The purpose of this article is to provide an example of using real world issues as tools for science teaching and learning. Using real world issues provides students with experiences in learning in problem-based environments and encourages them to apply their content knowledge to solving current and local problems.

Social, emotional, and affective experiences are impossible to separate from thinking, doing, and being in the world. Increasingly, schools and community-based organizations are recognizing this truth through the adoption of programs that focus on the emotional lives of children and youth, especially when emotions are fraught, and lives have been…

This study examines the impact of technology-mediated pedagogical tasks on students' willingness to communicate and communicative performance in the intermediate level of Spanish at Iowa State University. Drawing from the framework on technology-mediated tasks by Gonzalez-Lloret & Ortega, 2014, and the World-Readiness Standards for…

This article opens up questions around introducing Bharatanatyam, a form of Indian classical dance, to undergraduate learners within a North American university setting. The aim is to observe how the learners understood and received a particular cultural practice and to explore issues related to learning goals, curriculum content, approaches to…

There has been a wealth of research examining learning environments as one of the variables that contributes to academic success for students studying science. A constructivist learning environment has been explored as one way to assist students in achieving greater success with science learning. There is a lack of research concerning how and if…

Today, English language learners (ELLs)--students whose primary language is other than English--are the fastest-growing major school population in the United States. Between 2000-01 and 2010-11, the number of these students, whose level of English proficiency is not sufficient to support learning in a regular English language classroom, rose 18…

Much research has been done and reform is suggested relating to teachers' implementation of student-oriented learning environments, yet research on the role, beliefs, pedagogy, and knowledge of teachers simultaneously in classroom environments has been minimal (Kyle, 1994, "Journal of Research in Science Teaching", 31, 785-786). This…

This study was prompted by previous research showing a decline in motivation as students transition from elementary to middle school. The decline in motivation may be associated with changes in the achievement goal structures of their classrooms and schools. This study describes a survey of 69 elementary and 28 middle school teachers that explored…

In 2001, in partnership with the Waterloo, Iowa school system, the R.J. McElroy Trust, Janice Freeburg-Cannon, Tri-County Head Start, Allen Health System, the University of Northern Iowa and the Regents' Center for Early Developmental Education created a special model for early childhood education that would eventually become The Freeburg School.…

Examines the efforts of an elementary school in Iowa to combine Basic School and multi-age instruction. Quotes from teachers to describe how (trying not just to educate children but to teach them how to manage their own education) the school's curriculum is structured around big ideas and broad concepts that provide multiple entry points for the…

A sample of 731 farmers was surveyed to identify perceptions regarding selected soil and water conservation practices. The sample was stratified and proportioned by conservation district to have a representative group of respondents across Iowa. Items on the mailed questionnaire were designed to assess perceptions regarding issues in soil and…