Discusses five instructional strategies for increasing the meaningfulness of technical or scientific information. These include organization of prose, use of concrete analogies as advance organizers, use of inserted questions in prose, elaboration activities such as note-taking and discovery learning. (JN)

This paper, presented at a conference on pedagogy at Chichester, England, argues that overemphasis on expository verbal learning in teacher education is deleterious to student learning. Instead, teacher educators should develop conceptual learning and problem-solving abilities, drawing on educational psychology for an inquiry-oriented approach,…

Only if preservice teachers have the opportunity to learn to teach beyond the schoolroom will they attempt to do it when they assume full-time teaching positions. To venture beyond the status quo will require at least an experiential background with the methods, techniques, and values of environmental education. (Author)

Summarizes experiments indicating that a basic key to learning is the development of concepts of pattern recognition and the appropriateness of using a particular theorem. (Author/SK)

Presents some introductory experiments involving the reaction between EDTA and several metal ions using metallochromic indicators. The experiments represent familiar reactions and are followed by suggestions for extension into areas of discovery work by students. (Author/SA)

A model for teaching proof writing to college mathematics students is presented. The model has six phases: (1) open (understanding the theorem by reading it, listing, and writing it out); (2) brainstorm; (3) instantiate (perception of the chain of inferences linking hypothesis to conclusion); (4) convince; (5) reflect; and (6) extend. Strategies…

Describes five astronomy education projects implemented by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Science Education Department and funded by the National Science Foundation. Project efforts have concentrated in three major areas: (1) curriculum development; (2) teacher support; and (3) classroom technology. (DDR)

Discusses the Tadpoles Project at Schofield Middle School in Aiken, South Carolina. A basin was excavated to create a pond so that students could study various disciplines in a wetlands setting. Presents guidelines for obtaining support for such an effort. (NB)

Uses a discovery lesson for determining the area of an equilateral triangle given a side length as an illustration of how to introduce features of the TI-92 graphing calculator geometry package within a mathematical context. (KHR)

Describes an eight-phase model for project-based learning via the Internet: watching, wondering, webbing, wiggling, weaving, wrapping, waving, and wishing. Highlights Internet research tools as well as Internet and print resources for an investigation of homelessness, hunger, and poverty; and provides introductory activities using Internet…

Discusses strategies to facilitate children's explorations that include supporting open-ended inquiry, supervising safely, seizing the moment, offering a place for discovery, providing access to information, sharing respect for life, seeking community involvement, and celebrating wonder. (JRH)

Describes the Slanting Leaf Beds Project in Oregon in which fifth and sixth graders participated in hands-on, long-term research projects designed to provide students with an understanding of scientific processes and concepts. Students first worked in pairs obtaining samples and making tentative identifications. Group data was pooled and compared…

Described is the use of computer software to teach elementary scientific processes to sixth graders. Discussed are materials, manuals, procedures and evaluation. The results of a field trial are described. (CW)

According to information from a 1994 conference that explored the work of teachers conducting inquiry, the purposes of teacher-led inquiry are to improve teaching and learning and to inform and transform the work of schooling. Implications of teacher-led inquiry for the education of teachers are examined. (SM)

Notes the dangers of "generic" early childhood curricula. Draws on a teacher's journal to describe letting preschoolers build their own learning from "natural" learning materials--including plastic and cardboard pipes, palm branches, buckets, chains and pulleys--and how the teacher supported their growth. (HTH)