This guide offers Spanish-speaking parents ways in which they can help their children learn about science at home and in the community. Science is a way of looking at the world. It uses everyday techniques such as observation and classification to give us information about things and how they work. Advice to parents that want to support their…

Although experiential education is really the oldest approach to learning, its practitioners have not had an easy time justifying its relevance in the modern educational world. Recent changes in the methodologies of evaluation have provided useful tools for experiential educators. Such tools can be used to refine programming, enhance student…

From breathtaking glacial ravines of Yosemite Valley to weeds growing in neglected rain gutters, this book of activities combines art with scientific research questions. The book is designed to help educators encourage children in the upper primary grades to learn more about the natural world and in particular their local environment. Sixty…

In Los Angeles, racial demographics have changed radically in the past 30 years resulting in inevitable tensions in the school. This paper reports on a classroom simulation of ethnicity/race and class relations. Students adopted the roles of three polarized and rigid "color groupings": (1) Greens--ruling class, wealthy since birth; (2)…

This paper describes the competencies in the domain of human interaction that are required of leaders in various outdoor adventure programs. These programs may be grouped on a continuum from recreational outdoor adventure to primary (adventure) therapy. In the middle of the continuum, educational, enrichment, and adjunctive (adventure) therapy…

This study explores how high school students learn from their experiences in an extracurricular adventure program and illustrates how students' narrative inquiries relate to experiential learning. Twelve canoe trips were studied by participant observation methods. Data were collected from recorded interviews with students and staff, field notes,…

The CHEM (Chemicals, Health, Environment, and Me) Project is a series of 10 units designed to provide experiences for fifth and sixth graders that help them to accomplish an understanding of: (1) the nature of chemicals and how they interact with the environment; (2) how to collect, process, and analyze information; (3) how to use scientific…

A college instructor, already experienced as a consultant and trainer in written and oral business communication, became convinced by two students in an executive management training program that gaining an insider's perspective might be exceedingly valuable. A few years later, the instructor got such an opportunity: she became a corporate editor…

It is believed that if primary grade children are exposed to the fundamentals of economics, they will be better able to comprehend and apply the principles in later years. This paper describes an inservice economics education training institute for elementary school teachers that integrates the following strategies: (1) an experienced-based…

National University and Sierra College Small Business Development Center (SBDC) have jointly developed a program whereby small businesses become clients of the SBDC and are screened and selected as "living case studies" for National University's practicum for bachelor's and master's of business administration candidates. The new course replaces a…

This paper outlines a model for assessing and managing psychological depth in outdoor and experiential group work, and presents two case studies of the complexity of such management in real life. The model contains eight levels of emotional risk and presents four criteria for assessing the level to which a particular event or discussion may lead…

This article presents samples of imaginative programs that meld the fundamentals of the service learning methodology with individual learning and behavioral goals at the middle school level. The paper is divided into: (1) "What Do We Mean by Service Learning?"; (2) "The Fit between Service Learning and the Developmental Needs of Young…

This document contains three papers from a symposium on on-the-job learning. "Effectiveness of On-the-Job Learning" (Marcel R. van der Klink) presents the results of an empirical investigation demonstrating that on-the-job learning caused only a modest improvement in trainee's sales behavior but this improvement was maintained over a…

A case study of on-the-job training was conducted in the stockroom of an electronics manufacturer. The focus was on education embedded in ongoing work activities, in contrast to school-based learning as an activity separate from other life activities. Throughout the study, the interplay of two activities--stockroom work and stockroom training--was…

This document summarizes the National Institute on the Assessment of Experiential Learning conference in July 1989, during which educators from the field of adult education met to discuss prior learning assessment (PLA), a process developed for awarding credit for college-level knowledge acquired outside the classroom. Some educators were…