The implementation of pre-engineering, standard curricula in K-12 schools is growing at a rapid pace. One such curriculum model, Project Lead the Way, consists of six standardized courses requiring significant training for teachers, specified laboratory equipment, standard topics, exams, etc. Schools implementing Project Lead the Way implement an…

We report on a two-year NSF-funded project to strengthen connections among science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. One component of this project was to produce some initial data on the effectiveness of Interdisciplinary Lively Applications Projects (ILAPs) in teaching science and engineering undergraduates. ILAPs are…

The Atlanta University Center (AUC) comprises five historically black colleges and a centralized library. All are separate institutions, each having its own board of directors, president, infrastructure, students, faculty, staff, and traditions. To encourage coordination of effort and resources, the AUC was formed and the first formal cooperative…

Freshmen Pre-Orientation Programs (FPOPs) can be powerful outreach tools for incoming college students and provide an exciting introduction to the field of engineering. The benefits reach not only the first year students, but also the upperclassmen who help to run the programs and the departments that sponsor them. A family of three engineering…

The reform of elementary and secondary school science education in the United States has received renewed attention with the publication of several science reform documents and the 1989 Education Summit sponsored by the nation's governors and President Bush. This digest reviews documents which focus on the reform of science education and projects…

Provides annotated list of 15 curriculum project newsletters currently being published. (PB)

Describes selected findings and discusses effects of an inservice program which focused on the skills and competencies of teacher participants. Factors studied include the effect of the respective ages of the participants on competency, the time of year when the program was taken, and prior knowledge of program implementation. (GS)

Fourteen basic experiments in mechanical engineering, intended for use at the sophomore level, are presented. The experiments are described as open-ended in order to give students the opportunity to discover the importance of stable operating conditions. The concept of experimentation is introduced and there is an interrelation between theory and…

Designed to introduce basic ecological relationships in a lake community, this investigation uses a Lake Erie food chain involving people and walleye as an example. The first activity is a board game in the form of a biomass pyramid; students begin with 1000 kilograms of algae and attempt to reach the "harvest" with at least a kilogram…

An attribute-treatment interaction study was conducted with two groups of teachers exhibiting contrasting natural teaching styles, teaching a Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS) based biology course in a natural school setting. Annotated transcripts of lessons were analyzed to provide data for the validation and description of the…

Using a specially-constructed category system (CATS), biology lessons are analyzed for attribute-treatment interaction (ATI) and the data submitted to analysis. Relationships between fifteen individual predictors (general ability, four personality factors, two cognitive preferences, treatment, and seven first-order attribute-treatment…

This paper, designed to assess the degree of implementation of the important features of a curriculum innovation, was presented at the 1978 Bat-Sheva Seminar on Curriculum Implementation and its Relationship to Curriculum Development in Science, Rehovot-Jerusalem, Israel. It investigates the use of sub-interviews within the main interview to…

This publication is developed for grades K-6 as a curriculum guide for the Science/Social Studies Program. The introduction gives purpose and structure of program, format of each unit, sequence of each lesson and key to abbreviated organization or project titles. A map, which orders the units according to grade level and defines the skills, is…

Elementary Science Study (ESS) units were examined by elementary teachers on a science writing team to identify energy education concepts within the existing curriculum in Minnesota. The outline of energy education concepts is given here along with some energy education science activities for elementary students. The activities are structured into…

This looseleaf teacher's manual is designed to facilitate using Science Curriculum Improvement Study (SCIS) for energy education in elementary schools. It is intended to be used with the SCIS Teacher's Guide as a supplement. The format of this manual matches a main SCIS concept with a closely related energy concept. Matrices show matched concepts…