Howard Gardner defines naturalists as persons who recognize flora and fauna and other consequential distinctions in the natural world and use this ability productively. A sixth-grade teacher discusses Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences, specifically the naturalist intelligence, and suggests ways to teach the naturalist intelligence through…

Argues that community, field-based, service-oriented projects can be a powerful way to address concerns of scientific literacy. Based on a case study of two ninth-grade students, it is recommended that an ethic of care and responsible action be an exemplar for schools and teachers. Contains 22 references. (DDR)

Students test the hypothesis that the moon revolves east to west around the earth, determine by observation approximately how many degrees the moon revolves per night, and develop a scale model of the earth-sun-moon system in this laboratory exercise. Students are actively involved in the scientific process and are introduced to the importance of…

Developed and tested a cognitive theory-based intervention teaching a procedure for designing simple controlled experiments to fourth graders. Found that the intervention produced significant gains in students' ability to create controlled experiments, provide valid justifications for their experiments, and evaluate experiments designed by others.…

Describes "The Science Consortium", a British program offering specialist training for secondary science teachers on the use of information and communication technology in the classroom. The training scheme includes a portfolio of lesson plans in six thematic modules: (1) communicating science; (2) collecting data for science; (3)…

Finds a significant positive correlation between elementary preservice teachers' ability to perform science process skills and their attitudes toward science. (Contains 27 references.) (Author/WRM)

Describes implementation of the "process workshop" model for university chemistry classroom instruction. Defines process workshop as a classroom environment where students are actively engaged in learning a discipline and developing essential skills by working in self-managed teams on activities that involve guided discovery, critical thinking,…

Middle school classrooms are a natural laboratory where the relationships between science, reading, and writing can be developed and strengthened to provide a foundation for students' learning and future career success. Teachers do not need to know "everything" about science and reading to raise student achievement. Rather, they need to know a few…

This article discusses how to develop portfolios in physics in order to assess student attainment of course goals. Portfolio assessment can include many forms of alternative assessment. Portfolios require students to collect and reflect on examples of their work. This form of assessment forces alternative ways of thinking by the teacher about what…

A review of the literature in science education shows that most students have difficulties in hypothetico-deductive reasoning. The author's objective in this study was to investigate the abilities of high school teachers and university teachers to understand the difference between the terms "hypothesis" and "prediction" in the…

Cries for increased accountability through additional assessment are heard throughout the educational arena. However, as demonstrated in this study, to make a valid assessment of teaching and learning effectiveness, educators must determine not only what students do, but also why they do it, as the latter significantly affects the former. This…

Understanding the basic principles of structural biology is becoming a major subject of study in most undergraduate level programs in biology. In the genomic and proteomic age, it is becoming indispensable for biology students to master concepts related to the sequence and structure of proteins in order to develop skills that may be useful in a…

Observable practices of mathematics teaching in the period of the year 2001-2003 also indicated that many teachers still have difficulty in elaborating the syllabus; a number of mathematics topics are considered to be difficult for teachers to teach; a significant number of children consider some mathematics topics as difficult to understand;…

This research project consists of a randomized experiment in St. Petersburg Catholic Schools. The question being addressed by the research is whether "Scott Foresman Science" is as effective as the current curricula being used in the participating campuses of the Roman Catholic Diocese of St. Petersburg. The research focuses on 3rd, 4th,…

This research project consists of a randomized experiment in Visalia Unified School District. The question being addressed by the research is whether "Scott Foresman Science" is as effective as or more effective than the curriculum being used at each site. Since Scott Foresman Science provides a significant reading component, the authors…