Discusses the following questions in choosing distance education courses: Will I be able to "talk" with the instructor? Will I be able to talk with other course participants? Does the course include laboratories or other hands-on experiences? What equipment will I need to participate? What technical assistance will be available? Who is the course…

Rebuts the case made by Donald Williams in "Making a Case for the Science Specialist." Argues that using science specialists gives the impression that science is only for certain people. Considers points made by preservice teachers in Williams' article concerning attitude, curricular concerns, and teaching science using real-life…

Discusses a child-centered science project in which first-grade students integrate design drawing, construction, mathematics, and language arts to solve engineering problems related to constructing robots. Describes the construction of the robots, follow-up activities, and educational research that supports this approach to teaching. (10…

Conceptual change teaching is an instructional method that helps students modify, extend, or exchange their alternative conceptions for the appropriate scientific conceptions. Provides activities and a diagnostic test to apply the method to the concepts of heat and temperature. (MDH)

Describes student projects that involve caring for and maintaining invertebrate organism that can be purchased inexpensively from bait shops. (PR)

Describes a class project of producing a geologic report of a park for a community. (PR)

Presents reasons why jargon should not be used in biology instruction. Argues that more hands-on science activities and relating learning to everyday living needs to occur in the science classroom. (PR)

Describes activities integrating science and art education in which students examine slides of impressionist paintings or photographs of meteorological phenomena to determine the weather conditions depicted and to make and defend weather predictions. Includes a reproducible worksheet. (MDH)

Presents an activity in which models help students visualize both the DNA process and transcription. After constructing DNA, RNA messenger, and RNA transfer molecules; students model cells, protein synthesis, codons, and RNA movement. (MDH)

Argues that methods and procedures for teaching geography are becoming increasingly important as nongeography teachers present geographic concepts in other subjects. Describes an interdisciplinary instructional unit in which students use mathematical calculations to identify population centers in the United States and China. Provides maps, tables,…

Discusses "Private Eye," an approach to teaching which focuses on developing students as artists, writers, and scientists. Describes how this approach uses the jewelers loupe to examine everyday objects 5 or 10 times bigger, thus altering students' way of viewing the world through the change of scale and through analogy-provoking questions. (SR)

Describes two interdisciplinary units that can be used in most middle school classrooms, one on the sinking of the "Titanic" and one on Pickett's charge at Gettysburg during the Civil War. Describes how each unit involves English, math, social studies, and science classes and activities. (SR)

Develops a multidimensional framework for analyzing an extended physics classroom interaction to understand the resources participants use, alignments they form, and meanings and context they construct. Considers how participants negotiate their positions, focusing on one resistant student and why she remains unconvinced by others' arguments and…

Describes a case study of an experienced provocateur-teacher in which the teacher's theory for science learning and teaching during teacher-student interactions was inferred from classroom observations, teacher-student discourse, and stimulated recall interviews. The teacher's instructional moves were interrelated with the components of his…

Investigated the effects of group ability composition on group processes and outcomes in science performance assessments. Findings from 21 eighth-grade science classes (445 students) show that group ability composition has a great impact on performance and that heterogeneous groups provide more of a benefit for below-average students than a…