Reports on a study of physics teachers' perceptions of "contexts" and the contextual approach to teaching physics. (Contains 31 references.) (Author/WRM)

Reports on how science teachers might work to improve their students' use of science process skills in ways that will contribute to their meaningful learning during laboratory activities. (Author/WRM)

Presents four stories of teachers and learners engaged with natural phenomena. Relates stories of elementary students' inquiry into ecosystems, sound, and matter, and college students' inquiry into the moon. Includes a set of guidelines for helping teachers characterize inquiry in their own classrooms. (Author/WRM)

Teaching science to indigenous students in Australia can be difficult, as some Western science concepts are in direct conflict with their cultural beliefs. Outlines some ways to make science instruction more culturally relevant to primary-aged indigenous students living in remote areas of the Northern Territory. Contains 23 references. (Author/WRM)

Describes a simple and inexpensive procedure for constructing a circuit element that will allow for continuously variable and precisely controllable low direct-current voltages. (WRM)

Presents research that evaluated the extent to which a biotechnology course enabled female secondary students to develop the skills to analyze bioethical issues. The emergent significance of the study lies in the recognition of the value systems that underpin the ethical decision-making processes of teenage girls. Contains 20 references.…

Discusses the role of chemical-equation problem solving in helping students predict reaction products. Methods for helping students learn this process must be taught to students and future teachers by using pedagogical skills within the content of chemistry. Emphasizes that solving chemical reactions should involve creative cognition where…

School budgets dictate what can and cannot be done in science. Article offers an inexpensive, modified design to build a planetarium. The planetarium provides hands-on experience in plotting and mapping constellations. (CCM)

Marbles were successfully used to help primary students develop concepts of motion. Marble-unit activities began with shaking and rattling inference bags and predicting by listening just how many marbles were in each bag. Students made qualitative and quantitative observations of the marbles, manipulated marbles with a partner, and observed…

Provides a hands-on unit of activities in which students learn to observe, measure, classify, predict, infer, communicate, and investigate using pickles. (CCM)

Describes a laboratory exercise that integrates language arts, government, history, environmental science, math, and chemistry. (CCM)

Decscribes a project to make kaleidoscopes. (CCM)

Summarizes the recommendations of the Lightning Safety Group (LSG), which was first convened during the 1998 American Meteorological Society Conference. Findings outline appropriate actions under various circumstances when lightning threatens. (WRM)

Draws on an array of historical documents to delve into the history of genetics and the lives and scientific accomplishments of female geneticists that include Nettie Stevens, Rosalind Franklin, and Barbara McClintock. (Contains 20 references.) (Author/WRM)

Discusses a project that was established to integrate computer technology, especially the Internet, into the science classroom. Argues for the importance of providing students with a program of study that exposes them to the widest possible range of ways of gathering information for problem solving. (Author/WRM)