One area of science education that is, at times, neglected involves lessons on technological concepts of these principles--designing, testing, and quality control. Instead, a focus upon science concepts from a pure, and unapplied, perspective is the norm. Thus, while students may learn the equation "mass divided by volume equals…

Estimation is an important skill for everyday living. Good estimators usually have a sound knowledge of basic facts, understand place value and use a variety of strategies to make their estimates. This paper describes an activity which is designed to provide students with opportunities to practice their rounding strategies with addition and…

Teachers who believe "practice makes perfect" may engage students in repetitive, perhaps timed, computational exercises. If educators teach students to understand the procedures they practice, however, they will not need as much drill and they will have more flexible use of the computations they perform. Three-quarters of a century ago,…

The author recently read a research paper by Padberg (2002), in which the development of understanding associated with decimal fractions was studied. Padberg (2002) outlined the situation that existed in Germany, where students were introduced to decimal fractions in the sixth year of school. He claimed that it was assumed students would have a…

The purpose of this study was to examine the potential effect of false assumptions regarding the motivation of examinees on item calibration and test construction. A simulation study was conducted using data generated by means of several models of examinee item response behaviors (the three-parameter logistic model alone and in combination with…

Laboratory demonstration, as well as biochemistry lecture, has been used to complement explanation of biochemical processes. The laboratory demonstration is very useful in teaching biochemistry to students who lack background in biology. The experimental model of fibrinolysis described here presents a complex biological reaction in simplified…

Value-added models of student achievement have received widespread attention in light of the current test-based accountability movement. These models use longitudinal growth modeling techniques to identify effective schools or teachers based upon the results of changes in student achievement test scores. Given their increasing popularity, this…

Objective: We examined parent--child agreement regarding child acute stress disorder (ASD) and the relationship between parent ASD symptoms and parent ratings of child ASD. Method: Parent-child dyads (N = 219; child age 8-17 years) were assessed within 1 month of child injury. Parent--child agreement was examined regarding child ASD presence,…

The aim of this study was to ascertain the nature of the interaction between the affective value of musical distraction, personality type and performance on the cognitive tasks of reading comprehension, free recall, mental arithmetic and verbal reasoning in children aged 11-12 years. It was hypothesized that the cognitive performance of extraverts…

This article describes a joint effort between a mathematics educator and a middle school art teacher who wanted their students to experience first hand how construction works in the real world. It starts with students designing and building scale models for a large inflatable item in which they display their art and extends to building the…

This article describes a lesson study project that explored the impact of using storybooks to teach mathematics in three kindergarten classrooms. The study involved three kindergarten teachers and three university educators, who collaborated to plan, design, implement revise, and reflect on a unit of mathematics that focused on the concept of…

Many people believe that the 1989 National Council for Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) standards heralded the biggest mathematics reform of the 20th century. Despite all reform efforts, recent studies indicate that mathematics taught in primary and middle school mainly consists of basic arithmetic tasks that use memorization and repetition. Today…

The purpose of this study was to conduct an econometric analysis of internal resource allocation. Two theories are used for this study of resource allocation in public research universities, and these are: (1) Theory of the Firm; and (2) Resource Dependence Theory. This study used the American Association of Universities Data Exchange (AAUDE)…

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of cumulative risk exposure in concert with maternal responsiveness on physiological indicators of chronic stress in children and youth. Middle-school children exposed to greater accumulated psychosocial (e.g., family turmoil, poverty) and physical (e.g., crowding, substandard housing) risk…

In this paper we analyze the impact of classroom peers on individual student performance with a unique longitudinal data set covering all Florida public school students in grades 3-10 over a five-year period. Unlike many previous data sets used to study peer effects in education, our data set allow us to identify each member of a given student's…