Explores the difficulties students have in understanding the relationship between surface area and volume. Examines four cases where the ratio of surface area to volume varies, and makes recommendations for demonstrating each with models. (Contains 15 references.) (WRM)

Describes a method of teaching about transmembrane potential using analogies to a checking account. (WRM)

Argues that Darwinian evolution provides a framework for understanding how a polymer such as RNA might have arisen and perpetuated itself in a changing environment. Also explains how one genetic system invents another. (DDR)

Recommends the use of ethical issues to engage college nonscience majors in discussion. Focuses on using problems that pertain to biomedical situations and decisions such as transferring living parts from one type of organism into another. (DDR)

Describes several teaching exercises combining art and ecology that have been used in advanced ecology courses and may be adaptable to art criticism. Considers the nature of art, the ecological content of art, and the artistic form of ecological models. Contains 40 references. (DDR)

Explores whether students with several years of high school science are able to represent an osmosis problem correctly. The study problem features a typical osmotic system with students expected to make a graph to show how the solution level in the stem of the funnel changes over time. (DDR)

Describes the care and breeding of zebra fish, suggests various experiments and observations easily performed in a classroom setting, and provides some ideas to further student interest and exploration of these organisms. (DDR)

Presents an inexpensive hands-on lesson in DNA fingerprinting that can be completed in a single class period. Involves students in solving a murder in which a drop of blood is fingerprinted and matched with the blood of the murderer. (DDR)

Shares an approach to tree identification that can be adapted to use with all levels from middle school through college. Stresses student involvement and cooperation in a botanical scavenger hunt. Describes the development of the treasure map and how to use the guide sheet. (DDR)

Details laboratory procedures that enable students to understand the concept of how differences in water potential drive the movement of water within a plant in response to transpiration. Students compare transpiration rates for upper and lower surfaces of leaves. (DDR)

Recommends the use of an instructional strategy that is ideal for examining students' conceptions of the nature of science. Defines cooperative controversy as a situation in which one person's ideas, information, conclusions, theories, or opinions are incompatible with those of another. (DDR)

Proposes models for the lichen symbiosis, genomic, and plasmid DNA and fluid mosaic membrane structure. The models operate at the classroom level with the classroom becoming the cell in a DNA exercise with students as interactive components. (DDR)

Reports on the design and testing of student-directed investigations for use in large enrollment biology courses. Describes a set of experiments that include the preparation and study of the enzyme tyrosinase. (DDR)

Describes a biology unit designed so that students pose their own questions and perform experiments to answer these questions. Plasmodial slime mold is employed as the focus of the study with background information about the mold provided. (DDR)

Speculates as to how understanding of heart disease has developed and provides insight into how medical science makes progress. Summarizes the state of knowledge on arteriosclerosis, heart attacks, and exercising the heart. Contains 23 references. (DDR)