The Multiple Menu Model is a practical set of planning guides that teachers can use to design indepth curriculum units. This model differs from traditional approaches by balancing content and process, involving students as inquirers, and exploring knowledge's structure and interconnectedness. Components include menus for knowledge, instructional…

Discusses how children's everyday literacies can be used in schools to connect popular culture with the language arts curriculum. Defines what the authors mean by the term popular culture, being careful to distinguish it from definitions ascribed to mass media. Shares some practical, classroom-tried ideas for integrating elementary students'…

Describes a way to teach mathematics majors as guest instructors in their classroom to utilize resources with a wealth of experience, ideas, and enthusiasm. (Author/KHR)

Describes a curriculum for teaching evolution in an introductory biology class. The historically based instruction improved the students' understanding of evolution as contrasted with traditional instruction. An increased use of Darwinian ideas, and a decreased use of non-Darwinian ideas were also noted. (AIM)

The holistic approach to restructuring engineering technology education at the New Jersey Center for Advanced Technological Education includes partnerships for articulated programs, recruitment and retention of underrepresented groups, involvement of industrial personal, and faculty development in innovative instructional methods. (SK)

Describes how a group of third-grade teachers engaged in meaningful and useful curriculum development in the language arts, starting with a belief statement, and moving to program outcomes, integrated topics, specific objectives, and student exhibitions and portfolios. (SR)

Reports on student work with a local council to conduct a watershed analysis of a tributary in the Clackamas River in Oregon. (KHR)

On-campus and distance nursing students conducted research projects and presented student posters (Year 1) and research papers (Year 2). Evaluations by on-site (n=55) and off-site students (n=93) indicated that students valued their active participation in the research process and the opportunity to present their work. There was a clear preference…

Focuses on changes in instructional approaches in the schools following the adoption of block scheduling that may influence student learning. Examines a number of student outcomes, including student grades, honor roll and failure rates, the numbers of students successfully completing Advanced Placement courses, and achievement test scores from the…

Examines why, despite research and opinion that favors the utilization of popular texts to teach literacy, teachers in a research and development project still have an aversion to embracing children's interest in popular culture. Finds teachers who did not wish to use popular culture in their classrooms shared similar traditional conceptions of…

Attempts to strengthen the connection between theory and practice in the inquiry discussion. Presents three curricular perspectives prevalent today and situates inquiry curriculum among these perspectives. Addresses several critiques of inquiry curriculum. Provides scenarios and identifies the beliefs underlying these opposing perspectives in an…

Considers how writing personal and professional narratives together has taught the author the complicated ways in which he uses his early childhood skills in caring for his parents--the importance of routines, transitions, relationship building--and they in turn have prompted him to rethink the early years of life, including the learning of…

Explains the effects of globalization on education and unsuccessful attempts to develop a curriculum representing the desired ideas of integrated science. Describes how to develop and implement an integrated science curriculum and discusses the structure of a system with supportive instruction and pedagogy. (Contains 74 references.) (Author/YDS)

Suggests an alternative proof by analytic methods, which is more accessible than rigorous proof based on Euclid's Elements, in which students need only apply standard methods of trigonometry to the data without introducing new points or lines. (KHR)

Shares the thoughts of two teachers on what they consider to be losses to the English curriculum in recent years: phase-elective English and the thematic unit. (MG)