The use of diaries helps students increase their understanding of everyday life of past historical persons. Using a diary is recommended as a tool for teaching the Bicentennial. One sample diary is examined. (JR)

Describes specific community resources and discusses how they can be used as educational tools. (PMP)

Suggestions are given for getting students involved in handling and viewing the stuff of history that is around them. (JH)

Military training programs involve some of the most advanced and sophisticated techniques. Many can be meshed with those of the civilian education community at significant savings of d

To become an integral part of the school program, local resources must be identified, documented, and cataloged at the school or district level. A form for collecting data and sample activities and ideas for using these community resources in interdisciplinary social studies/language arts courses in the elementary grades are presented. (RM)

Describes the essential goals of the justice education movement, implications for early childhood education, and curriculum content. Curriculum focuses on the importance of rules and their connection to laws. Activities to illustrate this connection are suggested. Law-related community resources are identified. (DB)

To help students meet the demands of society, the University of Houston is using the framework of learning communities and constructivism to create a cross-disciplinary approach to teaching to provide media-rich thematically linked courses to engage a diverse student population. A case study investigated three semesters of thematically linked…

Project seeks out individual learning initiatives from the educational community for support, dissemination and adaption. Teachers are encouraged to share their ideas in the project newsletter, descriptive articles, exchange visits and periodic Saturday meetings. Resources multiply as educators organize and extend their ideas through such methods…

Presented are ideas for eight environmental and conservation education programs, many of which span grade levels and skill areas. For each program described, there is a person listed to contact for additional information. (KC)

Describes activity for elementary social studies methods instructors to teach preservice teachers the value of field trips. Students select and visit field trip locations and prepare presentations to the class. Evaluation forms for the presentation and a field trip resource sheet are included. (KC)

Designed for elementary school teachers in Santa Cruz, California, this book outlines an experiential approach to community study. Because the term community can encompass a scope as narrow as the school or as wide as the region, these guidelines are adaptable to several elementary grade levels. The book is arranged in six sections. The first…

A model is provided which shows how the community can become a laboratory in which the learner studies data and makes decisions. In the community laboratory, learners are both participants and observers, helping them understand why they live as they do and how citizens work together to improve community life. (Author/JR)

Examines how the objectives of open schools and those of contemporary social studies are similar in trying to make the individual a functioning member of society with a high level of participation. One is to guide the children in learning activities that emerge from their own interests and involve the community as a resource and a laboratory.…

This third of three booklets was prepared by the Michigan Office of Services to the Aging to help agencies concerned with aging to plan volunteer programs. This volume is a compendium of resources, including materials from seven different volunteer programs. It contains a wide variety of training tips and techniques to help the person(s) in charge…