Finds recent brain research sheds light on roles played by a positive affective environment and the interactive use of language in teaching the learning process through content area classes. Implements these ideas over a 10-month period in a ninth-grade classroom. Compares program students to other ninth graders on measures of metacognitive…

Describes the National ADC0804, an inexpensive and readily available integrated ADC converter that can convert an analog voltage to an 8-bit signal. Includes schematic drawings. (DDR)

Presents three science activities: (1) Pizza Quadrants, a tool for estimating population size; (2) Ion Models, to assist students in understanding how to balance equations; and (3) Endangered Species Project, an interdisciplinary unit. (DDR)

Rates 23 films by their mathematics content. Includes a synopsis of each film with an explanation of the depth of mathematics content. Also includes general film rating. (DDR)

Highlights the 15th anniversary year of Newton's Apple, a hands-on science television program. Includes availability information for curriculum guides and other resources. (DDR)

Provides details of an activity designed to help students understand the relationship between astronomy and geology. Applies concepts of space research and map-making technology to the construction of a topographic map of a simulated section of Venus. (DDR)

Focuses on a method for teaching cascading natural selection that engages students in reading selections from popular and scientific literature aloud in class. An example is given of the use of one such selection about the Machupo virus. (DDR)

Presents a study designed to explore whether a student's use of the graphing calculator during instruction will affect their concept of function, how students' participation in a conceptual change assignment affects their concept of function, and how the graphing calculator and the conceptual change assignment interact with one another to…

Presents cooperative classroom projects using science as the initial basis for the study of bears. These projects may also involve other areas of the curriculum such as mathematics, art, and music. "Black Bear" activities include following a park ranger to study our National Parks and researching and building a full-sized brown bear…

Personalization is achieved when teachers and students have the time and the desire to develop a relationship. One Georgia high school lends itself to personalization by encouraging a mentoring relationship between teachers and students. Developing academic teaching teams and block schedules for all grades was the key to reducing teacher isolation…

Argues that the focus of foreign-language instruction needs to be on students learning to become more efficient in using another language. This focus means charting each student's progress along the continuum of proficiency from novice to intermediate to advanced levels, not just checking off a list of what has been taught from the curriculum. (CK)

Describes SQ10R, a system of reading hints and strategies similar to SQ3R (that is, survey, question, read, recite, and review). Suggests that SQ10R may be more helpful to developmental students. Briefly describes the system's 12 elements: survey, question, read, reflect, review, repeat, rethink, reintegrate, rehash, renote, rehearse, and reread.…

Reports on a study that assigned Japanese students retrospective self-reporting tasks in which they were led to reflect upon their classroom second-language learning through self-analysis by reference to diaries, and by structured questionnaires and interviews on learning strategies, learner beliefs, and attitudes. (21 references) (Author/CK)

Lists activities designed to improve students' skills in speaking, writing, singing, and grammar in a foreign language. These activities include talking about resolving a problem situation, writing a narrative in the foreign language being studied, listening to a song and associating its words with images, and engaging in conversation designed to…

Studies based on an individual-difference model of student learning are reviewed. The "fitting" of conceptual models of student learning to atypical individual-similarity data structures is discussed, and an experimental categorization for such structures is outlined. Use of a locus model is also examined. It is argued that conceptual models of…