Explores, through an analysis of students' experiences in an integrated science and social studies unit, how the students acquired new knowledge. Explains how students learned different things from the same classroom activities and how different classroom activities created different learning processes. Notes implications for design of classroom…

Attempting to increase reading engagement, a collaborative team implemented a year-long integration of reading/language arts and science instruction known as Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction (CORI). Compared to traditionally organized instruction, the CORI context increased strategy use, conceptual learning, and text comprehension more than…

Presents an activity designed to demonstrate how heating and cooling an air mass affects its temperature, volume, density, and pressure. Illustrates how thermal energy can cause atmospheric motion such as expansion, contraction, and winds. (Author/WRM)

Describes the development of a program fostering prospective and practicing elementary school teachers' research on their science-teaching practices, discussing the science-education community's recognition of the importance of teacher research, examining beliefs underlying development of the program, describing the program's setting, summarizing…

Describes and analyzes two science methods courses at the elementary and secondary levels for how they addressed four ideas: (1) how students learn science; (2) how teachers teach science to students; (3) how prospective science teachers learn about the first two ideas; and (4) how methods instructors teach prospective science teachers about the…

Reviews collateral learning theory as a cognitive explanation for how pupils cope with disparate worldviews mediated by transcending cultural borders between their everyday culture and the culture of science. Proposes a new pedagogy in which teachers assume the role of culture broker in the classroom to achieve culturally sensitive curriculum and…

Explores the perceptions held by practicing engineers of what is involved in learning to solve technological problems and examines their pedagogical approaches to technological problem-solving in elementary-classroom contexts. Concludes that recognition of the nature of each occupation is needed to realize a potential of collaboration between…

Offers suggestions for incorporating topics that relate to the Apollo 13 space mission into a chemistry course. Discusses connections between the study of chemistry and space exploration, including fuels and oxidants used, reasons for an oxygen tank rupture, and lithium hydroxide-containing carbon dioxide filters. Contains 11 references. (WRM)

Presents information about and ideas for teaching an evolutionary view of ethics. Argues that when behavioral and moral aspects of human evolution are presented in biology courses in lieu of anatomical and physiological aspects, students may become more accepting of evolutionary theory. Contains 16 references. (WRM)

Investigates the conceptual-change process in grade 10 students during a computer-supported physics unit. Finds that many students vacillated between alternative and scientific conceptions from one context to another during instruction, and those few students who did exhibit context-independent and stable conceptual change appeared able to accept…

Examines the difficulties of engaging students who lack motivation to learn and attend sporadically in an urban high school science class. Contains 17 references. (Author/WRM)

Explains instructions for creating an oil-spill simulation activity in which students are challenged to clean up the spill. (WRM)

This case study of a 14-year-old boy with severe disabilities describes the collaboration of a team of educators who sought to include him in eighth-grade general-education classes. His inclusion plan included four steps: planning, selecting classes, accommodating, and collaborating. The accomplishments of the student's inclusion in earth science…

Describes the attempts of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics to answer the question of whether today's students learning mathematics are prepared for the 21st century. Discusses the release of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study to help analyze how mathematics is taught around the world, and reviews successful…

Outlines how a structured visit to the supermarket can support the scientific study of food and farming. Describes various ways that teachers can use an industry-produced curriculum package in conjunction with a field trip to the grocery store and classroom study. (WRM)