Many educators believe that middle grades schools have a responsibility to capitalize on the natural curiosity of young adolescents through the use of an exploratory curriculum to help students understand the world in which they live. This study examined the status of middle grades exploratory programs in Alabama. A 22-item questionnaire was sent…

Rapid developmental changes amplify early adolescent children's susceptibility to stress. A lack of refined coping skills accompanied by an increase in stress factors affecting young adolescents contributes to their use of counterproductive approaches to stress management. To examine the frequency and intensity of early adolescent experiences with…

The challenge that middle school age youngsters' rapidly changing sexual, emotional, and physical characteristics present to educators, has made these educators concerned with factors that have a bearing on instructional programs. A study was developed to assess the attitudes of middle school children toward reading and to determine whether there…

In many upper-elementary school classrooms, students are given few decision-making prerogatives. In junior high school, it becomes increasingly rare for them to receive the decision-making opportunities they believe they should have. Both person-environment fit theory and pawn theory would predict that a failure to provide students with such…

To determine if equal raw scores have the same "meaning" for students tested "in" and "out-of-level," four "out-of-level" grade groups who took the Vocabulary, Reading, and Mathematics Concepts subtests of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills typically administered to fifth graders were compared to "in…

THIS STUDY WAS DESIGNED TO DETERMINE FIFTH, SIXTH, AND SEVENTH GRADE PUPILS' KNOWLEDGE OF SCIENCE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN SEVENTH GRADE SCIENCE TEXTBOOKS AND TO DISCOVER PUPILS' ABILITY TO APPLY THIS KNOWLEDGE. PUPILS FROM 21 SCHOOLS LOCATED IN CENTRAL ILLINOIS WERE TESTED WITH TWO TESTS DEVELOPED BY THE INVESTIGATOR. THE SCIENCE KNOWLEDGE TEST…

The outline lists 14 career education activities that middle school teachers (grades 6-8) can relate to subject areas of: science, mathematics, English, social studies, foreign language, art, home economics, music, and industrial arts. Educational requirements are described for various occupations; occupations also are listed under appropriate…

The investigation reported in this bulletin was undertaken for the purpose of making available a volume of evidence on questions concerning the early elimination of children during out-of-school hours. The inquiry was confined to the children of sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. Information concerning the following points has been presented: (1)…

A total of 1,771 children completed self-report questionnaires during sixth and seventh grade. Early adolescents who believed their parents asserted and did not relax their power and restrictiveness scored higher than other adolescents on items that measured an extreme peer orientation. (MDM)

Provides activities for grades 6 to 8 that will promote student awareness and understanding of the use of hydropower in Canada, the benefits and drawbacks to hydropower, and also the drawbacks of electricity transmission lines. Explains that the activities focus on the James Bay Hydro Project in Canada. (CMK)

In early algebra students often struggle with equation solving. Modeled on Streefland's studies of students' own productions a prototype pre-algebra learning strand was designed which takes students' informal (arithmetical) strategies as a starting point for solving equations. In order to make available the skills and tools needed for manipulating…

"Public art" is a broad term that refers to art in public spaces and includes architecture, landscape, and urban design. Public art makes public spaces more beautiful, encourages us to pause and interact with our environment, or reminds us of important people and events. Just as often, public sculptures become such a part of our everyday…

Describes an art lesson achieved with a Very Special Artist (VSA) in residence for sixth- and seventh-grade students in which they created wire sculptures. Discusses how the VSA taught the students. Includes a list of art materials and characteristics of wire. (CMK)

Introduction: This research sought to investigate how school students build on their existing knowledge of a curriculum topic and transform found information into personal knowledge, and how their knowledge of this topic changes. Method: The qualitative study involved 574 students from Grades 6 to 12 in ten New Jersey schools. The context for data…

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether relations existed between sixth, seventh, and eighth grade learners' and their teachers' efficacy beliefs and outcome expectancies and whether student perceived efficacy beliefs were predictors of reading comprehension achievement as measured by a reading comprehension subtest score on a state…