research, and interpreted by experts in the scientific, historical, environmental and political value of the Great Lakes to North America and the world. Chapters…

The booklet, intended to acquaint students or visitors with the herb garden at the Lathrop E. Smith Environmental Education Center (Rockville, Maryland), describes 25 herbs and suggests ways to extend learning further by providing historic background and other information about the herbs. Each herb is described on a separate page, with each…

The Zimbabwe Secondary School Science Project (ZIM-SCI) developed student study guides, corresponding teaching guides, and science kits for a low-cost science course which could be taught during the first 2 years of secondary school without the aid of qualified teachers and environmental laboratories. This ZIM-SCI study guide consists of…

This slide script, part of a series of slide scripts designed for use in vocational agriculture classes, deals with commercially important woody ornamental landscape plants. Included in the script are narrations for use with a total of 253 slides illustrating 92 different plants. Several slides are used to illustrate each plant: besides a view of…

In this study, the attitudes of Israeli children aged 6 to 15 years were surveyed regarding their conceptions of plants as living things. It was desired to find out whether children consider plants to be alive, the knowledge differences between the different age groups in the study, how children classify plants according to biological criteria and…