John Ramsey

The Effects of Issue Investigation and Action Training on Environmental Behavior in Seventh Grade Students.

Abstract This study reports the instructional effects of a formal environmental education methodology, issue investigation and action training (IIAT) on middle school students. Can issue investigation and action training improve responsible environmental behavior of middle school students? Can variables identified as critical contributors to responsible adult environmental behavior be enhanced in middle school students as a function of issue investigation and action training? If middle school students demonstrate increased environmental behavior as a result of issue investigation and action training, will there be a parallel increase in those variables contributing to responsible environmental behavior? These questions are the focus of the discussion that follows.

The Effects of Issue Investigation and Action Training on Eighth-Grade Students' Environmental Behavior.

Abstract This article reports the instructional effects of a formal environmental education methodology, issue investigation and action training (IIAT), on eighth-grade students and follows a similar study of seventh-grade students. The author focuses on whether IIAT can improve responsible environmental behavior in middle school students and whether variables associated with responsible adult environmental behavior will be concomitantly enhanced. The findings indicate that both effects are possible.

Environmental Education in the K-12 Curriculum: Finding a Niche

Abstract Significant progress has been made in the United States in including the environment in government, business, household, and individual decisionmaking. Unfortunately, there is no parallel trend in the nations K-12 schools. This article reviews the basic precepts of environmental education, summarizes state-level efforts directed at its establishment, and makes suggestions for systematically incorporating it into the K-12 curriculum.

Developing conceptual storylines with the Learning Cycle

Instructional planning in science can be problematic for elementary teachers. The Learning Cycle (LC) provides a format that can help teachers “package” many desirable instructional strategies into a cohesive instructional unit. The LC model presented in this article is an attempt to build an articulated sequence of instructional activities that foster in-depth understanding of a complex natural phenomenon through many direct experiences, that include student-generated inquiry, that involve student-generated explanation and interpretation, and that enrich the developed network of ideas by their application in a number of interdisciplinary contexts.

Mars rover models - A program to enrich teaching space science, planetary exploration and robotics in elementary and middle school

The present aerospace engineering and science workforce is ageing. It is not clear that the US education system will produce enough qualified replacements to meet the need in the near future. Unfortunately, by the time many students get to high school, it is often too late to get them pointed toward an engineering or science career. Since some college programs require 6 units of high school mathematics for admission, students need to begin consciously preparing for a science or engineering curriculum as early as 6th or 7th grade. The challenge for educators is to convince elementary school students that science and engineering are exciting, relevant and accessible career paths. This paper describes a program designed to help provide some excitement and relevance. It is based on the task of developing a mobile robot or “Rover” to explore the surface of Mars. There are two components to the program, a curriculum unit and a contest. The curriculum unit is structured as a 6-week planetary science unit for elementary school (grades 3-5). It can also be used as a curriculum unit, enrichment program or extracurricular activity in grades 6-8 by increasing the expected level of scientific sophistication in the mission design. The second component is a citywide competition to select the most outstanding models that is held annually at a local college or University.

Science Related Social Issues in the Elementary School: The Extended Case Study Approach.

Many elementary science teachers approach science as a body of knowledge. Thus, instruction is didactic, emphasizing the teacher-led presentation and memorization of information. This approach often fails to facilitate intrinsic motivation, utilize critical thinking, foster perceptions of relevance or utility, or capture the authentic flavor of inquiry-based science. The Extended Case Study (ECS) strategy offers elementary science teachers the potential to achieve many of those outcomes. This approach uses a community-based, science-related social issue (SRSI) as an instructional context to identify and develop science concepts as well as skills such as information processing, research methods, and decision making. This report describes how a class of Wisconsin fifth graders used the ECS approach to understand, analyze, investigate, and act on a science-related social issue in their community. The ECS approach provides a vehicle for teachers to coordinate an interdisciplinary Science-Technology Society or environmental education perspective with science knowledge and critical thinking in the elementary science classroom.