Discusses ways to improve the quality of teachers' classroom questions to help children clarify their thoughts, feel that they are worthy people, and understand their world. Asking open-ended questions that allow for discussion, encouraging children to answer questions orally, and listening to students' answers are urged. (CR)

Suggests ways for making classrooms fun, including giving children opportunities to work together, moving things around, letting children learn to set their own controls, setting up the classroom so students can experiment and discover together, and providing bonuses or incentives for the child who is falling behind. (CR)

Provides some brief suggestions for teaching students about color, including an activity for use during outdoor field trips or in local parks. Questions for provoking student explorations of color mixing and the functions of color in nature are provided, which use the scientific method as a model for structuring student observations. (PB)

Discusses how cooperative learning can teach gifted elementary students about being part of a cohesive team that works toward a common goal. Describes how to set up cooperative learning groups and sample cooperative learning activities, such as "crossing the river," cooperative maps, and body systems posters. (CR)

A middle school science teacher describes the learning and thinking processes of his class as they worked and played with pendulums and learned to build a swing that could tell time. The article illustrates how students can learn the value of the scientific method for problem solving. (DB)

A teacher of gifted minority children explains how to conduct a hands-on science experiment investigating how many drops of water can fit on a penny. Four different student activities that teach concepts such as the necessity of controlling variables in scientific experiments are described. (CR)

Camp Armstrong is a summer program which provides rising sixth grade students with a thorough orientation to their new middle school. Activities develop students' familiarity with the school's physical layout and provide hands-on cooperative learning in academic and recreational subjects. A workshop for parents of rising middle school students is…

A teacher describes activities to increase elementary students' active involvement in their science education. Activities involve development of observational skills, increasing self-motivation, developing prediction skills, and cooperating in joint learning activities. (DB)

The ability to recognize and recall details about objects helps scientists figure out the answers to problems. Observational skills can be developed by sketching objects in detail. Rapid drawing can improve students' sense of important features and rapid memorization of clues about an object. (JDD)

Examples of fall activities to bring the natural world into the classroom are offered including conducting a simple chromatography experiment on leaves, correlating number of seeds with the lines on pumpkins, planting colored corn kernels, and designing and making scarecrows. (DB)

This rationale for teaching elementary-level science using a hands-on approach emphasizes the importance of students learning the process by which an outcome arises rather than just remembering the outcome. The article encourages use of everyday objects rather than fancy scientific apparatus and offers suggestions for helping students undertake…

History consists of events and things that happened in the distant or the recent past. Students can make a time capsule to leave a piece of history for the future to discover. Time capsule items should be carefully selected, preserved, labeled, stored in a sealed container, and buried with a marker to indicate the site. (JDD)

This article describes a science learning experience in which intermediate grade students launched balloons with attached postcards to study wind currents. More than 200 (of over 900 balloons) were returned, and their analysis supported the students' hypothesis about the direction of wind currents. (DB)

Ways to explore blowing bubbles through observation, experimentation, and discovery are suggested to stimulate gifted children, with attention to such areas as the function of film in the liquid and the reason for the common spherical shape of bubbles. Experiments that children can try and tips for the teacher are presented. (SW)