Using ordinary household items--vinegar, ammonia, and cabbage juice--teachers can demonstrate properties of acids, bases, and neutrals. Students are encouraged to discuss results and hypothesize about experiments. A guide to the project is provided. (JL)

This handbook, designed for teachers of fourth through sixth grades, has two objectives: (1) to make the concept of critical thinking and the principles that underlie it clear; and (2) to show how critical thinking can be taught in language arts, social studies, and science. The introduction explains and justifies lesson plan remodelling. The…

Noting that hearing and reading the words of real people can personalize for students the study of social studies, language arts, and science, this book presents 230 quotations and prompts to enrich curricula and themes in grades 4 through 8. After an introduction and advice on using quotations in the classroom, quotations and prompts in the book…

This handbook, designed to help teachers of fourth through sixth grades remodel their own lesson plans, has one basic objective: to demonstrate that it is possible and practical to integrate instruction for critical thinking into the teaching of all subjects. The handbook thoroughly discusses the concept of critical thinking and the principles…

Emphasizing real-life communication skills, this book offers cooperative activities to help teachers supplement their writing programs with easy-to-use critical thinking activities. The activities in the book are suitable for grades 4 through 8, for gifted younger students, or as a remediation tool for older students. The activities in the book…

Designed to provide teachers with new knowledge about the goals of science instruction and practical recommendations for instructional practice, this second of a three part series of guidebooks describes recent findings about intermediate science instruction with particular attention given to how teachers spontaneously use scientific literacy in…

Shows how a first-year science teacher met the challenge of an innovative program in which all sixth-grade content teachers at one school assumed responsibility for teaching content-area literacy. Describes the various strategies he taught for reading and learning in content-area instruction, including compare and contrast, sequencing activities,…

This paper presents and discusses the results of a project in which seven teams of fifth and sixth grade students were involved in designing and implementing interactive multimedia resources in science for younger children, using the Microworlds(TM) Logo programming environment. It was found that students improved significantly in their science…

Discusses "Private Eye," an approach to teaching which focuses on developing students as artists, writers, and scientists. Describes how this approach uses the jewelers loupe to examine everyday objects 5 or 10 times bigger, thus altering students' way of viewing the world through the change of scale and through analogy-provoking questions. (SR)

This book helps middle school teachers and curriculum planners organize integrated units of study on the world and weather, for grades 5-9. Intended to generate interest in science, build scientific knowledge, and help students make the transition from fiction to expository text, the book offers a variety of projects that connect popular fiction…

Provides a poster containing activities that are part of the International Space Year. Describes activities in which students visit a local planetarium and re-create a National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) space flight using reports, articles, NASA slides, and videos. Lists organizations, publications, and other resources related to…

This supplement offers 10 articles focusing on middle school education. Topics include remembering adolescence, resources and teaching tips, active middle school students, adolescent development, challenges in middle school education, integrated studies, planning middle school special events, a writing-science-consumerism miniunit on popcorn,…

Describes a prototype for the use of local area network (LAN) technology in a sixth grade earth science curriculum. Classroom activities that focus on cooperative small group learning are discussed, coordinated investigations as a framework for scientific activities in the classroom are explained, and possible future work with LAN environments is…

The assertion that there is a social component to children's construction of knowledge about natural phenomena is supported by evidence from an examination of children's classification schemes for plants. An ethnographic study was conducted with nine sixth grade children in central Texas. The children classified plants in the outdoors, in a…

This guide is intended to help teachers plan, design, and implement science activities for students learning English as a Second Language (ESL) in grades 4-8, in mainstream science classes, ESL classes, bilingual education programs, and also to help others serving this population. Steps for designing science experiments that integrate language and…