Grade five students' (n=58) conceptual understanding of plate tectonics was measured by analysis of student-generated summaries and diagrams, and by posttest assessment of both the spatial/static and causal/dynamic aspects of the domain. The diagram group outperformed the summary and text-only groups on the posttest measures. Discusses the effects…

This publication is a collection of 13 hands-on activities that focus on earth science-related activities and involve students in learning about growing crystals, tectonics, fossils, rock and minerals, modeling Ohio geology, geologic time, determining true north, and constructing scale-models of the Earth-moon system. Each activity contains…

Several studies of the validity of the intensive time-series design have revealed a post-intervention increase in the level of achievement data (the "momentum effect"). Reports on the development and use of a technique to study the effect as it is observed in several data sets on the learning of plate tectonics. (Author/JN)