Compares the costs of four assessment formats: (1) multiple choice; (2) open ended; (3) laboratory station; and (4) full investigation. Tracks the amount of time spent preparing the devices, developing scoring consistency for the devices, and scoring the devices as they were developed. Compares times as if 1,000 students completed each assessment.…

Explores school districts' responses to state science standards and examines the ideas about science education that district policy makers construct from these standards. A cause of failing to implement state science standards, rarely examined in the literature, concerns the ways in which local implementers miss or misconstrue the intent of policy…

Discusses the basis of a classification scheme for types of case studies. Four major classification headings are identified: (1) individual assignment; (2) lecture; (3) discussion; and (4) small group activities. Describes each heading from the point of view of several teaching methods. (DDR)

Details a project designed to bolster the quality of astronomy education through teacher workshops. Workshop topics include the solar system, stars, stellar evolution, galaxies, and cosmology. The Learning Approach Questionnaire (LAQ) is used to determine the effects of the workshops. (DDR)

Argues that students are conditioned by years of multiple-choice testing to use only simple recall and view knowledge as an uncataloged museum full of independent facts that are collected, recited, and left to gather dust. (DDR)

Speculates on the place of computers and defining the student-computer relationship within the context of biology education. Discusses the value of computer simulations. (DDR)

Describes a semester-long activity added to traditional homework assignments in which students complete a project that brings art together with science and mathematics. Students may choose any one of a combination of different art forms. (DDR)

Outlines a program that involves prospective teachers in three science content courses on earth, life, and physical science accompanied by educational seminars, a science methods course, and student teaching with an educator trained to work with prospective science teachers. (DDR)

Describes a course that focuses on the practice of science as it is done by professionals in specific disciplines and offers opportunities to communicate the connections and relationships among the scientific disciplines. (DDR)

Traces the development of a senior level course for biology majors the integrates curriculum studies with critical analysis of current biology research and communication skills. Objectives for the course include understanding the scientific method and assessing and using information sources. (DDR)

Outlines a course designed to help students write about scientific topics for particular audiences and to develop the writing skills they need as students and as professionals. Defines the role of the instructor in such a course. (DDR)

Presents strategies to motivate at-risk students to take advantage of campus remediation resources. Strategies include identifying and responding to these students through a study skills remediation program and improvements in the general chemistry course. (DDR)

Provides guidance and some guidelines for those trying to gain support for classroom innovations. Includes a chart of some influencing strategies and research-based accounts of some methods that can be employed to garner support. (DDR)

Purports that a good case tells a story, focuses on an interest-arousing issue, takes place within the past five years, creates empathy through the central characters, contains quotations, is relevant to the reader, must have pedagogic utility, provokes conflict, forces decisions, has generality, and is short. Includes examples. (DKM)

Describes a study designed to assess students' understanding and acceptance of the credibility of the scientific evidence supporting evolution. Discusses results and implications and offers thoughtful advice to professors on how to ameliorate the divisiveness resulting from this controversy. (DKM)