Presents a three-week interdisciplinary unit for starting the school year that focuses on the concept of flight. Enables students to acquire knowledge and develop process skills that they need later in the semester. (JRH)

Describes activities for starting the school year that allow students to begin learning laboratory skills and also gives them a chance to meet and interact with classmates in a relaxed atmosphere. (JRH)

Describes a series of 14 hands-on, low-cost exercises in plant sciences developed to support biology teaching and maintain student interest. Each exercise includes education objectives, biology background, detailed procedures, and topics to stimulate discussion and critical thinking. (DDR)

Presents an alternative way to teach chemistry by using transmuted laboratory activities in which students must predict outcomes within a certain error factor. Includes nine sample labs. (MKR)

Presents an alternative approach to bonding and geometry--the electron domain model--which avoids some of the problems with the conventional approach. Discusses difficulties with the orbital model at the introductory level, electron spin and the Pauli exclusion principle, electron pair domains, nonequivalent domains, multiple bonds, and origins…

Shows how ionization energies provide a convenient method for obtaining electronegativity values that is simpler than the conventional methods. Demonstrates how approximate atomic charges can be calculated for polar molecules and how this method of determining electronegativities may lead to deeper insights than are typically possible for the…

Studied conditions conducive to conceptual growth and those conducive to procedural growth in student hypothesis testing in science by studying 216 Scottish elementary school students. Results suggest that problems can be overcome when students debate their conceptual knowledge and reach consensus and subject their consensual positions to…

Presents three science activities targeted to help urban students learn about nature: (1) observing coloration patterns of pigeons; (2) measuring local rainfall and comparing it to other areas; and (3) conducting a biodiversity study by observing a patch of lawn. (YDS)

Presents an experiment using plants grown on the classroom window sill that allows students to gain valuable hands-on experience in the collection and analysis of empirical data. (ASK)

Investigated whether kindergarten students who played Sony PlayStation educational video games for 40 minutes daily for 11 weeks learned better than peers who did not play such games. Found that the experimental group gained significantly more than the control group in spelling and decoding on the Wide Range Achievement Test-R3. Found no…

Discusses Knob's solution, which was considered the ideal plant growth solution in 1865, and recommends eliminating Knob's solution from active teaching. Describes solution culture basics including nutrient solutions, containers and aeration, and plants and light. (Contains 12 references.) (YDS)

Examined effects of contextual and individual differences on mothers' autonomy support versus control on homework-like tasks with their third-grade children. Found that mothers in the high-pressure condition were more controlling on the poem task. For the map task, mothers with initial controlling styles in the high-pressure condition were more…

Reports on a study to discover physics student teachers' objectives for practical work in teaching physics. Participants took a course based on a unique perceptional approach. Results indicate that after attending the course, student teachers found that the practical work which they had done was very useful. (Author/MM)

Describes an unusual course at the University of California, Los Angeles which includes DNA sequencing experiences and exploration of the social, economic, and ethical issues resulting from advances in biotechnology. (EV)

Elementary teachers can use weather folklore to help students explore and discover facts about weather. An experiment with woolly bear caterpillars examines whether their stripes can predict what kind of winter weather there will be. A investigation about moon halos and rain gives students experience setting up investigations based on questions…