This paper discusses three case studies--an exhibition on biodiversity, a hotel water conservation program, and a partnership between a nature center and urban public schools--to establish parameters for designing learning experiences that accommodate the varied worldviews and attitudes of learners. Positive outcomes occurred in all three cases,…

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) mathematicians have discovered how certain insects can climb what to them are steep, slippery slopes in the water's surface without moving their limbs, and do it at high speed. Welcome to the world of the tiny creatures that live on the surface of ponds, lakes, and other standing bodies of water. For the…

Large quantities of wood and leather have been found in the waterlogged layers on archaeological excavations. Centuries of burial, however, have left these materials in a very degraded and vulnerable state such that if they dry out they will fall apart. This paper discusses the physics behind the freeze-drying techniques that allow the…

Nontraditional laboratories can provide primary pathways by which students comprehend and apply modern astronomy. To teach a nontraditional astronomy lab, we must give students opportunities to critically contemplate unsolved questions and evaluate current data sources. In doing so, students can develop their own conjectures that will lead to…

Ozone is a powerful oxidant and disinfectant, which can be used to clean environment as well as obtain pure drinking water. A series of experiments to produce and test ozone with simple equipment and material are presented.

The purpose of the paper is twofold: (1) To contrast the longstanding tradition of private and public courses of chemistry with the public demonstrations of physics. Whether taught in public institutions such as the Jardin du Roi or by apothecaries in their officines chemistry demonstrations were not for the entertainment of their audiences.…

The Emory-Obed Watershed in Tennessee, like many other rural areas throughout the United States, is experiencing changes in economic activities and social values associated with natural resources. Informed by the interactional approach to community development, this effort strove to build community capacity so community members could more fully…

Service-learning courses within a university setting help students to better understand their roles as members of civil society. This article examines the evolution of an urban stream cleanup project that has been part of a world regions geography course for six years. After connecting course goals with the current best practice literature on…

Although young people in 50 U.S. states and 21 countries learn about water resources through Project WET (Water Education for Teachers), few researchers have conducted summative evaluations of the program. The authors employed a partitioned, or differential, treatments design in which two groups of 6th-grade students received overlapping but…

All schools are located in "watersheds," land that drains into bodies of water. Some watersheds, like the one which encompasses the school discussed in this article, include bodies of water that are walking distance from the school. The watershed cited in this article has a brook and wetland within a several-block walk from the school. This…

A census and survey of schools in the district of Ga, Ghana, explored the nature and extent of private education, and compared inputs to public and private schooling. Three quarters of all schools found were private, with almost as many unregistered private as government schools. Several important differences between registered and unregistered…

Secondary vocational-technical education programs in Mississippi are faced with many challenges resulting from sweeping educational reforms at the national and state levels. Schools and teachers are increasingly being held accountable for providing true learning activities to every student in the classroom. This accountability is measured through…

This guide contains 12 activities designed to encourage secondary school student inquiry, investigation, and action regarding local streams and rivers. The activities are sequential and organized into three topic areas. The first section consists of three activities that help orient students to their local watercourse. Students map a local…

Two typical science activities found in textbooks for elementary and middle school students were analyzed to determine the quality of the written text and the integrity of the science represented in the activity. Each activity was performed and critiqued from a number of perspectives. The framework used to compare and contrast these activities is…

This document is the student laboratory manual that was designed to accompany some of the experimental activities found in the teacher's guide to this general science course for ninth graders. It contains laboratory worksheets for lessons on such topics as: (1) soil; (2) hazardous waste; (3) wildlife refuges; (4) the water cycle; (5) water…