As problems become increasingly complex, science educators need to better understand how new knowledge is constructed and applied in heterogeneous team collaborations, and how to teach students to productively engage in these processes. We discuss the emergence of insights in collaborative sensemaking and suggest a model that articulates the…

Recent education reforms highlight the importance of engineering design as a tool to improve student science learning in this new view of K-12 science education. However, little research has investigated the thought processes students use while engaging in the highly complex activity of design. Therefore, building on theories of productive…

Examines the processes involved in problem solving and provides twelve problems that may be used to illustrate these processes. (JR)

Outlines a model which describes the processes that a learner goes through in attempting to solve problems, and suggests ways to assist students in reaching a solution when they are confronted by an apparent impasse. (JR)

Reports on the winning tool creations by 1,300 fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade students in the 1997 Craftsman/NSTA Young Inventors Awards Program. Students had to use mechanical and science process skills to design and build tools to meet their needs in solving a problem. The winning entry was a calibrated angle and depth scissors. (AIM)

Relates how Charles Martin Hall discovered the method of making pure aluminum metal in 1886. Retraces the events and steps that led to the process of aluminum purification. Includes diagrams of the apparatus used in the investigations. (ML)

Presents an overview of the four component parts of the activity of problem solving. These are the types of problems to be solved, the necessary prerequisites, the strategies, and the elements used in applying the strategies. (HM)

THIS RESEARCH ATTEMPTED TO DEMONSTRATE THE FEASIBILITY OF DEVELOPING TEST INSTRUMENTS TO DETECT HOW LIMITED VARIABLES IN EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCES AFFECT STUDENT BEHAVIORAL DEVELOPMENT. THE EXPERIMENTAL HYPOTHESES DEVELOPED FOR THE STUDY WERE CONCERNED WITH IDENTIFYING AND DEFINING INDIVIDUAL ABILITIES OPERATING IN THE REALM OF SCIENCE EDUCATION.…

Provided is a list of the needs of gifted and talented children. Delineates the concomitant relationship with science instruction and the stages in the model that are instrumental in meeting these needs. (RT)

Presents examples that recognize young children's technological prowess and support the case for including two significant curriculum perspectives: an intellectual-processes perspective and a social-expression perspective. Contains 34 references. (Author/PVD)

The Invent America program addresses the need to provide K-8 students with opportunities to learn critical and creative thinking skills through the process of inventing. Students apply problem-solving skills as they turn their own creative ideas into inventions. It is an effort to integrate the curriculum, help students synthesize knowledge, and…

Investigates the abilities of 36 fifth graders and 30 ninth graders who were selected from 11 schools in Thailand to solve problems involving seven of Piaget's logical operations. These operations are classification, seriation, logical multiplication, compensation, proportional thinking, probability, and correlational thinking. (HM)

The Invent America program addresses the need to provide K-8 students with opportunities to learn critical and creative thinking skills through the process of inventing. Students apply problem-solving skills as they turn their own creative ideas into inventions. It is an effort to integrate the curriculum, help students synthesize knowledge, and…

The Invent America program addresses the need to provide K-8 students with opportunities to learn critical and creative thinking skills through the process of inventing. Students apply problem-solving skills as they turn their own creative ideas into inventions. It is an effort to integrate the curriculum, help students synthesize knowledge, and…

The Invent America program addresses the need to provide K-8 students with opportunities to learn critical and creative thinking skills through the process of inventing. Students apply problem-solving skills as they turn their own creative ideas into inventions. It is an effort to integrate the curriculum, help students synthesize knowledge, and…