Explores the natural forces that created the Colorado Plateau, examines a few of the myriad plants and animals inhabiting the six life zones on the plateau, and provides an overview of the challenges faced by land managers seeking to care for the plateau's extraordinary life and land forms. Contains 17 references. (WRM)

Describes the haze-monitoring program that was added to the protocols of the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Program. Finds that sun photometry provides a convenient means for allowing students to perform hands-on science while learning about various topics in history, electronics, algebra, statistics, graphing,…

Explores the effects of a Problem-based Computer-Assisted Instruction (PBCAI) on students' earth science achievement in Taiwan. One hundred and fifty-nine 10th grade students enrolled in four sections of a mandatory earth science course participated in this pretest- posttest control group experiment. A significant difference was found between the…

Provides an overview of five earth and space science CD-ROMs and their potential contribution to learning mathematics and science. The software are "Welcome to the Planets"; "GeoMedia 2, Interactive Multimedia CD-ROM on Global Environmental Change"; "Mars Educational Multimedia"; "Redshift Multimedia Astronomy"; and "Expert Astronomer."…

Explains an activity in which students study sedimentary rocks using an inquiry-based approach. Focuses on Content Standard D of the National Science Education Standards (NSES). (YDS)

Reports on a survey undertaken to test teacher perception of the effectiveness of their teaching of an earth science component which was added to the National Curriculum of England and Wales in 1989. Teachers indicated that the achievement of their pupils in earth science is moderate while reports on national testing show that it is poor.…

Reports on a one semester course, "Earth Systems Science for Educators" designed to use an active learning approach to improve student knowledge of basic Earth science concepts. Reports that, based on pre- and post-course assessments of 108 elementary and middle-level education majors who took the class from 1998 to 2000, there was an average…

Points out that constructivist approach to science education is recognized as a valuable approach for building deep student understanding of scientific content and inquiry. Introduces a constructivist approach in two teacher training courses in the Spring 2000 semester and assessed their resulting content knowledge with examination-based…

Uses a scenario-based assessment tool in two environmental geoscience in-service programs for middle school and high school teachers serving both to guide instructional techniques and as a method to evaluate the success of the instructional approach. Includes a hypothetical watershed scenario in which participants had to choose monitoring sites…

In this article, a group of five preservice teachers and a teacher arranged to try a few activities at their campus day care. Together, they created and tested a series of learning centers involving rocks and minerals. Since minerals occur in such a wonderful variety of colors, they formed the basis for an engaging lesson on color sorting. This…

In this article, the author presents an investigative approach to "understanding Earth changes." The author states that students were familiar with earthquakes and volcanoes in other regions of the world but never considered how the land beneath their feet had experienced changes over time. Here, their geology unit helped them understand…

In this extended biology, ecology, and earth science activity, students construct hands-on models of natural wastewater treatment and wastewater treatment facilities to achieve an understanding of wastewater treatment process in nature and wastewater treatment facilities. During this simulation activity, students have opportunities to learn…

This pilot study investigated the effectiveness of a multimedia learning environment called "Pollution Solution" on eighth-grade students' ability to define a complex problem. Sixty students from four earth science classes taught by the same teacher in a New York City public school were included in the sample for this study. The classes…

This experimental study explores how 60 primary-age children's (9-11 years old) understanding of rocks was effected by instruction that used the conceptual structure of the rock cycle together with the analogy of aluminium can recycling. Using a combination of probes into children's understanding, including concept maps and semi-structured…

One teacher took her class on a year long earthquake expedition. The goal was to monitor the occurrences of real earthquakes during the year and mark their locations with push pins on a wall-sized world map in the hallway outside the science room. The purpose of the project was to create a detailed picture of the earthquakes that occurred…