This article describes the philosophy, policies, and activities of the Nueva Learning Center for gifted and talented students. Features include personalized learning, a climate conducive to creativity, multiple educational options, community and human service involvement, and teacher training activities. Programs for language arts, science,…

Describes oral activities that help middle and junior high school students develop decision-making skills. The activities, based on Gary Paulsen's novel "Hatchet," focus on struggling for survival. Recommends "Hatchet" as a vehicle for observing the maturing process and for teaching skills that students can apply to their own…

This article discusses the advantages of using literature in language instruction with special needs students, outlines a process for developing instructional activities, suggests 19 specific books and related learning objectives and activities, and provides a lesson plan that illustrates the incorporation of direct instruction in a whole-language…

Provides a series of questions for students to consider when observing construction sites. The thoughtful observations can help students with principles of science. (PR)

Discusses some scaffolds or prompts for helping students to ask themselves better questions about science topics. Presents some teacher questions that test and develop some core thinking skills. (PR)

Describes an activity having students use a microscope to observe the "hooks" and "loops" found in Velcro and on the seeds of the cocklebur plant. (PR)

Describes a simple and inexpensive, one-period activity to extract DNA to make the study of DNA less abstract. A microscope titration is used to determine when cells are ready for DNA extraction. (PR)

Describes activities using worms for instruction in science and language arts. (PR)

Describes a field trip to Costa Rica by college students and an instructor in a tropical ecology course. (PR)

Describes an interesting field experiment examining the distribution and diversity of a single community using lichens and the animals living in them. Combining field experience and laboratory work reveals not only the biology of some unusual organisms, but also community ecology and diversity. (PR)

Presents background information, science activities, and a color poster on the element chlorine. (PR)

Describes interdisciplinary activities for teaching students accurate information about dinosaurs. A list of 20 resources is provided. (PR)

Describes ScienceFest, a program that teams up students and teachers in an effort to create and perform original science-related plays. (PR)

Describes a one-week, cooperative-learning assignment in which students design their own space stations. (PR)

Describes a Science Activities Contract program. Students agree to do four activities at home, and their parents agree to encourage and supervise the children in completing the activities. (PR)