The George Lucas Educational Foundation began in 1991 with an ambitious mission: to demonstrate how innovative learning environments in classrooms, supported by powerful new technologies, could revolutionize learning. As an organization founded by George Lucas, its members believed that the same benefits of technology that were transforming…

Using cultured fibroblast cells, undergraduate students explore cell division and the responses of cultured cells to a variety of environmental changes. The students learn new research techniques and carry out a self-designed experiment. Through this project, students enhance their creative approach to scientific inquiry, learn time-management and…

This article discusses our teaching approach in graduate level Engineering Statistics. It is based on the use of modern technology, learning groups, contextual projects, simulation models, and statistical and simulation software to entice student motivation. The use of technology to facilitate group projects and presentations, and to generate,…

This paper describes the early childhood teacher training program and the role of the Project Approach in the final practicum for student teachers in the Lisbon School of Education, Portugal. Student teachers, cooperating teachers, university supervisors, and instructors of teaching methods worked together to involve young children in interesting…

"Reinventing Project-Based Learning" offers educators an accessible guide for maximizing the benefits of project-based learning in today's technology-rich learning environment. This reader-friendly book speaks directly to educators, administrators, and professional development specialists who want to transform learning into a more active,…

In recent years project-based learning (PBL) incorporating online discussions has gradually been applied to courses that focus on writing projects. Past studies have shown that learners in PBL often face the difficulties of not having in-depth data analysis and peer discussions and how teachers design the rules and methods for online discussions…

The alphabet can be used as a framework for identifying key issues, ideas, and factors that teachers and students need to consider in developing hypermedia projects. Rather than in alphabetical order, the terms are introduced as they apply to the discussion on the teaching of multimedia skills. The following terms and concepts are highlighted:…

The "Kids for Trees" program described in this guidebook is a hands-on natural resource management experience where students raise trees from seedlings to harvest and manage other natural resources in a sustainable manner. Sections of the book include key concepts, getting started, needs of different kinds of trees, learning about potential…

This book contains 49 science fair projects designed for 6th to 9th grade students. Projects are organized by the topics of soil, ecology (projects in habitat and life cycles), pests and controls (projects in weeds and insects), recycling (projects in resources and conservation), waste products (projects in decomposition), microscopic organisms,…

The merits of the video photo essay as a broadcast production teaching tool and as a genre of television news are examined in this paper. Suggestions are offered for using the video essay in the classroom, such as assigning students projects which involve producing a news story using only "nat-sound" and soundbites or music, and…

Documentation, in the forms of observation of children and recordkeeping, has long been practiced in many early childhood programs, particularly in the preschools of Reggio Emilia, Italy. Documentation typically includes samples of children's work at several stages of completion; photographs showing work in progress; comments by teachers working…

Teachers interested in fostering science learning through inquiry or projects must play a complex role in discourse with students. They must scaffold student activities in the classroom without taking away students' active roles. This paper provides a framework for a specific form of scaffolding open-ended science inquiry based on the notion of…

This informational packet contains the materials necessary to administer the annual Department of Defense Dependent Schools Pacific Region Junior Science and Humanities Symposium (JSHS) at the high school and middle school levels. The symposium program is a calendar year research program which includes one week symposium of students (grade 8-12)…

Experiential education, and more specifically service-learning, connects students with a different kind of education. Moreover, service-learning provides the opportunity for students to listen to voices seldom heard in academia. Experiential learning and service-learning have taken on an important role in contemporary schooling and are being…

This book introduces and guides upper elementary and middle school teachers through the process of using major classroom projects to enable integration of the curriculum through social studies. The book describes the excitement of a classroom when the students are working on Washington, D.C. and Latin America projects. Not only do the students…