Offering core academic credits (e.g., math, science) for completing agriculture, food, and natural resources (AFNR) coursework at the secondary school level has the potential to increase the strength of the AFNR program as well as student interdisciplinary learning. Informed by the Career and Technical Education Student Typology, we explored the…

This article provides an in-depth examination of differentiation, instructional strategies that cater to all learners. Differentiation is beneficial when teachers can select content, process, and products that meet student's needs. While teachers incorporate differentiation to modify instruction with struggling students, gifted and talented…

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), a reform effort "for states, by states," advances ambitious ideals for elementary science teaching, but the fate of these ideals will depend in part on the engagement of state science coordinators (SSCs). This article explores the responses of SSCs to NGSS in a purposeful sample of 18 US…

"Pre-K Stories" offers a lively exploration of how one classroom community played with and collaboratively engaged in authorship. Through everyday stories, readers are invited to witness and engage with classroom practices that honor young children's brilliance and build on their questions, interests, and strengths. Weaving together…

The current discussion among adolescent literacy researchers describes two positions at either end of a continuum: a generalist content area reading approach and a disciplinary literacy approach. Within the field, there are misunderstandings about the disciplinary literacy approach and claims that adolescents are ill suited to the kinds of…

This study examines teachers' initial conceptions of an integrated STEM-PBL approach and their perceptions of what facilitates or hinders implementation in their schools. This study took place within the first year of a three-year STEM Professional Development (PD) program for middle school math, science and English language arts teachers. The two…

The Thinking with Data project (TWD) expands on current notions of data literacy by (1) focusing on proportional reasoning as key to data literacy and (2) leveraging the non-mathematics disciplines to engage students in deep thinking about the context of data and the application of proportionality. A set of four 2-week, sequential modules for…

This ethnographic study answers calls for research into the ways that virtual organizations (or innovation-driven collaborative teams) form and develop, what supports and constraints their development, and the leadership models that support the organizations' work. The study examines how a virtual organization emerged from an intersegmental…

The research reported in this paper explores the applicability and efficacy of a variant of problem-based learning, the Preparation for Future Learning (PFL) approach, to teaching and learning within the context of a cross-curricular, middle school data literacy unit called "Thinking with Data" (TWD). A quasi-experimental design was used…

The author outlines ways in which conceptions of texts and literacy may be distinctive across academic disciplines. Framed in theories of social semiotics, she asserts that each discipline is recreated through a series of texts, defined broadly to include any instances of communication. Texts in each content area not only instantiate a particular…

Rick Beck works in cast glass; his large-scale work ranges in scale from 15 inches to around 7 feet tall. His medium--glass--makes the scale of Beck's pieces very impressive. He is probably best-known for his oversized cast glass sculptures of common hardware: nuts, bolts, screws, measuring spoons, saws, eating utensils, eye hooks, wing nuts and…

Contains curriculum-oriented activities on various aspects of dog and cat care. Organizes the exercises by reading levels and identifies each activities-related subject and skills area. Includes student work sheets that can be duplicated for classroom use. (ML)

This handbook contains ideas for basic visual arts production in grades K through 6, and gives suggestions for using the ideas in art and interdisciplinary lessons. The book is organized into 5 sections. The Introduction provides a Table of Activities that serves as a reference to the art elements addressed by specific activities. Section 2,…

This book explores all kinds of packaging materials including bags, boxes, etc. and how they are used to protect and display products. Contents are divided into six chapters: (1) "Appetizers" includes activities that can be done individually to become familiar with the topic of packaging and structures; (2) "Concepts" provides…

Over 60 energy education activities related to mathematics, science, social studies, and English comprise this manual for middle school teachers. Included are issues for discussion, puzzles, science investigations, story writing exercises, and energy cost calculation problems. Among the topics covered in these lessons are energy consumption…