Discusses environmental resource assessment research conducted by undergraduate students as part of a non-science majors' chemistry course at Santa Clara University. Describes project procedures and course grading, chemistry connections, learning goals and outcomes, and implementing change on campus. (WRM)

Presents ideas for teaching elementary school children about scientific inquiry methods. Recommends a Planning Board to scaffold students' thinking as they plan and conduct scientific investigations. (WRM)

Whether boys and girls shared equally in performing behaviors required in hands-on activities in the performance-based science classroom was studied over the school year with 165 students in grades five through eight. Being actively involved predicted students' year-end science attitudes, and boys tended to handle the resources more often. (SLD)

Presents an exercise in which cutouts or outlines of dinosaur footprints placed independently or in sets on the floor and laboratory benches are used to model dinosaur trackways. The nature, size, speed, and specific behavior of the trackmaker are determined from the trackways and from student-derived data as well as from diagrams and models based…

Explains the development of an interdisciplinary unit in which students learn basic chemistry and laboratory techniques while practicing English, mathematics, art, social studies, and leadership skills. Includes details about lab activities, assessment strategies, and science extensions. (DDR)

Explains the interrupted journal case study method which integrates content, process, and application in an environmental biology course. Provides a sample case on wetland delineation and describes strategies to develop effective case studies in environmental education. (YDS)

Presents an activity of students hunting for dirt in the classroom to launch a study of the environment and to provide children with an exercise in which they learn and use the skills of collecting, labeling, organizing, observational drawing, classifying, hypothesizing, and summarizing. (PR)

Introduces an adoption journal activity which is based on the observation of a subject and recording data of growth and behavior over a lengthy period of time. Integrates science, mathematics, and language arts. Includes eight assignments with rubrics. (YDS)

Investigates the responses of a sample of preservice biology teachers enrolled in a teaching methods course to a casual question about why water rose in a jar inverted over a burning candle placed in a pan of water by formulating and testing six hypotheses. (Contains 43 references.) (Author/YDS)

This article describes the PROVE strategy, which provides students with learning disabilities with a procedure for naming a concept, providing evidence (both why and how), and defending it. Research results are presented that indicate students with (n=12) and without (n=26) disabilities benefited from the PROVE strategy. (Contains references.) (CR)

Explores early secondary school pupils' written evaluations of media reports of contemporary science research in a classroom setting. Finds little distinction between the nature and extent of secondary pupils' responses as compared to college science students' responses, but finds notable differences between these groups' responses and those of…

Describes general curriculum design principles and specific software design implementations resulting from an ongoing collaboration between software designers and programmers, researchers, and a classroom teacher and his students. Traces the development of E-Lab software in the context of the principles that emerged during the design process.…

Discusses preliminary research on a new heuristic tool for learning from laboratory activities in secondary science. Finds that use of the science writing heuristic facilitated students in generating meaning from data; making connections among procedures, data, evidence, and claims; and engaging in metacognition. (Contains 29 references.)…

The Bird Discovery Box, designed for teachers who want to teach a bird unit, contains tools designed to help educators and students familiarize themselves with birds by sight and sound and understand bird habitats. The box also helps in creating a habitat for birds in the schoolyard. Contains field guides and other resources, binoculars, a…

Web-based learning is becoming prevalent in science learning. Some use specially designed programs, while others use materials available on the Internet. This qualitative case study examined the process of acquisition of integrated science process skills, particularly the skill of controlling variables, in a web-based learning environment among…