Compares the traditional textbook-based elementary science teaching method with the following innovative approaches: (1) Inquiry; (2) Science-Technology-Society (STS); and (3) Conceptual Change. Argues that the Conceptual Change approach has the greatest impact on student thinking and permits teachers to focus on important aspects. (FMW)

Makes suggestions to help families create summer activities for children that lend themselves to learning but still allow for leisure and spontaneity. The article presents activities that involve organizing collections, developing a sense of responsibility, bolstering the three Rs, teaching good citizenship, understanding history, and getting…

Responds to Sweet's (Steven) essay on radical pedagogy in the teaching of sociology. Discusses institutional limitations experienced not only by radical teachers, but also by those labeled as liberal, humanist, or conservative. Notes with approval Sweet's discussion of how radical pedagogy falls short of radical theory. (DSK)

This social studies activity helps primary students understand the trial process by putting literary characters on trial (e.g., Goldilocks for breaking and entering or Cruella DeVille for stealing dalmatians). Alternatively, students can try real-life problems such as bullying on the playground. Through role playing, students learn how the justice…

Describes how to use authentic documents and artifacts to make history and literature come to life, describing a fourth grade study of the Pilgrims that involves using an excerpt from a 1622 journal, "Mourt's Relation," published 2 years after the Mayflower sailed. Students translate the excerpt into modern English, then illustrate a…

Humans are endowed with cognitive modules specialised in processing information about the class of natural things. Due to their naturalness, fractal art and design can contribute to developing these modules, and trigger affective responses that are associated with certain natural objects. It is argued that exposure to fractals in an art and design…

From wind-stirred ripples to "large waves in a harbor," this paper describes science projects that can help students learn about and create their own ocean motion.

This article focuses on how young children build math skills in everyday play and activities. Children focus on six categories of mathematical content including classifying, exploring magnitude, enumerating, investigating dynamics, studying patterns, and exploring spatial relations. The article gives advice to both teachers and parents on how they…

The role of an English teacher in teaching democracy to the young students attending English classes is discussed. The students are assumed to be producers as they improvise, collaborate, present performances of texts, engage in open discussions, and write alternative perspectives.

The author asserts her belief that teachers can turn movies into "a tool that allows students to understand content in new and intellectually challenging ways." She tells a personal story of using movies in her teacher education program, helping her students "learn and extend their understanding. However, they not only learned about content, but…

This article offers teachers and students an idea for a curriculum-related poetry break or "poetry getaway." The teacher identifies poems that relate to classroom content or themes; then, he gathers a series of objects that connect to the poems and places them in a suitcase. When it appears that everyone could use a poetry getaway, a student is…

Traditional literacy practices and educational policymakers define reading as a process of vocabulary recognition and print-based decoding. This perspective is especially prevalent in the primary-grade literacy classroom. Yet, a growing movement sees literacy encompassing not only printed text, but a wide range of cultural, technological, and…

After 11 years of teaching, the question the author worries about now is "How do we do this well? How do we engage students in math classes? How do we convince them that math is beautiful, fun and powerful?" For the math department at the author's school, Boston Arts Academy (BAA), the answer has been to infuse creativity into math…

This article addresses the issue on school policy concerning holidays and outlines some steps schools can take to keep the children and their enrichment as the focus. In the United States, there are many kinds of holidays: religious, cultural, national, and sentimental. School calendars usually honor some of the most prominent of these. If the…

Common questions that children ask can promote creative thinking. The question, "What will happen if...?" can set the stage for creative problem solving by encouraging the use of the scientific method. The scientific method involves learning how to hypothesize, recording procedures for experimentation, developing skills in observation and data…