Reviews the history and development of the "Our Working World" elementary textbook series, an example of the New Social Studies reform movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Describes the Organic Curriculum, which integrated the fundamental ideas of five social science disciplines. Maintains that implementing the K-6 program all at once was an…

A Seattle (Washington) third-grade class's curiosity about the school's neighborhood spiraled into a student-centered, experiential community research project that integrated several curriculum requirements, especially math and writing. Learning through the questioning process, such as by developing hypotheses and interview questions, develops…

A random survey (with 25 followup interviews) asked 150 California high-school teachers to describe differences in their classrooms since students began using the Internet. Students are excited about using computers and actively engaged in finding and discussing information and writing reports. Teachers serve as motivators and learning guides.…

Teaching to the test has significant undesirable effects. This practice skews scores and invalidates the test, promotes convergent thinking, promotes learning that may be obsolete, excludes the arts and extracurricular activities, promotes didactic instruction over discovery learning, involves only short-term memory, and excludes higher-order…

Examines the benefits of introducing finite element methods into the curriculum of undergraduate courses. Analyzes the structure of the computer-assisted-design module and the extent to which it fulfills its main objectives. Discusses the efficiency of modern teaching and learning techniques used to develop skills for solving engineering problems;…

This article explores how students learned to measure tall objects using a clinometer and some basic calculations. Such activities provide opportunities for students and teachers to learn the usefulness of linking mathematics content and science content to real-world problem-solving situations. (Contains 7 figures.)

When the author and her teaching colleague assessed their 7th and 8th grade students' research papers, they realized that although the papers demonstrated proper structure, the students had not gained meaningful understanding of their topics. Although the teachers had carefully prepared students to write, they had not ensured that students had…

A lot of good elementary science involves studying solids, liquids, and gases, and some inquiry-based activities that are easy to set up and do. In this article, the author presents activities pertaining to simple phase change. Using water as the example, these activities introduce upper-grade students to the idea of the arrangement of molecules…

Early childhood motor activity programs at institutions of higher learning can operate within the tripartite mission of the university while serving a vital function in providing leadership and guidance to educators. This article describes the University of Northern Iowa's Kindergym model. Within this model, curricular areas of games/sports,…

Quality is a value-laden and context-bound concept. Drawing on cultural psychology, this study examines the nature of cultural values underlying definitions of quality in American early childhood programs. From semi-structured interviews with 15 teachers and 15 administrators in center-based early childhood programs, three themes emerged: (a)…

This study investigated whether students differ in reported levels of social support by different types of preorientation experiences (i.e., wilderness program, community service program, preseason athletics, or no preorientation participation) measured by the Campus-Focused Social Provisions Scale (CFSPS). Two colleges provide a sample (N =…

In aiming to create a scientifically literate society, teachers are being asked to present science in a variety of new ways. Science is no longer to be seen primarily as a collection of facts and concepts, but rather, as a process of inquiry and discovery, similar to many of the decisions and actions all people make on a daily basis. The use of…

The main distinction between the overlapping fields of molecular biophysics and biochemistry resides in their different approaches to the same problems. Molecular biophysics makes more use of physical techniques and focuses on quantitative data. This difference encounters two difficult pedagogical challenges when teaching molecular biophysics to…

This article offers ways to understand how a fifth-grade resistant writer positioned himself socially and academically within classroom writing practices and how these positions influenced literacy learning. Classroom writing practices enabled the student to explore the possibilities of who he was as he determined what types of learning were…

The Capital Children's Museum, the Options School, and the Model Early Learning Center are the three major components of the National Learning Center. The museum exposes children to a variety of subjects and concepts, including fine arts, science, foreign and local cultures, and social history. Its exhibits are designed to promote active…