Describes an assignment in a paleontology course built around constructional morphology and the role of adaptation and exaptation in evolution. Students investigate the constructional morphology of a group of fossils that interests them. Findings are presented in an oral presentation and in a term paper. (27 references) (PR)

Describes an assignment in a graduate-level course in sedimentary-basin analysis that requires students to write a research-grant proposal. The assignment forces students to develop a topic suitable for original research. Each year 25 percent of the class turns these assignments into master's thesis projects and/or submits them as student grant…

History humanizes mathematics and explains the "whys" by showing its logical development. Communicating, connecting, and valuing of mathematics can be effected by interjecting historical moments, reading biographies, creating displays for the classroom, and tracing historically accurate developments of topics in class. (Contains 26…

Three methods of introducing biographies of mathematicians into the classroom are explained. Includes discussion and examples of the methods and lists birthdays of over 120 mathematicians. The bibliography lists books written on various reading levels and includes five books devoted to women mathematicians. (MKR)

Challenges ways in which a positivist view of science has led to hegemonic discourse on writing to learn science and highlights contradictions in this discourse. Argues for pedagogy that draws on critical, feminist, and hegemonic pedagogies and incorporates affective, creative, critical, cognitive, and diverse language practices set within…

The article to which this essay responds advises risky practices that trouble traditional distinctions between science and not-science (things not scientific in nature), particularly its argument to politicize science as a way to organize teaching. Raises questions about science as a regime of truth in a place where such questions carry much…

Argues that a term paper worthy of a high grade must be more than a quick literature review. It should be a research project on a subject narrowly focused enough that the instructor will learn new things and in which the writing process requires numerous drafts. Offers a short guide intended to be given to students as part of the term paper…

Examined the cognitive processes through which writing contributes to science learning among elementary school students. Analyzed four aspects of students' verbal learning strategies: writing operations, transitional sequences among writing operations, text features, and strategies for generating content. Concluded that for elementary students,…

The reading and writing of creative writing have the potential to bring sociology to life in a dramatic way. Literature has been used in sociology in one of two ways: to provide sociological evidence and as an object of analysis--a social institution to be studied in its own right. Previous scholarship has proven that the use of literature in…

A collaborative effort between biology and communication instructors to facilitate speaking skills for senior biology majors resulted in improved organization, clarity and confidence in delivering an oral scientific presentation. But this instruction also favorably impacted students' scientific writing. This benefit seems best attributed to…

This article focuses on an extended, interactive, collaborative project in a junior/senior-level business communication class. The main goal of the project is to address a difficult task central to many college-level writing courses: teaching students to consider and to write for specific audiences other than the teacher. A second goal is to focus…

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…

Students are often asked to write reports for science, history, and other content-area classes. Struggling writers and many of their classmates are unsure about how to plan and write reports. This article presents a strategy for planning and writing reports and describes how a general and special education teacher team-taught this strategy to a…

This study investigated the score exchangeability of concept maps with problem-solving essays. Of interest was whether sixth-grade students' concept maps predicted their scores on essay responses that used concept map content. Concept maps were hypothesized to be alternatives to performance assessments for content-area domain knowledge in science.…

Suggesting that poetry can be inserted into any classroom in any curricular area, this paper discusses reading and writing poetry in middle school classrooms. The paper begins with advice on reading poetry in content classrooms, and then presents a 31-item bibliography of poetry sources "for browsing." The paper then presents tips for writing…