A three unit module of inquiry, including morphological comparison, cladogram construction, and data mining has been developed to teach students the nature of experimental science. Students generate angiosperm morphological data, form cladistic hypotheses, then mine taxonomic, bioinformatic and historical data from many sources to replicate and…

"Mathematics is more than skills... it is also the excitement of discovery." This is how Derek Holton, one of the contributing authors to this book, defines mathematics. His enthusiasm and energy are echoed throughout by many of the other writers. This is a book to delight mathematics teachers at all stages: experienced and inexperienced;…

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine the influence of the graduation coach's ethic of care on potential dropouts (at risk high school seniors) in a Georgia alternative high school. Based on Maslow's hierarchy of needs, the objective of this research was to identify if the graduation coach's ethic of care had an influence on…

This study is the result of my work as a teacher educator in an English methods course and a member of an inquiry community I formed with eight of my students, all middle and secondary student English teachers at the University of Pennsylvania. I investigate what was at stake for them in learning to teach English in Philadelphia urban schools in…

The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of training, modality, and redundancy on the participants' ability to apply and recall a historical inquiry strategy. An experimental research design was utilized with presentation mode as the independent variable and strategy application and strategy recall as the dependent variables. The…

Many science centers have partnerships with schools, universities or scientific industry. This article will describe a unique collaborative project between Liberty Science Center, Wagner College, and Picatinny Center (a government research center) that has college interns working with and learning from science center staff and real scientists in a…

This study examines the development of technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge (TPACK) in four in-service secondary science teachers as they participated in a professional development program focusing on technology integration into K-12 classrooms to support science as inquiry teaching. In the program, probeware, mind-mapping tools (CMaps),…

School pupils learning how to learn (LHTL), aimed at helping them develop learning autonomy, requires teachers to develop new classroom practices. Hence teachers LHTL is equally important. The TLRP "Learning How to Learn in Classrooms, Schools and Networks" project researched how practices were developed by teachers in 40 primary and…

This article examines teachers' perspectives on the challenges of using a science reform curriculum, as well as their learning in interaction with the curriculum and parallel professional development program. As case studies, I selected 4 veteran teachers of 2nd or 3rd grade, with varying science backgrounds (including 2 with essentially none).…

"Situational interest" is a short-term form of motivation which occurs when a specific situation stimulates the focused attention of students (e.g., a spectacular science demonstration could arouse transient interest amongst nearly all the students in a class, even those who are not normally interested in science). However, there have…

Using mini-aquaria experiments, a learning unit on the effects of light period on aquatic ecosystems was developed for 7th grade students. This guided inquiry unit was aimed at helping students understand basic ecological principles involved in relationships among physical, chemical, and biological components in aquatic ecosystems. It involved…

This document presents the proceedings of the 20th Annual Research Forum held June 25, 2015, at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Included are the following 21 action research papers: (1) History Lives! The Use of Simulations in a High School Social Studies Classroom (Lydia Adkins); (2) Using Francophone Music in the High…

This article discusses the use of curious facts as a means of encouraging learning for its own sake and providing enjoyment. (PD)

Six unsatisfactory ways of approaching geographic concepts in the classroom are presented. An alternative that would promote global-mindedness and the development of accurate mental maps in students is discussed in terms of teaching techniques. (JH)

This book is intended to offer the teacher practical classroom ideas. The first chapter suggests two approaches in teaching children to inquire and compares the three modes of teaching--didactic, Socratic, and inquiry. The second chapter considers the problem of what people do as they inquire and the relationship between data and theory, which are…