Describes an activity on biomass measurement which, in this case, is the weight of a group of living things in a given area. The earthworm activity gives students a greater understanding of ecology, practical math applications, and the scientific method. (ASK)

Describes how two colleagues, an English teacher and a German teacher, taught interdisciplinary poetry units using multimedia and hypermedia, based on using computers as cognitive learning tools rather than as "teaching machines." Describes the interdisciplinary poetry project which focused on animals and on human interaction with animals.…

Discusses procedures for investigating animal motion and makes suggestions for conducting a field or laboratory experiment using video. Recommends using nature videos to perform motion analysis. (YDS)

Ethical issues concerning pain and suffering of animals are necessarily a consideration in killing pest or feral species in Australia, but ethical issues are reduced to a secondary consideration and appear to be at odds with scientific agendas. Suggests that a greater understanding of various perspectives on the subject of environmental ethics may…

Explains how to use galvanotaxis and mutagenesis experiments to study Paramecium's swimming behaviors and ion channel functions. (YDS)

Describes an activity in which students are introduced to the concept of food webs through a role-playing tag game. (Author/CCM)

Describes an activity in which students map mockingbirds' territories and describe at least 10 common behaviors of these birds. (Author/CCM)

Presents a science activity that is a combination of guided-inquiry and open-inquiry in which students investigate crayfish. (YDS)

What capabilities are required for an organism to evince an "explicit" understanding of gaze as a mentalistic phenomenon? One possibility is that mentalistic interpretations of gaze, like concepts of unseen, supernatural beings, are culturally-specific concepts, acquired through cultural learning. These abstract concepts may either require a…

Given the prominence of sense of place in environmental education curricula, this paper aims to empirically examine and strengthen the conceptual understanding of sense of place. The results and implications are derived from research where five commercial fishermen and five organic farmers from the New England Seacoast region participated in a…

In biology education, the study of structure has traditionally involved the use of dissection. Animal-rights campaigners have caused biology educators and learners to question the necessity of dissections. This study reviews the research evidence for the efficacy of alternatives to dissection and then turns to research evidence on attitudes to…

Bulletin boards throughout schools in the month of January often have mittens, snowflakes, or penguins as decorations. This month's topic celebrates those tuxedo-clad birds that have come to symbolize winter and provides students with the opportunity to investigate adaptations that help penguins survive in their environment.

An oil spill occurs somewhere in the world almost every day of the year, and the consequences can be devastating. In this month's column, students explore the effects of oil spills on plants, animals, and the environment and investigate oil spill clean-up methods through a simulated oil spill. The activities described in this article give students…

Teachers love to have their students actively engaged with hands-on manipulatives in the pursuit of scientific investigation. However, students cannot develop an understanding of every important concept in science through their own investigation. There are points in their lessons that require outside information, usually through some type of text…

Nature journaling is a useful skill for science students, independent of whether they also consider themselves artists. A pencil and sketchbook can be carried anywhere to record ecological information in many ways. A traditional page in a nature journal may consist of quick studies of plant and animal life sketched out as rudimentary line drawings…