Describes an earth science program conducted from an airplane for 8th grade students of Carmel Middle School, Carmel, California. The steps involved in getting the program started, the classroom work and the preparatory field trips, as well as the airborne lesson itself, are described. (LC)

Describes an experiment conducted by two eighth grade home economics students in a gifted and talented program. A student-developed description of the experiment is provided. (LRA)

Describes a twist on the egg-drop challenge activity for an 8th grade physical science unit. Students engage in active inquiry and explore the laws of physics, develop critical thinking skills, and practice problem-solving tasks. (NB)

Compared 90 male and female eighth graders representing very high, moderately high, and average levels of achievement on measures of academic and social self-concept. Found academic self-concept positively related to level of academic achievement. Average-achieving girls had lower academic self-concept scores than all other groups. Found no…

Uses data from National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 to examine relationship between student poverty, school poverty, and student achievement. Students in high-poverty public schools, whatever their socioeconomic status, show considerably greater need for special education support than do students in schools with lower percentages of poor…

Introduces an activity designed to develop statistical concepts such as the distribution for a set of data, various interpretations of the mean for a set of data, the limitation of the mean for distinguishing distributions, variation in data, variation in data from the mean, and the MAD as a measure of variation in data from the mean. (ASK)

Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) mathematics scores of eighth graders who had received music instruction were compared according to whether the students were given private lessons. Analyses indicate that students who had private lessons for two or more years performed significantly better on the composite mathematics portion of the ITBS than did…

Notes that whatever the unit, educators can include a wide range of materials: informational picture and chapter books; biographies and photographic essays; and Internet, newspaper, and magazine articles. Discusses how the use of multiple texts can help all students become a part of the same community of readers. Provides a list of references that…

Infant simulators are a popular means for providing a realistic experience of caring for an infant and are often used as a supplement in sexuality education programs. The goal of this activity is to help adolescents realize the enormous responsibility that raising a child entails and to motivate them to avoid risking pregnancy. The little research…

A self-proclaimed technophobe, Kuroly takes the plunge with his eighth-grade class. As a group, they learn PowerPoint, research poets on the Web, and record favorite poems, all of which results in a triumphant series of PowerPoint presentations on favorite poets.

Riordan and Noyce (2001) report that schools that used the Connected Mathematics Project (CMP) for two to three years had greater gains in math achievement overall than those in the comparison group. Riordan and Noyce do not report whether this difference was statistically significant. However, t tests calculated by the WWC using data provided by…

The Expert Mathematician (version 3.0), a middle school math curriculum, was developed from LogoWriter, a computer program that the developer claims is designed to help children learn independently through exploration. According to J. J. Baker, the Expert Mathematician is designed to provide a creative environment that is intended to foster a…

Working from Carolyn Kieran's categorization of "arithmetic" and "algebraic" thinkers, the article describes one eighth-grade "arithmetic" thinker's progress as she attempts to solve one- and two-step equations.

The NAEP testing over the past decade shows gradual improvement of test scores at the eighth-grade level, contrary to what many say about stagnant scores. However, by 2000, only one-fourth of eighth graders performed at the proficient level. (Contains 2 tables and 6 figures.)