Provides references and addresses to obtain information to help in the purchase, care, and showing of guinea pigs (cavies). Includes line drawings of six common guinea pigs suitable for class use. (JM)

Marine hermit crabs are a simple and exciting way to introduce landlocked students to the ocean. Tips for keeping the crabs in the classroom, crab anatomy/behavior, and student activities (including a challenge to students to race their crabs) are discussed. (Author/JN)

Describes a laboratory exercise in which students select and identify an organism, study it as it interacts within its environment, collect further information through library research, and bring the organism (alive, preserved, or photographed) to lab for a five-minute presentation. (JN)

Activities for teaching about the solar system, the earth's rotation, plants, pendulums, and animal adaptation are described. Included are suggestions for building scale models to illustrate the solar system's proportions and the earth's rotation speed, and for using playground swings to demonstrate pendulum motion. (PP)

Describes how a behavioral system in Aplysia (marine snail) can be used to examine mechanisms of several forms of learning at different levels of analysis: behavioral, cell-physiological, ultrastructural, and molecular. Focusing on short-term sensitization, suggests how molecular mechanisms can be extended to explain long-term memory and classical…

Critically reviews the concept of "bonding," exploring its empirical basis and the implications that follow from its application in practice. Among the conclusions reached are that there is a tendency to oversimplify attachment phenomena and that the notion of a sensitive period for attachment has no direct empirical support. (RH)

Basic marine aquaria equipment, techniques for maintenance, specimens and food for the marine organisms are discussed. Several sources of specimens are included. (SA)

Described is a study which (1) examines opinions and attitudes of students towards various aspects of using living animals in studying biology and (2) identifies variables that affect student attitudes and opinions. Results include the finding that most students clearly favor live animal studies. (CS)

Discusses the use of games in the classroom. Describes two games involving the identification of Australian animals including complete instructions and rules for each game. (DS)

Suggests: (1) activities to enhance interest during observations of animals in the elementary science classroom; (2) possible questions to ask during these observations; and (3) sources for observing animals such as pet stores and farms, as well as bringing pets into the classroom. (DS)

Describes a five-week course in animal behavior for parents and their middle-school-aged children offered at the Minnesota Zoological Garden. Course activities included discussions, film viewing, demonstrations, zoo observations, and home studies of gerbils or zebra finches. Results of the course are discussed. (CS)

Describes methods for studying heart primordia of the chick embryo, using the organ culture method. (CS)

Discusses housing facilities for living animals in the classroom or laboratory. The construction of animal cages from materials obtained locally is described. Space recommendations for laboratory animals and cages are also included. (HM)

Presents natural history information on the zebra finch (Taeniopygia castanotis) for the biology teacher. Includes a section on care of the birds in the classroom and a method for constructing an inexpensive cage. (SA)

The relationship between current information processing and prior associative theories of human and animal learning, memory, and amnesia are discussed. The paper focuses on the two components of the amnesic syndrome, retrograde amnesia and anterograde amnesia. A neural theory of chunking and consolidation is proposed. (Author/RD)