Describes collaborative efforts where museums and community organizations encourage family involvement in science, including the Girls at the Center (GAC) and Community Connections programs. Discusses challenges, strengths of partnerships, outreach efforts, and museum-based events. Contains 12 references. (JRH)

Describes the Hands On Science Outreach (HOSO) program which aims to provide informal science experiences for preschool and elementary-age children. Discusses participants views of the program. (JRH)

Explains how to transfer a relevant written article into a learning activity involving active role play. Enables the development of critical thinking skills and helps to humanize science by highlighting its importance in everyday life. (DDR)

Explains an activity in which students study sedimentary rocks using an inquiry-based approach. Focuses on Content Standard D of the National Science Education Standards (NSES). (YDS)

Describes a laboratory-based program in physics designed to help students build effective links between the mathematical equations used to solve problems in mechanics and the real world of moving objects. Conducts the study among senior college students and points out the value of laboratory work in science education for development of thinking…

Teaches concepts such as inertia, gravity, and friction using a "Lunch Box Derby" activity. Uses vegetables for the construction of race cars. Explains student approaches during the design and construction portion. Describes the rubrics used for student evaluation. (YDS)

Reports on part of a larger study of how 11- and 12-year-old students construct knowledge of electricity and magnetism by drawing on aspects of their experiences during the course of a school visit to an interactive science museum and subsequent classroom activities linked to the science museum exhibits. (Contains 24 references.) (Author/YDS)

Explains the procedure for creating a field guide for high school students. Provides field guide questions and a sample format of the guide's insect page. (YDS)

Presents an exercise in which students are assigned a current study then write three two-page critiques of the article. Peer review using double blind, single blind, or open review systems is employed followed by class discussion. (DDR)

Details an effort in Gambia to enable primary teachers to use a hands on-approach to science teaching. Discusses availability of equipment, improvisation, application, use of time, lack of confidence, and class size as concerns in this professional development effort. (DDR)

Discusses the structure of a laboratory course that employs guided inquiry and collaborative learning to increase student preparedness for and intellectual engagement in laboratory investigations, and to give students an understanding and appreciation of a collaborative work environment. Contains 29 references. (DDR)

Explains how students can perform an alternative authentic DNA fingerprinting analysis. Presents restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis and can serve as a simulated molecular epidemiology laboratory or as a simulated forensic laboratory exercise. (DDR)

Asserts that young children need help translating scientific theory into experiences that involve their senses. Provides age-appropriate, literature-based activities for exploring concepts and vocabulary in the areas of plant life cycles, animal life cycles, ocean ecology, and human growth development. Suggests specific works of children's…

Presents three science activities for the first week of class that use the cooperative learning approach and computers. Requires students to create a web page to introduce group members. (YDS)

Defines adaptive inquiry and argues for employing this method which allows lessons to be shaped in response to student needs. Illustrates this idea by detailing an activity in which teams of students build rockets. (DDR)