Describes an outdoor classroom curriculum project which was devised to accommodate students of average and below-average academic ability and provide them with practical horticultural experiences. Discusses funding, plant facilities, program, and resultant products. (RT)

Described are five halloween season activities. Included are investigations which focus on observing, measuring, creating, and cooking. A recipe for pumpkin bread is given. Ideas for infusing science into a halloween party are provided. (CW)

Discussed is an alternative teaching strategy to uncover and assess a common misconception in the life sciences and to articulate its use in teaching a unit on angiosperm reproduction. The learning cycle is described, and a concept map on reproduction on angiosperms is included. (KR)

Activities that use dandelions to show the phenomena of geotropism and autotropism are described. Directions for collecting the stalks and observing the gravitropic response are included. The topics of lag time and bending rates, autotropism, growth rate changes, presentation time, and gravity detection are discussed. (KR)

Presents two experiments in which students examine the effects of touching and shaking on plant growth in common bush beans. (MDH)

Describes an activity having students use a microscope to observe the "hooks" and "loops" found in Velcro and on the seeds of the cocklebur plant. (PR)

Describes an easy and inexpensive method of preparing experimental growth media that high school students can use for plant cloning investigations. (PR)

Describes the implementation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration SEEDS Project in a sixth-grade class in Turlock, California. Describes student activities and media coverage surrounding the project. (MDH)

Telling stories can be an effective way of introducing science concepts. This article provides an annotated bibliography of fiction and nonfiction books for K-12 students and adults on static electricity, surface tension, bubbles, chromatography, slugs and other creatures, plants, physical and chemical change, strength of shapes, collections of…

Reports on a student's research project on the degree of genetic diversity within the trout lily species. Enables a rough prediction of the continuance of the species and provides insight into how to manage plants that might be endangered. Contains 16 references. (DDR)

Provides three exercises that introduce high school and college students to a common strain of the tobacco mosaic virus and the study of some basic biological processes. Activities involve inoculation of plants and observing and recording symptom development in infected plants. (DDR)

Reviews the history and habits of the fungus commonly referred to as the "chestnut blight." Considers the impact of the blight and efforts to control it, offers personal and cultural reflections on the blight, and gives tips for incorporating the information into cross-disciplinary lessons. Contains 17 references. (WRM)

The relationship between the form and structure of plants and their gravitational environment is one of the most important teaching subjects of biological education. However, the teaching materials for the gravity effect have so long been concerned only with gravitropism, i.e. the short-time response of adjusting the orientation of seedling roots…

This paper describes some simple and rapid techniques for examining the growth responses of fungal hyphae cultivated on environmental gradients. The creation of such gradients using agar-based growth media in petri dishes is explained, along with recommendations for quantitative macroscopic and microscopic measurements. The intention is to provide…

Two CD-ROMs from a series dealing with various major aspects of cell biology are evaluated in this paper using quantitative and qualitative approaches. The findings delimit similarities and differences of the two CD-ROMs and shed light on how the programs could be used in the learning process and how they should not be. The overall impression, as…