Project Oz is a not-for-profit special services agency providing drug education and crisis intervention services. Project Oz curricula provide compact and well-researched information for teachers, supplemented by student learning activities that reinforce the lecture portions of the topic. These activities are grade-appropriate and incorporate…

In this qualitative study, five female students in the sixth grade were interviewed and surveyed about their views on popularity at their urban middle school in Ohio. The objectives of the study were to investigate whether middle school girls engaged in academic competition, to describe their subjective experiences of popularity in middle school,…

The Community School District Six Laptop Project (New York, NY) was created in order to increase access to technology for families in a low-income area with a large immigrant population. As part of the project, the sixth-grade students in this study received IBM ThinkPads. Trends that appear in the literature on integrating technology into the…

Investigates opinions of students, parents, teachers, and principals concerning: (1) the amount of instructional emphasis to be given to health science content areas at grades 3, 6, 9, and 12; and (2) health science content areas which should receive the greatest and least emphasis at those grade levels. (SB)

Discusses the development and implementation of a simulation game for a sixth-grade class that used the structure of Thornton Wilder's play, "Our Town," to examine the geographical issues involved in community planning. The land development issue discussed was based on a real-life local concern. (MJP)

Two studies involving 84 fifth and sixth graders and 77 sixth and seventh graders explored the component orientations of spirituality, affect, and communalism of an Afrocultural social ethos and their connections with psychological functioning among inner-city African American youth. Positive endorsement and moderate correlations among the…

Describes the hierarchical values attached to languages in Botswana as reflected in an educational policy placing English in a prestigious position and marginalizing indigenous languages. The article argues that code switching to English during ritualized question-and-answer performances derives from conventions imposed during colonial rule. (24…

Examined relationship between the cognitive demands of instruction and student motivation in fifth-, sixth-, and seventh-grade mathematics classrooms. Found through observation and survey data that sixth- and seventh-grade math lessons were characterized by significantly fewer elements of higher-order thinking than fifth-grade math lessons, and…

A two-year study involving 173 Portuguese fifth-graders found students who were rejected by their peers were more disruptive, aggressive, and had more trouble with teachers. Students who were rated as lower status students (rejected and neglected) achieved poorly in 5th grade and more poorly in 6th grade. (Contains references.) (CR)

Differences and relationships between home environment and motivational orientation were examined for 28 higher and 29 lower achieving mainland Puerto Rican children in grades 5 and 6. Post-hoc multiple regression analysis revealed that family involvement accounted for a significant amount of variance with regard to achievement. (SLD)

Discusses a project at Bank Street College called "Earth Lab: A Network for Young Scientists." Explores how the use of a local area network might alter the academic environment in which students work. Reviews student databases, teacher-made databases, online databases, and electronic mail. (MVL)

Twenty-one impulsive fifth and sixth graders with low academic achievement were assigned to (1) self-instruction (SI) training; (2) problem solving (PS) training; or (3) a control condition. SI and PS training produced improvement in impulsivity and achievement, but only the impulsivity decrease was maintained at six months. (SLD)

A study of the effect of teachers' asymmetric perceptions of girls and boys on 147 Jewish Israeli second and sixth graders' (78 males and 69 females) perceptions of student prominence in school relevant categories found that students judged more boys as prominent. Same-sex peers were also judged prominent. (JB)

Uses Japanese family crests to motivate students to construct a family history. Includes background information on Japanese history and culture. Provides an outline for the student research project. Supplies a list of Japanese emblems and their symbolism. (NL)

This study examined computerized classwide applications of curriculum-based measurement (CBM) to improve teachers' math planning within large group instructional settings, using a mathematics operations curriculum in 10 sixth grade classes. Preliminary findings suggest CBM increases teachers' abilities to incorporate students with disabilities…