Describes the approach and results of the Supermarket Discovery Center Demonstration Project, a program attempting to provide pre-school children with meaningful learning experiences while their parents are shopping. (LS)

Describes the Discovery Room at the National Museum of Natural History, a hands-on exhibit area intended to help children and adults learn about their environment. (MP)

Discusses the role that inquiry should play in social studies. Inquiry, which should be used in conjunction with expository techniques, can teach and reinforce valuable concepts and skills. (RM)

Outlines a course designed to teach students how to write descriptive and informative abstracts. (HOD)

A new journal feature shares practical ideas in experiential education in less than 800 words. This issue presents an initiative problem, rules for rope push, exercise illustrating dependence on schedules, how to experience a handicap, maple sugaring project, assignment bridging the generation gap, simulating literary experiences, and local…

Recounts efforts of a nursery school teacher to modify school equipment so that covered constructions and mechanisms are made visible for children to observe. Children's interest in the modified equipment, such as transparent sink pipes, is discussed. (Author/RH)

Describes an experiment which compared the effectiveness of explicit instruction in problem-solving methods to an indirect, guided-discovery approach upon stimulus-bound and stimulus-free thinkers in the third and fourth grades. Findings suggest that logical problem solving is best taught using explicit instructions for both types of thinkers. (AM)

Presents an overview of methods used in teaching introductory history courses: the lecture, telecourses, programmed instruction, film, multimedia presentations, audio-visual tutorials, self-paced instruction, discussion, simulation, and oral history projects. Decries the underuse of these alternatives. Examples of programs using innovative…

Instead of teaching his fifth-graders a formula, a teacher leads them to discover an important mathematical concept on their own. Learning through discovery is probably the very essence of meaningful understanding and retention. (Author/MLF)

A low-cost, low-tech colorimeter was constructed from a film canister. The student-constructed colorimeter was used to show the Beer-Lambert relationship between absorbance and concentration and to calculate the value of the molar absorptivity for permanganate at the wavelength emission maximum for an LED. Makes comparisons between this instrument…

Presents an activity designed for use during National Chemistry Week 2002 with the theme "Chemistry Keeps Us Clean". Allows students to discover more about a cleaning product they use everyday. Students make their own toothpaste and compare its properties with those of commercial toothpaste. (MM)

Students compare several different window cleaner recipes to determine the purpose each ingredient serves, then develop their own "New and Improved" recipe to test its performance against commercial window cleaner. Complements the National Chemistry Week 2002 theme, "Chemistry Keeps Us Clean." (Author/MM)

In their article in the same "Educational Leadership" issue, Berg and Clough have severely misjudged how teachers use the Hunter lesson design model. The Hunter repertoire has enhanced science teaching by providing research-based strategies to promote retention, increase the quantity of concepts learned, keep students on task, and enable…

The Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum in Ann Arbor, Michigan, encourages the natural curiosity of young people to explore, participate, and get involved in exhibits, demonstrations, and activities. Described are the museum's history, exhibits, programs, services, volunteers, resources, and affiliations. (JDD)