Describes activities to introduce middle school students to the metric system. Involves converting common cookbook recipes from English to metric measure and then having students reconvert the recipes and prepare them as an assignment. (JRH)

Suggests ways in which teachers can help students learn investigation and problem-solving skills on open investigation tasks. Includes matching the degree of openness of the investigations to the experience and skills of the student, providing scaffolding to support student decision making, and using formative and student self-assessment. (JRH)

Describes how to lead students through a classroom-based simulation to teach a variety of concepts such as X-linked traits, sex determination, and sex anomalies. The simulation utilizes inexpensive materials such as plastic eggs that twist apart to represent human eggs and sperm. (AIM)

Presents activities that use a box of pencils to foster science process skills. Describes each phase of the scientific learning method with instructions for a "broken pencil" activity. Discusses initial observations, multiple working hypotheses, detailed observations, developing a theory, pattern-process relationships, and further ideas. (JRH)

Describes a week-long activity for general to honors-level students that addresses Hubble's law and the universal expansion theory. Uses a discrepant event-type activity to lead up to the abstract principles of the universal expansion theory. (JRH)

Presents an activity that combines the concepts of quantum numbers and probability locations, energy levels, and electron configurations in a concrete, hands-on way. Uses model houses constructed out of foam board and colored beads to represent electrons. (JRH)

Describes and explains the rationale for establishing a program in higher education that would support and interact with the community of institutions and individuals involved in informal or nonformal science education. Outlines a number of research questions proposed at a recent meeting of informal science educators. (DDR)

Attempts to answer two research questions: (1) Does the use of a digital camera in laboratory activities increase student learning?; and (2) Does the use of digital cameras motivate students to take a greater interest in laboratory work? Results indicate that the digital camera did increase student learning of process skills in two biology…

Presents a science activity in genetics that explains concepts such as dominant and recessive traits, monohybrid and dihybrid crosses, Punnett squares, and Mendel's Laws of Segregation and Independent Assortment. Uses the activity as an assessment tool to measure students' fundamental understanding. (YDS)

Explains the benefits and risks of genetically-modified foods and describes methods for genetically modifying food. Presents a laboratory experiment using a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test to detect foreign DNA in genetically-modified food. (Contains 18 references.) (YDS)

Introduces a laboratory activity on biological diversity that focuses on mollusks and trees. (YDS)

Students use their senses when working and thinking scientifically. Recommends setting up sensory trails as a field trip and presents activity ideas. (YDS)

Explains the critical role of probability in making sense of quantum physics and addresses the difficulties science and engineering undergraduates experience in helping students build a model of how to think about probability in physical systems. (Contains 17 references.) (Author/YDS)

Designs and constructs a sundial for the purpose of observing the declination of the sun, thus marking solar seasonal variation. Discusses the design of a dial that emphasizes a working space for observations on solar declination and methods for determining the position of the nodus such that lines of declination can be observed every day of the…

Undergraduate science majors need practice in critical thinking, quantitative analysis, and judging whether their calculated answers are physically reasonable. Develops exercises using handheld Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers. Reinforces students' abilities to think quantitatively, make realistic "back of the envelope"…