Presents a checklist as a guide for preparing a set of safety rules that has been adapted from the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission's publication titled "School Science Laboratories: A Guide to Some Hazardous Substances". Addresses work habits; safety wear; facilities and equipment; purchasing, use, and disposal of chemicals; and…

Describes a visual approach for explaining the filling of electrons in the shells, subshells, and orbitals of the chemical elements. Enables students to apply the principles of atomic electron configuration while using manipulatives to model the building up of electron configurations as the atomic numbers of elements increase on the periodic…

Describes a simple activity that explores and reveals the principles of significant figures and scientific notation using a 500 gram bag of unpopped popcorn. Students must devise a method for determining the number of kernels in the bag. (DDR)

Describes an activity in which students reverse-translate proteins from their amino acid sequences back to their DNA sequences then assign musical notes to represent the adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine bases. Data is obtained from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on the Internet. (DDR)

Presents experiments that introduce natural product chemistry into high school classrooms. In the laboratory activities, students isolate and analyze the oil in orange peels. Students also perform a steam distillation and learn about terpenes. (DDR)

Describes an activity that helps students see how a paper map can represent a three dimensional object by having students build a realistic model that clearly shows what a contour line is and why it behaves the way it does. (DDR)

Describes the learning cycle and some strategies that teachers can use in their classrooms to make the transition to the learning cycle less stressful. Includes tips on how teachers can effectively change roles during an activity and how they can alter laboratory formats to enhance student learning. (DDR)

Presents a week-long unit of study that covers the concepts of acid base chemistry and involves students in a context in which that information is relevant. In this activity, students build a model swimming pool and must maintain the chemistry of their pool at safe levels. (DDR)

Describes an outdoor unit of study that enables students to realize the cause and effect relationships that exist within the ecosystem. Provides activities that help students understand how these interrelations can be easily disrupted, resulting in habitat destruction. (DDR)

Explains the objectives of an interdisciplinary elective course for middle school students in which the scientific principles, artistic processes, cultural aspects, and environmental concerns of papermaking are integrated. (DDR)

Discusses the ninth-grade trial implementation of the Scope, Sequence, and Coordination (SS&C) project and compares this class with the non-SS&C class that preceded it. Reports that the project helped teachers create a more inquiry-oriented learning environment and helped students perform at least as well as non-SS&C students on measures of…

Offers some of the lessons about standards-based reform that Project 2061 has learned and some practical directions for implementing a coherent set of learning goals, whether benchmarks or standards, as the basis for reform. (JRH)

Discusses the instructional method called drawing mental models that allows teachers to examine students' mental models of science concepts and its use as a diagnostic tool for probing the depths of students' understanding. Presents guidelines for using this strategy. (JRH)

Presents an approach that combines the discovery method with graphing skills and allows students to uncover scientific laws on their own. Attempts to make the discovery method more quantitative while still teaching students how to think scientifically. (JRH)

Discusses the use of concept maps as an instructional strategy and the construction and scoring of concept maps. Lists Internet sites for information and tools on concept mapping. (JRH)