Making connections is an emerging education theme of the 21st century. Science teachers are encouraged to connect new learning with prior knowledge, learning with student interests and experience, and classroom activities with the history and nature of science. Strategies that facilitate these connections enrich and enhance instruction. In this…

A study introduced elementary school students to concept maps--visual representations of a learner's thought processes. Nine teachers with two classes each (kindergarten through fourth grades represented) were taught the terminology of the concept map and were asked to initiate a number of activities in generating concept maps with their children.…

To advance understanding of how mapping can contribute to project-based science (PBS) and cognitive assessment, 31 high school students used mapping in a year-long PBS course; mapping was one component of a set of assessment techniques. Teacher and student interviews, student surveys, and assessment scores show that mapping, as a visual…

Reports results from an experiment in which interaction processes and learning outcomes of dyads working on different cooperative tasks within the domain of electricity were compared; a concept mapping task was compared with a poster task. Subjects were 40 students ages 16-17 years old. Students working on a concept map talked more intensively…

The integrative studies model for classroom activities that the author proposes and illustrates in this article combines the chronological focus of traditional disciplines with the thematic orientation of an interdisciplinary approach. A theme or pattern acts as the vehicle for organization. Students are presented with a variety of information…