Describes a program at one middle school where scientists and engineers teach the science lesson one day a week over a six-week period in place of the regular science lesson, culminating in a field trip to the workplace of the scientist/engineer. Discusses lessons learned by scientists, teachers, and students. Notes contributions to the growth of…

Shares experiences of designing interdisciplinary curriculum, making the math-science connection, using curriculum links to meet diverse needs of students, creating the learning environment-classroom management, creating the learning environment-material development, monitoring student understanding, and stimulating optimum growth. (ASK)

Presents an interview with Senta Raizen, who brings her vast experience as a researcher and director of the National Center for Improving Science Education (NCISE) to a discussion of science education reform. (ASK)

Focuses principally on the high school mathematics curriculum. Observes that it is, for most students, lifeless and ineffective. Proposes that the curriculum be implemented as a sequence of good examples designed to expose not content so much as method. (Author/MM)

Takes the position that introducing the history and philosophy of science into school science curricula is a necessary, though not sufficient, part of any school effort to promote science literacy. Reports on the progress of two such initiatives, namely The Project Physics Course and Project 2061. (MM)

Reports on the realization that science is boring to large numbers of students. Focuses on work with making science more interesting. (DDR)

Describes the results of a curriculum-aligned assessment comprising selected items from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS). The assessment was administered to fifth grade students involved in a local systemic change project to address questions such as, How does the performance of students involved in the project compare…

Investigates whether the junior high school textbook 1 meets the requirements of a standards textbook that identifies with 12 criteria set by the Science Teachers Association of Nigeria (STAN). Includes the criteria of coverage of topics in the syllabus, currency suitability of language, and coherency. (Contains 18 references.) (Author/YDS)

Explains how a balloon activity can be used to identify certain principles of flight. Describes where balloons fit in the science curriculum. (YDS)

Points out the potential of the moon as a rich teaching resource for subject areas like astronomy, physics, and biology. Presents historical, scientific, technological, and interesting facts about the moon. Includes suggestions for maximizing student interest and learning about the moon. (YDS)

The rapid rate of expansion of the disciplines of biotechnology, genomics, and bioinformatics emphasizes the increased interdependency between computer science and biology, with mathematics serving as the bridge between these disciplines. This paper demonstrates this inter-relationship within the context of a computational model for a biological…

All interest necessarily links the person with the external environment: the object/s of interest. Research into children's interests is examined in the context of a rapidly-expanding literature which has generated several powerful concepts in recent decades, notably "individual interest", "situational interest" and "topic interest". The first is…

At the beginning of the school year, the authors, a first-grade teacher and a teacher educator, worked together to "spice up" the first-grade science curriculum. The teacher had taught the unit Rocks, Sand, and Soil several times, conducting hands-on explorations and using books to help students learn about properties of rocks, but she felt the…

Providing sun-safe environments, schedules, and activities; teaching and modeling sun-safe behaviors; and implementing a sun-safe school policy are ways that schools can help protect children from sun overexposure and lay the foundation for a healthy lifestyle at an early age. This article presents the SunWise program and examples of classroom…

Seventh-grade science teacher Sonia Mangano stared at the results of her district's mid-year science assessment and asked herself, "Why is it my students seem to have trouble with matter-related ideas? Our district's spiral science curriculum builds on previous concepts from year to year. Yet these results show my students have difficulty with…