Cooperative learning is a teaching strategy that promotes the positive interaction of children in small, heterogeneous groups. Each group contain three or four students of varying achievement levels, backgrounds, socio-economic status, and sex. Cooperative learning processes promote student motivation, build group skills, foster social and academic interaction among students, and reward successful group participation. In cooperative learning teams, low achieving students can feel successful by making positive contributions to the group. Cooperative learning is relatively easy to implement and is not expensive. When used appropriately, it improves student behavior and attendance, and increases positive attitudes toward peers and school. Success is more likely when the teacher devotes some time to building a classroom climate conducive to cooperation and mutual respect. This can be done using short, high interest activities with a high probability of student success as "group builders." Four examples of geographic group building activities are given. Once the groups are formed, cooperative learning projects can be designed to meet the needs of a particular group of students. The material should be organized to encourage students to work together, but individual accountability also should be maintained. The teacher should teach the skills necessary for effective group work. Four examples of cooperative projects are presented. A list of eight references is included, and three sources for geographical group builders are noted. (JB)