The feasibility of centralizing elements of the educational process in Saint Paul, Minnesota provided the premise for proposed long range solutions to the educational needs of the community. The role of education in the community was explored by staff specialists in school organization, curriculum design, and urban planning. Research design relied…

This publication contains background reading material, photographs, sketches, and exercises to help elementary students study and compare objects and aspects of past and present life in the United States. The rationale for the approach underlying the publication is that by listening to folk songs and ballads or by talking with a senior citizen…

In order to identify and obtain an assessment of public attitudes about "quality of life" conditions and issues in Tuscarawas County, 25 students enrolled on the Tuscarawas Campus of Kent State University were specially trained to conduct interviews with a random sample of 307 Tuscarawas County residents and 50 specially selected…

To assess the needs of residents in proximity to the Downtown Center of Bakersfield College (California), a stratified random sampling of addresses was chosen and adults at each address were interviewed. A total of 422 interviews were conducted by sociology students from the college and by paid student interviewers. Thirty-five percent of the…

As a part of the Final Report of the National Study of American Indian Education, this study was conducted at the Prairie Island Indian Reservation located in southeastern Minnesota. The document presents a historical background of the small peninsula (approximately 10 miles long and 2 miles wide) and its inhabitants, the Sioux Indians, which…

The 2-part document, published by the Mississippi Employment Security Commission, relates to the Smaller Communities Program conducted during 1969 to help alleviate employment problems in rural areas of Mississippi and to provide employment services in areas with varying economic problems. Based on data secured from Federal, state, and private…

Techniques of sociological research--defined as the assembly, organization and interpretation of facts that help explain human activity--are described in this guide to community research strategies. In Part I of the booklet some basic aspects of research are examined, illustrating procedures of stating and examining a research problem. The scope…

The purpose of this paper is to report data obtained with a questionnaire dealing with the neighborhood- and community-related perceptions of Greater Kansas City Area high school students in many different parts of that metropolitan area. The questionnaire elicits opinions on several discrete though related themes, and was pilot tested and first…

A prerequisite to successful environmental education is major change in the educational system. As a replacement for the manpower training/selection approach, we need education as assistance in child development; as a replacement for the educational bureaucracy, we need a dynamic structure designed for individual and organizational growth and…

Known as Middletown since Robert and Helen Lynd studied it in 1924, Muncie, like every other U.S. community studied during that period, turned out to be obsessed with the idea of social class. Recently researchers have found in Muncie some tendency toward the disappearance of a preoccupation with social class. (RM)

Participant observation and intensive interviews of fifty people from a rural midwestern community provided information on the importance of women in women's organizations and in behind-the-scenes arenas of local politics and economics. Bringing women into community studies expands the concept of community into private, familial arenas where…

Describes a history program at the Suzanne Middle School, Walnut, California, in which students create, design, and promote local history activities. Emphasizes the accomplishments of the program, including a rise in the school's state test scores from the twenty-second percentile to the ninety-fourth percentile. (RW)

Discusses cooperative learning as a means of teaching geography. Urges production of a positive classroom climate by using group builders and cooperative projects. Suggests projects involving maps, community study, and bulletin boards. Argues that students in cooperative learning become more involved in the subject and more motivated to learn…

University students participated in a research project on communities and conservation on Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Students contributed by gathering data with various methods that will be compiled in a GIS. Living in three villages at different elevations on the mountain, students facilitated GPS mapping, a random survey of over 90…

The urbanization and industrialization of a society based on commercial competitiveness has resulted in the marginalization of rural communities and the disempowerment of rural people. An alternative view of the future is needed, and rural schools have a part to play in creating it. Four sets of forces are driving society toward a different…