This article describes the pitfalls of using key words to support students when problem solving, and provides an alternative way (quantitative analysis) to support students' sense-making. (Contains 1 table and 2 figures.)

This article describes ways in which students develop schemas as they generalize and formalize patterns when solving related algebraic problems that involve size, shape, growth, and change. (Contains 7 figures and 3 tables.)

Algebraic thinking in the middle grades involves constructing generalizations, moving beyond the focus of specific calculations in elementary school. This creates exciting opportunities to examine the validity of general arguments. Creating rich mathematical tasks and asking questions related to justification encourages students to examine what…

Worthwhile mathematical tasks not only prompt students to learn mathematics, they also prompt teachers to learn and improve their teaching in their own mathematics classrooms. When teachers use worthwhile tasks, they have to learn "what aspects of a task to highlight, how to organize and orchestrate the work of the students, what questions to ask…

In information skills instruction, changing from lecture-based to resource-based instruction requires not only recognition of its value but also a strong will to implement new methods (Loertscher, 1988). Based on this review of the literature, teachers seem not to be fully aware of the value of this change. It seems that teachers are uncertain…

Every day the media bombards the nation with concern over childhood obesity. More American children than ever before are developing health problems related to their eating habits and lack of exercise. The classroom is the perfect place to deal with this national crisis by speaking directly to the children. If children could become more aware of…

What Australia, Alaska, Qatar, Indiana, and Ohio have in common is the authentic writing More Observations Of Nature (MOON) project. In this unique project, teachers from these disparate geographic locations teamed up to instruct children in grades four through eight via the internet on a nearly universally challenging subject for teachers in the…

Thematic topics offer tremendous potential for science learning in the early grades and beyond. One second-grade class explored honeybees, a subject their teacher found both fascinating and easy to connect to a number of learning standards and science concepts. Her unit, "Honeybees and Apple Trees: A Close Look at Nature's Balancing Act," explored…

In this article, we will describe the results of a study of 6th grade students learning about the mathematics of change. The students in this study worked with software environments for the computer and the graphing calculator that included a simulation of a moving elevator, linked to a graph of its velocity vs. time. We will describe how the…

The ability to clearly communicate what was learned as the result of an experiment is a key component of science in general, not just science in the middle school classroom. Here, the authors state that in their eighth-grade classrooms, they have focused on their students' ability to write quality conclusions at the end of every laboratory…

Practical classes on protein expression and purification were given to undergraduate biology students enrolled in the elective course "Introduction to Genetic Engineering." The heterologous expression of the green fluorescent protein (GFP)* of "Aequorea victoria" is an interesting system for didactic purposes because it can be viewed easily during…

This article describes the experience of teaching structural bioinformatics to third year undergraduate students in a subject titled "Biomolecular Structure and Bioinformatics." Students were introduced to computer programming and used this knowledge in a practical application as an alternative to the well established Internet bioinformatics…

The extensive use of commercial kits in molecular biology and biochemistry has prompted us to design a series of practical sessions to help students become familiar with the uses and limitations of pre-packaged assay systems. To facilitate an understanding of these assay systems and to promote reflection on their appropriate use, students…

Physical education teachers enjoy the special privilege of guiding children to discover unique ways for expressing and communicating ideas, attitudes, thoughts, and emotions through movement. Creative dance lets children explore movement possibilities limited only by one's imagination. Individually and collectively, creative dance encourages…

This article describes a hybrid activities model that physical educators can use with students in grades four and above to create virtually a limitless array of novel games. A brief introduction to the basic theory is followed by descriptions of some hybrid games. Hybrid games are typically the result of merging two traditional sports or other…