Determined whether natural history museum visitors (N=234) were attracted to hands-on exhibits or to identical "no-touch" exhibits. Results indicate that a significant number of visitors preferred the manipulatable settings and that children preferred to engage in hands-on experiences more than adults. Additional findings are reported and…

Determined that males (N=70) demonstrate higher level of intellectual development than females (N=70), that males mature intellectually earlier than females, and that there appear to be factors other than age and sex that are related to development of formal operational reasoning. Implications of these and other results are discussed. (JN)

Determined relative effects of rhetorical, factual, valuing, and hypothesizing question types when these questions were interspersed throughout the reading passage in textual materials for students (N=383) in introductory biology. Reported results are based on a 20-item test given immediately after reading the passage, 2 weeks later, and 9 weeks…

Investigated whether dropouts and other students having difficulty with physics could be identified by including mathematics reasoning items along with mathematics skill items on a 13-item mathematics pretest and by using records of past performance in conjunction with the pretest. Sample included 483 students in an introductory, noncalculus,…

"Women in Science Scale," a 27-item instrument for measuring adolescents' attitudes toward women in science careers, was determined to be reliable by estimates of internal consistency (alpha = 0.92) and stability over time (r = 0.82). The instrument also clearly distinguishes between scores of males and females regardless of sex. (JN)

Female education majors in a physical science course were given a set of tasks analogous to a given, solved prototype-task to investigate how transfer items were handled. Also used a conceptual model along with the solved prototype and a general procedure for applying the conceptual model to the transfer items. (Author/JN)

Five items requiring use of proportional, probabilistic, and correlational reasoning were administered to students (N=391) in grades 6, 8, 10, and 12. Argues that successful qualitative reasoning arises as a consequence of equilibration and influences selection of course work and that specific instruction may initiate the equilibration process.…

The "Children's Science Curiosity Scale" is composed of 30 Likert-like items which examine various curiosity factors in the context of science learning. Internal consistency, test-retest reliabilities, and validity of the instrument were investigated. Sex differences using the instrument were also investigated. (JN)

Describes information-processing research, showing how computer models are used to explain thinking and how information processing approaches can be used systematically. Clarifies why students find factor-label method so difficult to master and discusses guidelines and suggestions for using information-processing ideas. (JM)

Investigated level of concept attainment of selected energy concepts for possible inclusion in the Nigerian Primary Science Project. Subjects (N=450) were taught energy concepts at descriptive, comparative, and quantitative levels. Suggests the need to describe these levels for particular grades and match curriculum with students' thinking…

Compares results of surveys sent to New Jersey science supervisors in 1978 and 1982 regarding status of secondary science education in their schools. Discusses trends developed during the four-year period, comparing them to such national trends as decrease in instruction time, use of national curricula, and loss of teachers to business/industry.…

Investigated different patterns and amounts of instruction on planning experiments with sixth- and eighth-grade students. A model for generating process skill lessons was used to produce all lessons. Three treatments were generated and tested, showing student gains in using process skills of identifying variables and stating hypotheses. (Author/JM)

Results of 11 studies of classroom practices used with activity-based elementary science programs were combined quantitatively using a composite category system. One finding reported is that teachers trained in program use spent less time talking and more on activities than untrained teachers using the programs. (Author/JM)

Determined effects of various methods and formats of administering a Piagetian task on college students' (N=376) performance. Concludes neither method nor format influenced subject performance; and this lack of influence is similar for various combinations of method and format. Importance of this finding and implications for teachers are…

Examined three methods which can be used to pool single-item-per-subject data collected in intensive time-series studies, determining if method of pooling has an effect on subsequent data analysis. Methods examined were based on simple averaging, difficulty weightings of averages, and the application of the Rasch logistic model. (JM)