Describes two introductory exercises designed to teach the fundamental ideas and methods of crystallography, and to convey some important features of inorganic and organic crystal structures to students in an advanced laboratory course. Exercises include "The Crystal Structure of NiO" and "The Crystal Structure of Beta-Fumaric Acid." (CW)

Describes a student learning activity used to teach the meaning of percentage composition, mole concept, selective precipitation, and limiting factors. Presents two word problems and their solutions. (CW)

Presents an analog of radioactive decay that allows the student to grasp the concept of half life and the exponential nature of the decay process. The analog is devised to use small, colored, plastic poker chips or counters. Provides the typical data and a graph which supports the analog. (YP)

"Galileo," a team-taught interdisciplinary course required of all ninth grade students at Francis Parker, an urban school in Chicago, was based on the life of Galileo and its dramatization in a play by Brecht. The principal theme was the relationship between observation and inference, and the conflict between scientific knowledge and…

Reports on a study in which students in a first-year engineering materials class were asked to grade their own examinations, and those of others. Comparisons were then made to the same papers graded by their teachers. (TW)

Summarizes some elements which contribute to the quality of a tutorial system in engineering education. Uses a case study of the civil engineering program at the University of Waterloo (Great Britain) to examine the relationships between various aspects of this type of program. (TW)

Presents the Belgian viewpoint on the educational curriculum for engineering at the university level. Discusses existing program content and compares it to European professional standards. Gives ideas about improvements that consider technical developments and professional aims. (CW)

Presents a method for representing students' knowledge about basic scientific concepts by classifying ideas produced in a free-writing task. Implies that those differences which exist can best be attributed to general fluency in the language of instruction rather than factors that are specific to the learning of science. (Author/CW)

Describes a project that can be used to encourage intellectual independence in students and teach them some of the inquiry procedures used in scientific research. Discusses procedures, safety precautions, and sample results. (CW)

Reports on a process which allows active study of mutating the characteristics of a population of organisms. States that the program, written in C, should run on a MS/DOS system with 640K; CGA is required for graphics output. Describes implementation procedures and two examples using the program. (RT)

Reports on a study that examined the performance and science attitudes of two groups of students in a college chemistry course. One group had enrolled in high school chemistry; the other group had not. There was no difference between groups as to attitude toward chemistry or academic performance. (RT)

Recounts the formation of the National Marine Education Association (NMEA) in 1976. Provides summaries of conferences dealing with marine education since 1960 along with a year-by-year reporting on NMEA conferences and activities from 1976-1988. (TW)

Explains the principle upon which a barometer operates. Describes how to construct two barometric devices for use in the classroom that show air's changing pressure. Cites some conditions for predicting weather. (RT)

Discusses the incompatibility of learning and teaching styles in engineering education which results in society's potential loss of excellent engineers. Provides teaching techniques to accommodate learning styles. (RT)

Describes simple, efficient techniques for treating hazardous chemicals so that nontoxic and nonhazardous residues are formed. Discusses general rules for management of waste chemicals from school laboratories and general techniques for the disposal of waste or surplus chemicals. Lists specific disposal reactions. (CW)