Presents schools as the perfect microcosms of the world of the 1990s: most work is done indoors, many resources are consumed, and schools sit surrounded by large chunks of land mostly devoted to grass and parking. Suggests that a school can serve as two perfect environmental education laboratories, one indoor and one outdoor. Describes how to…

A series of vignettes illustrates a variety of methods for implementing community-focused teaching and learning. Finding the curriculum in the community, going public with learning experiences, making the most of field trips, and participating in ongoing community events are strategies that promote integrated curriculum, involve community, and…

Describes the Transatlantic Classroom (TAC), a teacher-run e-mail program between students in the United States and Germany, and provides 10 steps for launching a similar program. Explains that e-mail exchanges enable students to learn firsthand about differences and similarities between countries thus fostering greater cultural understanding.…

Examines the academic potential internships offer sociology students and the reasons that many internships fail to achieve this potential. Discusses four components that provide structure to maximize learning within internships: (1) an appropriate site; (2) a learning agreement contract; (3) a concurrent seminar; and (4) a means for assessing…

Describes a science lab in which first-grade students are linked via internet with a marine scientist at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Antarctica. (CCM)

Describes a consumer-math-skills project in which students make geometric shapes using pretzel sticks and gumdrops, then start a shop to sell them. This requires counting costs, pricing items, setting up shop, using money, making change, and understanding profits. Students reflect on the experience and write lists of the math they used to create…

Within diverse outdoor educational activities, a core experience of connection with the earth balances self, others, and nature with elements of ritual. Most effective when experiential, integrated, and technologically simple, the core experience's educative power lies in awakening awareness of interconnectedness between human and nonhuman life.…

An experiential approach to environmental studies courses in institutions of higher education would better prepare students to address the environmental problems of the new millennium. Research shows that adults prefer experiential and task-centered learning. Experiential learners are more efficient workers, achieve higher grades, are more…

A study examined the effectiveness of integrated curricula in encouraging students to live active, healthy lifestyles. Interviews with students and teachers in three Canadian integrated secondary programs revealed that outdoor physical education components in integrated curricula promoted healthy, active lifestyles and attitudes in students, an…

Touts using the schoolyard for teaching mathematics. Mathematics is a way of describing the world and its patterns; schoolyards are especially suited to concept application and problem solving. Mathematics in a natural setting also allows students and teachers to meet learning objectives in more than one subject area. Includes math activities for…

Reviews psychological research on learning by doing, noting the role that learning-by-doing can play in education and training. Discusses how one University of Pittsburgh professor/researcher and his colleagues and students implemented this approach and describes lessons learned from the experience, explaining how improved forms of…

Students set up a pizza parlor and choose a name for the parlor, menus and drinks, the number of customers they will serve, and numbers of table settings and ingredients they will need. Students choose work roles in the parlor, and student customers pay the parlor with paper money they designed. Includes full activity instructions, pizza recipe,…

Discusses how teachers can facilitate greater cultural understanding and acceptance among their students. Describes activities for primary school students that are useful in promoting cultural understanding and acceptance, such as a unit on comparing folk tales and exploring cultures through art. Includes a bibliography of resources. (CMK)

This paper focuses on a model of delivery of professional experience courses for pre-service teachers that has been running in the author's institution for 9 years. The overall purpose of the model has been to assist the development of a reflective approach in pre-service teachers as they build their professional knowledge in schools and on…

Most people think that engineering and mathematics go hand in hand. To many, being an engineer means manipulating equations and calculating measurements to design and build structures of all kinds. And they are right. Engineering does involve a great deal of mathematics. But, building structures to withstand certain environmental conditions or…