Describes activities for helping students learn the metric system. Suggests teachers use metric units in ordinary conversation. Describes a homework assignment for students to make 20 metric measurements. Provides instructions on conducting a "TV studio" style game that is played on Metric Day (October 10th). (PR)

Describes the development of a valid and reliable method to quantitatively analyze the content of science textbooks, especially those used in middle and senior high school science courses. The approach employed four aspects of scientific literacy to determine curriculum balance in textbooks. (KR)

Describes the science program, Science Community Year, that focuses on the improvement of science learning of all students by creating a learning community within the college. Discusses program cost, effectiveness, design, and student perceptions. (ZWH)

Delineates various conceptions of curriculum and uses one of these conceptions as basis for the development of a classroom learning environment instrument. Provides an overview of how a curriculum can be conceived as a social construction that arises through interaction of participants and explains how this instrument might be used by teachers and…

Reviews science education reform efforts during the 1950s to the present in relation to their effects on the changing science curriculum. (ZWH)

Describes a four-step ethics course for students. The following steps are discussed: (1) show that moral dilemmas exist; (2) assign weights to arguments; (3) cost-benefits analysis; and (4) examine known biases. (ZWH)

A survey of 400 secondary agriculture teachers (241 responses) showed that those with science credentials were more likely to teach both agriculture courses receiving science credit and nonagriculture science courses. Science credentials and credits were more likely to benefit agricultural than science programs. Ag teachers with science…

This review of literature focuses on three decades of research related to precollege student understandings about the nature of science. Although the majority of studies show that student understandings are less than desirable, there is research that indicates that student conceptions are acceptable. (PR)

Presents a program at a two-year college designed to meet the needs of its students by improving student preparedness and furthering student achievement. (PR)

Examines a practical application of ecofeminism for classroom educators. Provides a basic understanding of ecofeminist theory as it applies to science education and examples from classroom practice. Contains 33 references. (DDR)

Discusses the scant coverage in high school textbooks of countercurrent exchange for the efficient movement of molecules across biological membranes. Argues that this is one of the most intriguing of the physiological adaptive mechanisms. (DDR)

Examines how the theory of evolution was received by the scientific community at the time of its inception to provide insight into some of the difficulties that students have in learning some important biological concepts. Contains 82 references. (DDR)

Uses digraphing as methodology to synthesize students' conceptions of natural phenomena in order to identify the structural characteristics of their conceptions. Contains 41 references. (DDR)

Thirty of 37 states responding to a recent survey had some type of formal Tech Prep initiative in place. Provides an overview of Tech Prep and a model for its integration into the K-12 curriculum. Discusses implications for science and mathematics teacher preparation. Contains 14 references. (Author/ASK)