Presents a lesson involving the measurement of wood beams and the prediction and testing of their stress limits. Provides an example of a problem with multiple solutions, each with different consequences. (KHR)

Presents a science activity designed to involve students in experimental procedures such as data collection and analysis by extracting peroxidase from plant sources. (YDS)

Suggests that recent social changes and trends make it imperative to include demographics of all kinds in research on child development. Proposes guidelines to help child development researchers procure demographic information from their study population. Provides specific questions that may help researchers devise demographic indicators, and…

Describes the data collection and interpretation project of primary grade students involving predicting, graphing, estimating, measuring, number problem construction, problem solving, and probability. (MKR)

Describes how the collection, analysis, and reporting of qualitative data from a research project examining the implementation of microcomputers in classrooms was facilitated by using a microcomputer. The use of hypertext to create a unified relational database is described, and implications of hypermedia for qualitative research are suggested.…

Discusses the collaboration among the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office, the California Employment Development Department and community college practitioners to develop an administrative data-matching system to meet accountability mandates of the 1990 Perkins Act. Reviews the benefits of collaboration when matching student records…

Research on education-to-work transitions perpetuates a predictable, linear pathways model that is no longer appropriate. Alternative approaches include vocational focus, occupational focus, contextual focus, altered patterns, and mixed patterns. Using a different framework necessitates changes in data gathering and analysis. (SK)

Emphasizes the need to teach probability and statistics to elementary school students. Explains that it will help them think more logically about arguments and enable them to explain their thinking with numerical information. Describes different exercises that will allow students to learn about statistics, probability, and data collection and…

Compares and presents information on the history of journalism. Presents three activities that encourage analysis and making predictions based on data gathered from articles in newspapers. (ASK)

A greater challenge than collecting and organizing data is transforming data into easily accessible, useful information that staff members can employ for school improvement. A New Hampshire district developed four guiding principles. They prioritized instructional change, instituted staff training, stressed communication of results, and invited…

Reports on a study undertaken to develop research rubrics for a performance assessment of science processes and evaluate seventh-grade science students' ability to perform them. Focuses on the processes of recording data, analyzing data, drawing conclusions, and providing evidence. Reports that only 61% of the students performed the activity and…

Investigates a mixed set of methods (group interviews, recollection of information needs and word association tests to collect data; content analysis and discourse analysis to analyze data) to evaluate whether these methods collected the data needed for work domain oriented thesaurus design. Findings showed the methods together provided domain…

Describes study of administrative data from Northern Ireland on the costs of family and child care services, using small area utilization modeling, to derive a new set of needs indicators that could be used within the family and child care capitation funding formula. Argues that small area utilization modeling produces a fairer and more equitable…

Examined feasibility of linking administrative data sets for evaluation of home visiting as a strategy for reducing incidence of child abuse and neglect. Also examined associations between family characteristics and subsequent child maltreatment. Found home visiting efforts were targeted to the populations most at-risk for child maltreatment.…

Schools gather, store and use an increasingly large amount of data. Keeping track of everything from bus routes to building access codes to test scores to sports equipment is done with the help of electronic database programs. Large databases designed for budgeting and student record keeping have long been an integral part of the educational…