Many young people live in communities with historically interesting buildings, and tours of those historical sites can reveal much about life in the past. Something that students often overlook in the analysis of historic sites is the civic values held by the people who lived there. The ideas of architecture cannot be divorced from the people or…

It is widely acknowledged that there are problems with school science in many developed countries of the world. Such problems manifest themselves in a progressive decline in pupil enthusiasm for school science across the secondary age range and by the fact that fewer students are choosing to study the physical sciences at higher levels and as…

Traditional lectures generally force students to play a passive role in the classroom. In an effort to promote active learning, we added discussion sections to a large lecture hall course. Field trips, student journals, and group-based assignments, in particular, enhanced the learning experience. To ensure the success of the new format, course…

In this article, the author shares her experience working with preservice teachers in a hands-on museum exhibit. The preservice teachers' responses suggest that the experience of working in a hands-on museum exhibit can be a valuable part of an elementary social studies methods course. Adequately preparing elementary social studies methods…

This paper examines a local and specific instance of the effects of neoliberal markets on individual and institutional subjects of schooling. It reviews a court case between a prestigious private girls' school and an ex-student who sued the school for failing to provide adequate supervision on a school trip to Europe during which she was raped. It…

This article describes an investigation of medical facilities undertaken by 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children in a dual-language prekindergarten program in Chicago, Illinois. The article describes the phases of the project and documents the children's involvement in the project through anecdotal reports, photographs, and samples of the children's…

Both teacher and student editions of a guide for a tour of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, designed for students in an intensive English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) program at Temple University (Pennsylvania) are presented here. They were intended to provide a content-based tour of a local art museum for university ESL students that ESL teachers…

This learning packet, one in a group of eight, was developed by the Morrow Mountain State Park in North Carolina for Grades 5-7 to teach about the identification and formation of rocks. Loose-leaf pages are presented in 10 sections that contain: (1) introductions to the North Carolina State Park System, the Morrow Mountain State Park, and to the…

The paper describes how preschool children's cognitive development is affected by the study of their surroundings and environment. A group of preschool children from the Child's Center of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, were provided with opportunities to examine the transformation of wool into cloth and clothing. These included: (1)…

This packet attempts to provide educationally sound alternatives to dissection in the classroom, thereby making it possible for teachers to eliminate dissection from the curriculum. This packet can also be used by educators who include dissection in their curricula but consider it important to respect the expression of students' ethical, moral, or…

Museum visits allow students to see animals from South America, North America, Africa, Asia, and the North Pole without rain, snow, or mosquitoes. This activity guide was developed for teachers, chaperones, and students to use with the animal exhibits in the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Wing of the Field Museum of Chicago. Activities are designed for…

Cost and scheduling problems often prevent industrial arts teachers from taking their students on field trips. Moreover, study findings indicate that the highly valued industrial visit proves less effective than flexible, inexpensive, custom-tailored slide-tape presentations. Slide-tape preparation procedures are outlined, and recommendations are…

The purpose of this community study unit is to introduce third grade students to the concept of the food web and to guide them in an investigation of the interrelationships among living things within a community. In the first section, students examine their own diets, and then extend this examination to the diets of some familiar animals.…

History is not merely events that occurred in the past. The past has influenced the present, as the present will influence the future. The purpose of this community study unit is to provide fourth grade students with an opportunity to investigate some of the history of Lee County, Florida. The unit's focus is on Thomas Edison, who built a home in…

This unit has been created to provide experiences with the concept of adaptation. Adaptation can be defined as changes resulting from interactions of the needs of a species or cultural object and the opportunities presented by the environment. Most behaviors and physiological characteristics of plants are related to adaptation. An understanding of…