The authors investigate how innovative research assignments based on students' personal interests can help them want to develop their research skills. They find that multimodal communication and representation, including film, written scripts, comic strips, music, and photography, encourage students to carefully select information from the…

The importance of research in professional and personal development is increasingly being acknowledged. So why should children not benefit in a similar way? Traditionally, children have been excluded from this learning process because research methodology is considered too difficult for them. Principal obstacles focus around three key barriers:…

Two years ago, Mandeville High School (http://mandevillehigh.stpsb.org/index.shtml) in Louisiana purchased a mobile wireless computer lab with grant funds from the state. This lab not only helped improve the writing and research skills of the school's ninth-grade students, but also improved its overall performance score to become one of the…