Explores the impact of an inquiry project conducted with sixth-grade language arts students. Looks at three aspects of the project in relation to the literature on engagement, critical literacy, and the design of language arts curriculum for adolescents. Concludes that students' intense interest in their projects demonstrates such projects provide…

Observation of human behavior increasingly suggests there is a chasm between "what you do" (leadership, skill, behavior) and "what you know" (intellect, cognition, aptitude). To examine the gap between what is done and what is known regarding the teaching of children, a project first reviewed the literature on school-life…

Finds significant improvements (at both a Title I school and a middle-income school) in fourth-grade students' ability to find and use information after a year of research-strategy instruction that was integrated with the demands of inquiry-based content-area projects, rather than skills taught out of context. (SR)

Observes four sixth graders composing nonfiction projects for an integrated unit on Canadian studies, using hypermedia. Ponders issues raised when students compose in hypermedia including evaluating nontraditional projects, developing a sense of audience, conventions of the medium, use of visuals to convey information, engaged students, and…

The California Freshwater Shrimp Project is an example of a student-initiated, eco-action project. Students, from a fourth grade class in the Ross Valley School District in San Rafael, California, were linked to their community and environment through their work in rehabilitating habitat and educating the public. The paper gives an overview of a…

Eight sixth grade gifted students verbalized their thoughts as they worked on figural task drawings. Analysis of resulting data indicated that the process variables of Story Weaving, Association Shifting, and Vantage were more frequently evidenced by subjects producing more original products, whereas Content Bound Linking was associated with…

Fourth and fifth graders built weather measuring instruments, entered data into a computer program that forecasted weather, and compared the resultant forecast with actual weather. As a result of their activities, students took a greater interest in weather phenomena, understood the computer program, and learned to think more logically. (LB)

Effects of project-based instruction were assessed in a study of 21 students (mean age 12) with learning disabilities who developed social studies projects from source materials using word processing tools alone or using multimedia presentation tools. Students in both groups acquired substantial content knowledge, but neither group differed in…

A case study is presented of a science class for 10 underachieving gifted intermediate grade students. The paper describes how a focus on overcoming underachievement might conflict with the need for active, hands-on science activities. Suggestions are offered for integrating the goals of raising self-concept while developing skills of inquiry and…

This study examined the effective use of computer stations across the curriculum. Research was conducted in a fourth grade classroom in Lena, a small, rural farming town in northwestern Illinois. Desks were arranged in circular clusters of five. The students moved to five different stations, one of which was an IBM computer mini-lab. The lab, used…

Describes how a bilingual teacher and a professor collaborated in a bilingual classroom to create culturally relevant opportunities for learning. Examines the work of four fourth-grade students of different backgrounds to show what this culturally relevant learning looked like. Discusses sources of knowledge generation: families, multicultural…

Reports results of a qualitative study that examined what a group of fifth graders thought about using the "Research Buddy," a World Wide Web site designed to help them do a research project. Findings center on the comparison of student perceptions with observed student behavior. The data collection instruments are appended. (MES)

Current educational theory and practice clearly show that project-based instruction has the potential to enhance learning. Preliminary findings on one type of project-based learning in which students take on the role of hypermedia designers support this claim. This study examined the effect of being hypermedia designers on fourth-graders'…

This study examined whether children communicate themselves via visual images and whether adults can better understand children by viewing images they use to express themselves. An extracurricular course was designed to help students become familiar with computers and the Internet; objectives included creating a word document, sending and reading…