This publication presents changes and modifications for 2006-2007 to the "International Rules for Precollege Science Research: Guidelines for Science and Engineering Fairs." It is written to guide fair directors, teachers, scientists, parents, and adult volunteers as they pursue their work of encouraging students to explore and investigate their…

Designed to be accessible for students and teachers and to provide models and alternatives for conducting research, this handbook serves as a common reference source for research in all subjects within schools and across school districts. The handbook includes sections on establishing a topic; finding information; developing an outline; making and…

"Mental modeling" refers to a student's ability to visualize or comprehend the information research process. This article reviews 50 years of changing conceptions of how we learn: behaviorist, cognitivist, and constructivist perspective; describes the application of three "mental models" to interactive technology; and discusses…

Presents several lessons about student research learned by a school librarian who returned to graduate school. Highlights include the importance of self-confidence, the overview stage of the research process, the diversity of approaches to research, writer's bloc, creative thinking, and the effects of personal events on schoolwork. (MES)

Throughout students' academic careers, they are required to perform a variety of speech-related activities. According to one study, students with demonstrated communication anxiety are less successful academically. Both the instructor and the librarian can contribute to assisting the student with communication anxiety. Using a variety of…

The Academic Lab involves gifted intermediate-grade students in a minicourse concentrating on one topic with activities including research, competition, and fun. The learning activities stress problem-solving, creative thinking, communications, and self-direction, and the minicourse culminates in team and individual competitions. A sample…

This book, created by three reference librarians, teaches the beginning researcher good research habits. It provides names of tools students should consult for a well-rounded, well-researched paper on a controversial issue in the news. Books, specialized databases, online resources, and agencies to contact are all included. Each…

Freshmen often approach research papers by selecting a "giant topic" and going to the library to confront swamps and mountains of resources. A different approach to teaching research is designed to help students begin to shift the often counter-productive paradigm under which they operate. The classroom strategy proposed is 3-fold.…

StoryWeb is a teaching technique that combines elements of the short story and the Internet to provide an interactive simulation for students using differentiated content, product, and process. This paper describes one StoryWeb unit and indicates how one could implement the unit in a middle school U.S. History course. A StoryWeb unit uses the…

Taking into consideration the motivational needs of different students, the book discusses both internal and external motivators such as attaining a sense of achievement or leadership versus earning a physical reward such as candy or a field trip. These and other motivating factors are then incorporated into discussions of how to create productive…

Discusses the problems presented to writing center tutors by traditional research paper assignments. Recounts typical definitions of student research papers according to current-traditional rhetoric. Advocates writing centers helping students transform research papers into meaning-making activities in which students construct knowledge. (HB)

Suggests a method for translating graduate education in qualitative methods into undergraduate teaching. Focuses on intensive interviewing and its benefits for both graduate students and for undergraduate teaching as a means of bringing the subject into the real world. Discusses planning the interview assignment, developing interview questions,…

Notes that researching life stories can shape students' sense of direction and purpose both within and beyond the classroom. Considers how the value of researching life stories increases as students move beyond the personal to the cross-generational significance of what they are investigating. Lists 32 picture books and information books on Hmong…

Using this inquiry-based process allows the teacher and librarian to assign mystery topics to individual students so they can conduct independent research on high-interest subjects. The book provides the tools and strategies teachers and librarians need to help students think and rethink methods of gathering and organizing information to solve…

Through a Beacon grant from the American Association of Community Colleges and the Kellogg Foundation, Rockland Community College, in association with nine other Mid-Atlantic community colleges, organized two conferences for student scholars at two-year colleges. Students were invited to submit papers in all disciplines (e.g., the humanities,…