This manual is designed to provide teachers with practical information to assist them as they implement the Science 10 program in their classrooms. The introduction of the Science 10 program in Alberta provides an opportunity for teachers to move out of their particular discipline of expertise and explore with their students the larger area of…

The Water and Molecular Networks (WAMNet) Project uses graduate student written Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC) computer simulations of the molecular structure of water to assist high school students learn about the nature of water. This study examined: (1) preconceptions concerning the molecular structure of water common among high…

One hundred and forty students in grades 6 and 7 were asked to process 32 science statements. Half of the statements were consistent with their prior knowledge, whereas the remaining facts were inconsistent with it. Half of the students were instructed to read the sentences for understanding (reading controls). The remaining students were…

To analyze a student's conceptual changes, analyzing transcriptions of writing and verbal statements may not provide enough information. In a study of 25 sixth graders learning about matter and molecules, concept mapping of students' stated ideas was used to analyze the kinds of organizational changes the students made to use new science…

This study reports the efforts of the Water and Molecular Networks Project (WAMNet), a program in which high school chemistry students use computer simulations developed at Boston University (Massachusetts) to model the three-dimensional structure of molecules and the hydrogen bond network that holds water molecules together. This case study…

The understanding of children and adults regarding four component properties of the arithmetic mean was studied. The component properties were: (1) the mean is a data point between extreme values of a score distribution; (2) the sum of deviations about the mean equals zero; (3) when the mean is calculated, any value of zero must be taken into…

This study examined students' active roles in constructing knowledge when learning new information in the domain of biological evolution. A computer-based connectionist methodology was developed to provide a way to present students with new information while the experimenter provides probe statements congruent with or contradictory to the…

Skills in science (observing, inferring, measuring, communicating, classifying, predicting, controlling variables, interpreting data, and developing models) are not just essential for careers in science, but they are important for almost any career, as well as in daily life. This digest presents information on how parents can help develop their…

The Oregon vision for transforming science education is called concept/process-based science. It is not a program but a conceptual framework which presents goals for the direction of science program development. It focuses science programs on helping students develop basic scientific understandings through the use of the key processes of human…

This manual is part of a series of materials designed to reinforce essential concepts in physical science through interactive, language-sensitive, problem-solving exercises emphasizing cooperative learning. The manual is intended for limited-English-proficient (LEP) students in beginning physical science classes. The materials are for teams of two…

A project to develop special training materials to introduce college teachers to the math-language approach is reported. The materials link language learning techniques to mathematics concept formation and are intended for teachers of limited-English-proficient (LEP) students. Specialists in both fields produced a three-part training package…

A student-centered, cross-disciplinary approach was developed to teach English language skills to first-year architecture students at the Papua New Guinea University of Technology. The course addressed the problem of native architecture students' lack of training in oral skills and lack of experience in expressing familiar architectural concepts…

Sentences are understood by outlining associative relations between the concepts representing the meanings of the words. When the words are received the activation spreads from their conceptual counterparts to the other concepts in memory, so that some implicit thoughts are often added to the mental representation of a sentence. As sentences are…

The guide is designed as an activity supplement for social studies teachers interested in helping students in grades 6-12 improve their ability to critically read social studies materials with a global focus. In addition, teachers are provided with basic tools to use in assessing the readability of social studies materials. The activities are…

A concise framework of basic concepts and generalizations for teaching economics for K-12 students is presented. The guide summarizes the basic structure and substance of economics and lists and describes economic concepts. Standard guidelines are provided to help school systems integrate economics into their on-going courses of study. Designed to…