Describes four hands-on and inexpensive activities science teachers can employ to demonstrate, encourage, develop, and teach students the physical properties of light, heat, and sound waves, utilizing a coffee can. Details the basic experiments and provides additional information for tailoring the activities to elementary through middle…

Shares broad classroom strategies for enhancing academic achievement for all students and discusses the nature and scope of each strategy. (KHR)

Describes an activity in which geometry and trigonometry are studied using pyramids. Identical model pyramids are constructed from card stock, along with pyramids of different proportions and cuboids to use as controls. Also includes an investigation of some apparently non-scientific claims. (DDR)

Contends that introducing elementary students to history concepts is difficult because they have few reference points for comprehending change over time. Discusses the use of buttons for an inquiry-based activity designed to heighten student interest and learning. (CFR)

A Discovery Unit was designed to develop problem-finding behavior in 67 gifted children (grades 3-6). Students identified a problem and its solution using topics of their choice. The results of this two-year pilot project support the need to instruct and practice problem-finding skills at the elementary level. (DB)

Offers practical suggestions for a coherent approach to the teaching of grammar in foreign language classrooms. As a context for the ideas offered, the article synthesizes some of the views expressed by recent writers on this subject. The model outlined provides a basis for work designed to focus more on accurate use of language than on…

Describes the poster developed for National Science and Technology Week 1992 that encourages the exploitation of student curiosity to study three themes: (1) science in sports; (2) ecosystems; and (3) exploration, discovery, and invention. (MDH)

A trainee in psychotherapeutic counseling conducts an allegorical trip to the Greek underworld via a caving trip to demonstrate the healing and learning potential within the risk-based experience. The acknowledgement of one's fears and their origins can have a powerful effect and serve as a metaphor for transformation in other areas of life.…

Explains how students can be guided to model the invention process using potatoes. Details the steps and the materials used in the modeling, including the phases of the invention process. Presents this activity as preparation for the Invent America program. (DDR)

Through a series of fictionalized diary entries based on Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer's own writings, this case recounts the "discovery" in South Africa in 1938 of a fish believed to be extinct for over 70 million years. The case was developed for use in an introductory freshman biology course. In this setting, it could be used as a…

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…

Exploration is known to be a precursor of identity achievement and, thus, to a healthy transition to adulthood. This study examined antecedents of exploratory behavior in adolescence and the role of such behavior in identity development. Participants were 933 respondents in a 1991 national survey of German youth, ranging in age from 13 to 19 and…

This publication is an extended essay by the president of Indiana University on the impact of the sciences at Indiana University (IU) and beyond. In several sections it addresses the nature of discovery, science and society, the research university, and learning and teaching. The essay often refers to past and present IU faculty in astronomy,…

Based on the notion that teaching vocabulary extension in isolation makes little impact on students, a three-part exercise, designed to develop students' vocabulary through poetry while providing meaningful enjoyment, uses the poem "The Hawk" by A. C. Benson. In the first class period, students are introduced to both the exercise and the poem and…

Courses designed to teach problem-solving and creativity, which are relatively new additions to college curricula, are discussed, along with their intellectual foundations and research on these two processes. The teaching of these processes involves the following course goals: teaching a specific subject, generally useful skills, and professional…