The target of difficulty of the Educational Technology Center (ETC) Heat and Temperature Group is basic thermal physics, particularly the differentiation between heat and temperature. High school teachers often find that thermal concepts are very difficult for their students to master and attribute students' difficulties at least in part to the…

This material describes a fossil-building activity using sea shells, chicken bones, and plaster for grade one through three students. Related process skills, vocabulary, computer principles, time requirements, and materials are listed. Two methods of building the fossils are discussed. After building the fossils, classes may be divided into pairs…

Computers and networks have opened new opportunities for recognition experiences in schools. Students gain the potential for increased recognition through the exchange of their writing with students in other classrooms in their own school, in other parts of the country, or in other parts of the world. Reorganizing and editing text for publication…

Collected are 68 articles on a wide range of topics related to the education of young children in the schools. Section One offers historical perspectives of early childhood education. Section Two samples policy decisions about present and future issues, especially those with economic, social, and philosophical importance. Section Three explores…

The purpose of this guide is to give teachers and supervisors a working knowledge of various approaches to enhancing pupil learning about computer science, particularly through the use of Pascal. It contains instructional units dealing with: (1) computer components; (2) computer languages; (3) compilers; (4) essential features of a Pascal program;…

This report summarizes the results of a survey of 29 southern land-grant institutions which elicited information on microcomputer capabilities, programming efforts, and computer awareness education for formers, homemakers, community organizations, planning agencies, and other end users. Five topics were covered by the survey: (1) degree of…

The purpose of the research was to manipulate two aspects of genetics instruction in order to measure their effects on college, introductory biology students' achievement in genetics. One instructional sequence that was used dealt first with monohybrid autosomal inheritance patterns, then sex-linkage. The alternate sequence was the reverse.…

This investigation focuses upon the question of: (1) how naive subjects organize and represent knowledge when solving problems; (2) how previous experience of a novice is used in solving a problem; (3) what kinds of information and knowledge are sought as well as overlooked by novices when solving problems; (4) what kinds of strategies novices…

To follow up an initial statewide computer survey (1983-84), the State Department of Education conducted an investigation of microcomputers and their use in elementary, middle, and secondary schools in South Carolina. The survey was conducted in two phases: an inventory of computer equipment was taken as a component of the Statewide Basic…

Educational change does not occur overnight, but the introduction of information technology will initiate a chain reaction of changes in the curriculum, instruction, and organization of education. Research on the process of change both identifies factors involved in the introduction of innovations and suggests guidelines for educators. Two phases…

Turtle graphics is a popular vehicle for introducing children to computer programming. Children combine simple graphic commands to get a display screen cursor (called a turtle) to draw designs on the screen. The purpose of this study was to examine young children's abilities to function in a simple computer programming environment. Four- and…

The use of microcomputers to help the learning disabled increase their arithmetic skills is examined. The microcomputer should be used to aid the learning disabled student to practice the concepts taught by the teacher. Computer-aided instruction such as drill and practice may help the learning disabled student because it gives immediate feedback…

This document presents the observations and opinions of a delegation of North American mathematics educators who visited the People's Republic of China at the invitation of the Chinese Mathematical Society to discuss with Chinese mathematics teachers issues of mutual interest about university mathematics education. The delegation visited six…

This report from the first Computer Users Conference is organized around the four panel discussion topics: data collection, data preparation and presentation, data base management, and overall management of hardware, software, people and data. On each panel were two industrial data processing experts who presented papers for discussion. These…

Reports on a study that examined and compared the cognitive effectiveness of a traditional hands-on laboratory exercise with a computer-simulated program on the same topic. Sought to determine if coupling these formats would provide optimum student comprehension. Suggests hands-on exercises be followed by computer simulations as postlaboratory…