Investigates parents' and students' view of science education and its success. Uses focus groups for data collection, which provides an environment for the challenge of different participant views. Includes recommendations for the improvement of schools science. (Contains 12 references.) (Author/YDS)

Examines data collected from large enrollment, entry level Geoscience courses over a span of seven semesters and investigates the use of computers as a presentation tool and the incorporation of the Internet as a means to give students increased exposure to course content, increased exam scores, and knowledge of Earth Sciences. Includes 13…

Introduces the analysis of a river as an excellent way to teach geochemical techniques because of the relative ease of sample collection and speed of sample analysis. Focuses on the potential sources of sample contamination during sampling, filtering, and bottle cleaning processes, and reviews methods to reduce and detect contamination. Includes…

Argues that in future revisions of the National Curriculum for Science the 'big ideas' of science should be presented as a series of 'explanatory stories' that encapsulate the ideas so that they are understandable by both teachers and pupils and can be used as a framework for teaching. Offers an 'explanatory Earth story' based on this model.…

This paper charts the changing female representation in the higher education of geography, connecting it with the faltering development of feminist geography in Hungary. The transition from socialism to capitalism has compounded gender inequalities while many of the relevant statistical data display gender blindness. Gender issues fail to form a…

Activity structures such as classroom lessons and initiation-reply-evaluation sequences are important cultural tools that help students and teachers accomplish everyday activity, but they are not well adapted to open-ended inquiry conducted by students in small groups with teacher guidance. In this research, I identified alternative activity…

In the contemporary higher education system there is growing interest in, and debate about, the need to strengthen and sustain the relationships between teaching and research. While there are multiple and varied explanations about these relationships, most acknowledge the importance of designing learning activities that explicitly develop the…

Investigation of children's knowledge of the Earth can reveal much about the origins, content and structure of scientific knowledge, and the processes of conceptual change and development. Vosniadou and Brewer (1992, claim that children construct coherent mental models of a flat, flattened, or hollow Earth based on a framework theory and intuitive…

Ongoing media coverage of the dangers of fieldwork and guidance from some teacher unions is placing fieldwork under threat in many English primary schools. Most teachers believe that fieldwork experiences are a valuable part of geographical learning, but how do children actually articulate the understanding arising from this? The research took…

In a human nutrition class, students are paired with university faculty or staff volunteer participants. Students teach their service learning partners how to record their food consumption and physical activity during a typical 7-day period. Using these data, students complete nutritional assessments of their partners. (Contains 2 figures.)

The purpose of this study is to compare the efficacy of three different approaches to professional development in Earth science education: preparing teachers to "adopt" expert-"design" curricula; preparing teachers to use a principled approach to design curricula; and preparing teachers to use a principled approach to "adapt" curricula. The claims…

For many years, the planet Mars was nothing more than a little red dot in a sea of stars and a blur in many science classrooms. Recent focus on the planet, however, has led to incredible teaching opportunities, such as the Mars Student Imaging Project (MSIP) facilitated by Arizona State University's Mars Education Program. The MSIP curriculum…

This book provides a complete Scope Sequence and Coordination teaching module. First, craters are introduced as a generally observable phenomena. Then, by making craters and by investigating the results, students gain close-up, hands-on experience with impact events and their products. Real crater examples from the Moon and elsewhere are included…

This book offers a large collection of Earth science projects and project ideas for students, teachers, and parents. The projects described are complete but can also be used as spring boards to create expanded projects. Overviews, organizational direction, suggested hypotheses, materials, procedures, and controls are provided. The projects…

This book suggests an approach to science instruction that integrates literature as an alternative form of instruction or to enrich textbook instruction. It uses conceptually and factually correct works of fiction and outlines activities where students are allowed to do the majority of the work and the teachers act as facilitators. Though the…