Discusses and presents activities for learning about plant fossils. The first activity uses teacher-prepared "fossils" made from plaster of Paris. Students attempt to classify the plants. In the second activity, students observe actual plant fossils. (PR)

Presents detailed descriptions and diagrams for having students build their own syringe-powered rockets. Describes how the students can learn about variables that influence the stability of the rockets flight. (PR)

Argues that role-playing activities can be a powerful tool in mathematics and science education, particularly in the new sciences of complexity (i.e., the study of complex systems). Two role-playing activities are described, each designed to help students develop better intuitions on how complex phenomena can arise from simple interactions, and…

Discusses the approach of using student projects to teach information retrieval. Examines projects completed by students at Mercyhurst College (Erie, Pennsylvania), and includes examples of their work. Discusses problems encountered, weaknesses exposed, and strengths of the project genre overall. Other issues raised include methods for reinforcing…

In this article Ian Broinowski explores creative and interesting ways to incorporate text messaging (SMS) into his teaching practices. Using a computer he is able to send messages related to classroom activities and share ideas and resources with students. He also examines some of the protocols associated with the use of mobile phones and draws…

Observations of 780 third-grade classrooms described classroom activities, child-teacher interactions, and dimensions of the global classroom environment, which were examined in relation to structural aspects of the classroom and child behavior. 1 child per classroom was targeted for observation in relation to classroom quality and teacher and…

Powerful applications such as Microsoft Office's Excel and Word are widely used to perform common tasks in the workplace and in education. Scripting within these applications allows unanticipated user requirements to be addressed. We show that such extensibility, intended to support office automation-type applications, is well suited to the…

America has been called "the argument culture," but you would not know it from many social studies classrooms. Despite a longstanding tradition in social studies of teaching controversial issues, all too few of today's classrooms accommodate this kind of intellectual activity. Perhaps it is the pressure of high stakes testing, or the emphasis on…

This article draws on socio-cultural learning theory as a conceptual framework for analysing how teachers structure classroom activities and interactions during "Technology-integrated Instructional Conversations" (TICs). It reports on a collaborative programme of small-scale projects undertaken by 15 teacher-researchers using various forms of…

Improving critical thinking--defined by one expert as "reasonable reflective thinking focused on deciding what to believe or do"--has been a frequent topic in the writing of history educators at least since the early 1970s. Attitudes and interests do support higher-level thinking and, most importantly, knowledge used in carrying it out…

"Who would ever use this stuff?" Middle school mathematics teachers often respond to such questions by emphasizing connections and the need for students "to recognize and apply mathematics in contexts outside mathematics" (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics 2000, p. 64). This article describes how, within this framework, the bicentennials…

This article explores the mathematics involved in the NCAA basketball tournament including data analysis, basic probability, expected value, and the multiplication principle. A fun activity is presented that applies these concepts and involves students shooting Ping-Pong balls to discover a best strategy. (Contains 3 tables and 3 figures.)

This article describes an activity where children develop reasoning skills by using mathematical clues to decide whether there is one, more than one, or no solutions to a problem. (Contains 4 figures.)

This article considers students' classroom notebooks, their character and their role in learning. The results presented were found within the frame work of a broader international project, the Learners Perspective Study, whose goal is to identify classroom practice from the students' point of view. Two 8th grade classrooms were studied. In each,…

In this article we describe an in-class case-conference exercise designed to enhance the teaching of paradigms in abnormal psychology courses. The primary pedagogical goals are to increase awareness of how paradigms are applied in real-life settings; better distinguish between paradigms; and recognize how paradigms influence understanding of…