Compares the nature of student thinking in confirmation and open-inquiry laboratory activities. Reports that student thinking processes exhibited in confirmation laboratories emphasized procedures and techniques--making sense of and doing the laboratory, whereas student thinking in open-inquiry laboratories emphasized data analysis--making sense…

Discusses briefly Piaget's views on intellectual development as related to science teaching. Describes intellectual activities observed in science classrooms and shows how specific science lessons can be designed to encourage cognitive development. (GA)

Reported is a study to investigate the effects of a free-choice program on children's ability to interpret experiments, design simple investigations, and recognize variables that could affect the outcome of observed events. (Author/SA)

Two experiments examined how learning from different media--real pulley systems or simple line diagrams--affected mechanical learning and problem solving. The first showed that subjects' learning improved equally in both cases; all subjects showed an increase in quantitative understanding as they learned; and subjects manipulating real pulley…

Science activities with soap bubbles for primary school children are described in this article. Another activity involves children in determining the whereabouts of sugar as it dissolves in water. (SA)

Developmental changes in the understanding and use of the logic of experimental control were addressed with three tasks in a longitudinal study. In all three tasks, understanding of experimental control was assessed by production measures (children were asked to test potential causal relations in a multivariable situation) and by choice/evaluation…