Students in Mrs. Wilson's fourth-grade classroom watch in anticipation as the guest teacher, Ms. Davis, demonstrates binary signaling using a lightbulb that flashes when she holds it in her hands. She challenges them to guess what she is trying to "say" while making the lightbulb flash on and off, explaining that the lightbulb stands for…

Sound propagation is not easy for children to understand because of its abstract nature, often best represented by models such as wave drawings and particle dots. Teachers Rebecca Hendrix and Charles Eick wondered how science inquiry, when combined with an unlikely discipline like drama, could produce a better understanding among their…

Over the last twenty-five years, the Minnesota Historical Society, the University of Minnesota Libraries, and Minitex have developed a partnership centered on creating pathways to higher education by engaging local middle school and high school students in immersive programs at academic libraries. These activities vary in scope and content, but…

This article describes a collaborative action research project aimed at deliberately "re-placing" art in the elementary curriculum through targeted planning, implementation, and assessment of an art integrated unit in an urban 4th grade classroom. Findings and implications should be relevant to elementary teachers, administrators, art specialists,…

This report is designed for educators who are involved in teaching, developing, or evaluating curriculum in the elementary schools. It describes the content and application of Florida's fourth grade writing test, and it offers suggestions that might be helpful in preparing students for the assessment. The 1990 Florida legislature mandated the…

Described is how a Wyoming school district developed a program that offers fourth-graders, engaged in local community studies, first-hand experience in their heritage. An exposition that featured exhibits and stations depicting contemporary and historic social and economic practices was developed. (RM)

The University of British Columbia (Canada) dental school has implemented a clinical experience program in which children in grades 2-4 are bused to the university for dental treatment. The program has helped maintain undergraduate pediatric dental experiences, benefited the children's dental health, and cost parents less than traditional dental…

An award-winning fourth-grade unit combines computer and economics education by examining the impact of computer usage on various segments of the economy. Students spent one semester becoming familiar with a classroom computer and gaining a general understanding of basic economic concepts through class discussion, field trips, and bulletin boards.…

This unit's purpose is to teach elementary students responsibility toward their pets by examining laws related to owners' responsibilities, medical care, and items which can be purchased for pets. The project, intended to cover 15 class days, provides teaching concepts and resources and presents each lesson in terms of a problem. Lessons include…

This bulletin is for those who sincerely want to understand the nature of a modern elementary school program. It presents a point of view, offers many illustrations of what happens in a classroom in the course of a school day, and interprets what children do, say, and learn as they work together with their teacher. Education should consist of…

Written for a variety of audiences, this volume describes the University of Western Ontario Preschool Project in sufficient detail to permit its replication; findings of formative and summative program evaluations are reported along with research developing new criterion measures of social competence. Begun in 1973, the program was primarily…