The Living Library is a library where students can check out classroom pets as well as books. This guide describes the installation and implementation of a Living Library. The guide is presented in the following 10 sections: (1) a description of and rationale for a Living Library; (2) an implementation timeline developed for the intermediate…

The project PARK-IT! represents a unique partnership between a public elementary school and a city park in which students and teachers utilize a small naturalized area of the park as a Land Laboratory, and in return become its stewards. The project also includes this curriculum activity guide which can assist teachers in using the Land Lab with…

Arguing that the development of a notion of sense-making is of critical importance to improving science learning, this paper examines science teaching in four Boston (Massachusetts)-area classrooms that participated in an experiment on ways of integrating technology into a sixth-grade science curriculum on the earth's seasons. The task of the…

Both humanity and nature have suffered greatly from human insensitivity. Not only are the natural resources of the earth being depleted and its air, land and water polluted, the financial resources of humanity are being wasted on destructive expenditures. The "Our Only Earth" series is an integrated science, language arts, and social studies…

Presented are 26 units (each title beginning with a letter of the alphabet) intended to serve as points of departure for teachers and students who desire to increase their awareness of the marine environment. Each unit includes ideas and activities drawn from a variety of content areas so that teachers of many different subjects at the junior high…

In an effort to improve the science education program in the Washington School District (Phoenix, Arizona) the school system focused its efforts in the 1983-84 school year on the development of an activity oriented laboratory science program for grades 4-6. This document describes the plan for implementing that program. The implementation…

Through the 4-H Wheat Science project, students learn the importance of wheat from the complete process of growing wheat to the final product of bread. The curriculum is designed to include hands-on experiences in science, consumer education, nutrition, production economics, vocabulary, and applied mathematics. Teachers can select those units out…

Designed to help teachers develop students' awareness and understanding of some of Hawaii's endangered aquatic resources, this module contains activities and instructional suggestions for use with intermediate as well as high school students. The module is divided into two sections which explore the streams and estuaries of Kauai. Activities in…

Designed to supplement a short course for middle school children and their parents, this manual provides sets of learning experiences about electronic communication devices. The program is intended to develop positive attitudes toward science and technology in both parents and their children and to take the mystery out of some of the electronic…

The nighttime astronomy course described in this manual is designed to allow parents and middle school children to learn together. Using the resources of the planetarium and the real sky, the document provides a series of lessons that are intended to enable the participants to become more knowledgeable observers of the night sky. The course is…

One of the most critical issues that faces humanity is the world population boom. The high rate of population growth can directly affect sensitive issues such as the state of the environment, economic development, health, resource uses, and consumption. Though we have achieved the capability to override many of nature's limitations, we live in a…

This study is part of a larger study of teachers' use of curriculum materials in planning and teaching fifth-grade science. The study focused on one of nine teachers observed teaching "Communities," an activity-based unit from the SCIIS science program (a revision of the original Science Curriculum Improvement Study).…

Newspapers are valuable educational resources because they contain material that is varied, up-to-date, and interesting to students. This document is a guide for elementary and middle school teachers who want to incorporate newspapers into daily classroom instruction. There are ten lessons for each of the five subject areas covered. Each lesson…

To investigate factors which could explain the unequal participation and performance of males and females in science, the limited opportunity for females to acquire scientific literacy from their male peers in school was examined. It was assumed that males are more scientifically literate than females (even at elementary school age), that most…

Presents an activity in which students develop science process skills by making inferences as to the contents of a "mystery" box from observations based on their sensory perceptions. Provides instructions for implementing and extending the activity. (MDH)