Presents an activity involving reaction time developed for the Science of Sports, a traveling exhibition put together by Ohio's Center of Science and Industry. (JRH)

The difficulties that students with learning disabilities experience in cooperative learning activities include failure to attend to their peers, low levels of participation, inappropriate interactions with peers, and inactive learning. Three techniques are suggested to improve performance during cooperative learning activities. The first…

Integrating environmental education into the science curriculum helps students develop environmental knowledge and attitudes. Describes an exemplary eighth-grade environmental science class, cites other similar programs, and discusses the advantages of environmental science courses over traditional science courses. (MDH)

A resource vision teacher describes activities to develop skills in solving mathematical word problems by three seventh graders with severe visual impairments. Students kept portfolios of problems they actually experienced in their daily lives. Success was achieved through providing an optimal environment, active involvement, self-assessment, and…

In spring 2000, the Southern Regional Education Board, through its Middle Grades Assessment, gathered information from 5,000 eighth-graders and 1,800 middle-grades teachers in 60 schools in 14 states. This brief report describes what that information revealed: a significant difference between the achievement scores of the highest performing 25…

The Learner-Centered Battery (LCB) is a set of short self-assessment tools for teachers and their students that can help teachers identify profiles of effective beliefs, practices, and discrepancies between teacher and student perspectives. Personalized feedback is available for interpreting individual profiles relative to profiles of the most…

This book on middle school uses a very free-form structure to encourage educators to think about middle school's philosophy and purpose, and about how to create a successful middle school. The preface claims that it is not a book "about" teaming, advisory, interdisciplinary units, intramurals, parent-teacher conferences, and other middle school…

Research has shown a decline in motivation and performance for many children as they move from elementary school into middle school; however, research has also shown that the nature of motivational change on entry to middle school depends on characteristics of the learning environment in which students find themselves. This Digest outlines some…

Noting that reading instruction for young adolescents in Indiana's middle grades schools has been virtually eliminated, this booklet describes how important reading is in the middle grades and why it continues to deserve attention beyond the elementary years. The booklet proposes a series of actions that educators--teachers, administrators, school…

Intended to help teachers and librarians stimulate middle school students' reading curiosity, this book provides practical and useful units for the study of literary genres that include stimulating, enjoyable, and meaningful activities. The book contains nine chapters. Chapter 1 presents a curriculum planning blueprint for teaching literature for…

Intended for teachers and supervisors, this guide offers a working knowledge of current approaches to the direct application of the computer to the classroom. The guide demonstrates the many ways in which English departments can use microcomputers to assist teachers in teaching middle school English critical thinking skills topics. The guide is…

This volume emphasizes decision-making which links all the other topics together. The book balances two major perspectives influencing teacher decision-making about instruction today: (1) findings from research on effective teaching; and (2) the ideas of constructivism. Unique to the book is the inclusion in each chapter of a scenario in which a…

Introducing middle school students (grades 6-8) to the joy of writing, this book presents ideas, practical lessons, examples, games, and resources. Step-by-step guidelines and helpful tips for educators are combined with numerous writing and prewriting activities for students--from "braindancing" and "zoom lens" to "downhilling." The book is…

This staff development kit is the second in a series designed that provides school-based staff development activities. The first kit contains materials, activities, and suggestions to help faculty with early efforts to implement the middle school concept. This kit provides various tools and techniques to improve the quality of teachers'…

This report provides information about drug testing by American secondary schools, based on results from national surveys. The purposes of this study are (1) to provide descriptive information on drug testing practices by schools from 1998 to 2001, and (2) to examine the association between drug testing by schools and reported drug use by…