Author describes her first-year seminar in history of geology where students are given writing assignments asking them to summarize, describe, explain, be convincing to reader. Students review their written work through frequent revision, peer review, collaborative writing assignments. Assignments require students to examine scientific principles…

Describes advantages and details of use of journal writing in introductory geology course. Entries include minimum of three one-page entries per week and count for 25 percent of course grade. Most students start with restatement of ideas presented in class; by end of the course, they are drawing original conclusions and applying ideas in new…

Describes a method of teaching geology and scientific writing to nonscience students that combines active integration of lecture, reading, and laboratory materials with field observations into a writing assignment on a real scientific problem. The writing assignment is completed in stages: a prospectus, a detailed report outline, a bibliography, a…

Describes an assignment in a paleontology course built around constructional morphology and the role of adaptation and exaptation in evolution. Students investigate the constructional morphology of a group of fossils that interests them. Findings are presented in an oral presentation and in a term paper. (27 references) (PR)

Describes an assignment in a graduate-level course in sedimentary-basin analysis that requires students to write a research-grant proposal. The assignment forces students to develop a topic suitable for original research. Each year 25 percent of the class turns these assignments into master's thesis projects and/or submits them as student grant…

Explored how elementary school children (n=267) "think" about science vocabulary through an examination of the organizational schemes children employ with science words. A common core of vocabulary was developed from textbooks. Students grouped the words and gave the group a name. One result indicated students had appropriate conceptual…

Describes an instructional program designed to promote scientific literacy among middle grade students. The program used a collaborative group instruction approach and focused on the development of tasks that provided students with opportunities to solve problems and to employ concepts useful to scientific problem solving. (PAM)

Reports a study (n=41) of the effectiveness of in-depth, conceptually integrated instruction delivered via a videodisc program in eliminating children's alternative frameworks in science. This curriculum, which did not directly address alternative frameworks during instruction, changed 92% of the alternative frameworks held by students to…

Through a review of the literature, looks at instructional and curricular issues related to the student-as-scientist model and the critical nature of the teacher's role in expanding school science activities to include this model. (SM)

Four reports are presented including "Alternative Approaches to Assessment of Practical Work in Science"; "Introducing Multicultural Science Teaching to a Secondary School"; "A Case Study on the Relative Performance of Boys and Girls in Chemistry Part II"; and "An INSET Technique--Developing a New Consensus." (CW)

Describes the effects of teacher subject-matter knowledge on classroom discourse at the level of individual utterances. Details analyses conducted in a year-long study of language in the classrooms of four new biology teachers. Among the findings are that these teachers talked more, asked more questions, and relied heavily on low cognitive level…

Explains how Darwin's observations and experiments can be used to show the true nature of science and good scientific methods. (PR)

Describes experiments by Thomas A. Knight on geotropism. These experiments took place about 200 years ago and used a centrifuge. (PR)

Discusses the necessity of effective AIDS/HIV education in the secondary schools, its inclusion in the biology curriculum, and methods of educating teachers concerning the topic. Provides recent data related to AIDS and proposes that science teacher stress abstinence and behavior modification as possible solutions. (MDH)

Describes using the common house plant, "Coleus blumei," to illustrate gravitropic effects, phototrophic effects, and hormonal effects in plants. (PR)