The purpose of this study was to examine how second graders use writing and language when they are learning to add multidigit numbers in mathematics class. Second grade students were taught addition conceptually with a focus on sharing their strategies and thought processes with each other during the mathematics lesson. Two social norms were established with students so that sharing information and asking for clarity when they did not understand would be natural and expected. Students kept a daily mathematics journal to answer the class's Problems of the Day. Patterns found in student journals indicated three stages of multidigit learning. In Stage One, students used little or no words to explain their solution, illustrations show students using counting by ones strategies. Stage Two represents students using appropriate mathematics strategies and vocabulary to explain their solutions in detail. Lastly, Stage Three consists of students solving multidigit problems with little or no word explaining their solution process and illustrations are few. Results of the study indicated that students' oral explanations of solutions to addition problems included more detail compared to students' written justification of similar problems.

One alternatively certified elementary teacher was the subject of this sixteen week research study on science teaching self-efficacy. The researcher taught inquiry based student level science lessons to the fourth grade teacher. The teacher participant, in turn, taught those same lessons to her class while the researcher observed and took field notes. The participant responded to specific open ended questions in a journal after each science experience and also completed three interviews with the researcher. Each sequential lesson from the researcher was then modified based on participant needs. The participant completed the STEBI (Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument) as a pre and post test to measure the effects of the above mentioned activities. The collected data from the STEBI was reported quantitatively. The collected data from the reflective journal entries and interviews were reported qualitatively. After careful analysis of the data gathered for this case study, the researcher came to the conclusion that inquiry based professional development through the use of a mentor affected the alternatively certified elementary teacher's science teaching self-efficacy. The subject maintained a positive attitude about the use of a mentor for the duration of the study and her Personal Science Teaching Efficacy increased or stayed the same on all of the STEBI questions. Limitations of the study as well as recommendations for further research were also discussed.

Within a low-performing seventh grade mathematics classroom, communication techniques including discourse, collaborative groups, listening, reading, and writing were implemented during a six week period. This study shows how the use of these techniques led to the twenty four students' conceptual understanding of fraction and decimal concepts. This research study provides insight to the deep-seeded beliefs of low-performing students. It provides a record of how the teacher used communication techniques in the classroom and had a strong positive impact on the attitudes and performance of these struggling students.

In this action research, the interactions of seventh grade pre-algebra students in a mathematics classroom shared their explanation and justification processes through group work. Prior to the start of the study students were given a written pre-test to determine current conceptual thinking in mathematics. Over the next nine weeks, the teacher engaged the students in problem solving activities that included reasoning skills, communication and making connections through discussion with their peers. Following nine weeks of written and verbal discourse, students were provided a post-test to determine changes in their conceptual thinking. Overall students' grades, journal writings and test scores showed positive gains with the greatest changes occurring in written explanations of their conceptual thinking in mathematics.

For this action research project, I wanted to examine my practice of teaching mathematics. Specifically, I encouraged students to improve their communication skills during my math class through daily discussion and writing tasks. After establishing a class set of sociomathematical norms, the students solved problems provided by the Every Day Counts: Calendar Math program and used verbal and written formats to describe their problem solving methods and reasons. My study showed the effects of using discussion and writing to help students develop their conceptual understanding of mathematical ideas. Focus was placed on the quality of daily discussions and written tasks both at the beginning of the study and continually as the study progressed. Through daily discussions, monthly written assessments, and student interviews, the study helped to determine the importance of developing students' mathematical communication skills and building conceptual understanding of mathematical ideas.

There are two purposes to this study. The first was for me, as a teacher, to try something new in my instruction and grow from it. The second purpose of this study focused on the students. I wanted to see what level of performance in problem solving my students are at currently, and how the use of journaling and discourse affected the students' problem solving abilities. A problem-solving unit was taught heuristically in order to introduce students to the various strategies that could be used in problem solving. Math journals were also used for problem solving and reflection. Classroom discourse in discussion of problem solving situations was used as a means of identifying strategies used to solve the problem. Explanations and justifications were then used in writing and discourse to support students' solution and methods. An analytic problem-solving rubric was used to score the problems solved by the students. These scores, along with explanations and justifications, and discourse were used as data and analyzed for common themes. The results of this study demonstrate overall improvement in student performance in problem solving. Heuristic instruction the students received on strategies in problem solving helped to improve their ability to not only select an appropriate strategy, but also implement it. This unit, along with the problem solving prompts solved in the journals, helped to improve the students' performance in explanations. It was discourse combined with all the previous instruction that finally improved student performance in justification.

The National Science Education Standards (1996) indicate that science education should include inquiry instruction. Many teachers still struggle with how to implement inquiry in their classrooms and a lack of high quality inquiry-based instructional materials has been posited as a hindrance. The purpose of this qualitative study was to observe the instructional practices of three elementary teachers when using an inquiry-based science kit program in their fourth grade classrooms. Teacher practices and their attitudes towards their preparedness to teach science with the support of the curricular program were examined. Data were collected through pre/post survey comparisons, observations, and a focus group session. Results indicated that these teachers' attitudes were positively impacted. Teachers' access to science kits provided resources which facilitated more inquiry experiences with their students; however, resources alone did not fully address teacher science content needs.

The purpose of this action research project was to determine how my practice of using graphic organizers during instruction influenced my students' ability to summarize and comprehend significant fifth grade Earth Science content regarding the Earth's changing surface. A secondary purpose was to determine the students' perceptions of how concept mapping assisted in making connections to understand the fifth grade Earth Science content regarding the Earth's changing surface. The three processes used to collect data for this research were concept maps, focus groups and the pre- and post-test results. The themes that emerged were the ability to describe, categorize and classify details, the increased accuracy of the use of vocabulary and the memory of the concepts that students' ability to recall information and understand the Earth Science concepts as evidenced through summarization and comprehension through the pre- and post-test.

Nanotechnology is the manipulation of matter and devices on the nanometer scale. Below the critical dimension length of 100nm, materials begin to display vastly different properties than their macro- or micro- scale counterparts. The exotic properties of nanomaterials may trigger the start of a new technological revolution, similar to the electronics revolution of the late 20th century. Current applications of nanotechnology primarily make use of nanoparticles in bulk, often being made into composites or mixtures. While these materials have fantastic properties, organization of nano and microstructures of nanoparticles may allow the development of novel devices with many unique properties. By analogy, bulk copper may be used to form the alloys brass or bronze, which are useful materials, and have been used for thousands of years. Yet, organized arrays of copper allowed the development of printed circuit boards, a technology far more advanced than the mere use of copper as a bulk material. In the same way, organized assemblies of nanoparticles may offer technological possibilities far beyond our current understanding. In the first project, 1D assemblies of nanoparticles were explored. 1D anisotropic assemblies of nanoparticles are the simplest organized nanostructures which may be fabricated. One of the greatest difficulties in developing commercial products is in the transfer of a process from the laboratory to manufacturing scale. While many techniques may be used to develop 1D assemblies in lab, simple techniques are needed to allow the fabrication of these assemblies on a large, cost effective scale. Use of shear, shown previously to induce colloidal ordering in solutions, is a technique that may be readily adapted from the coatings industry as a process for forming 1D assemblies, if the optimal conditions can be found. Atomic force microscopy was used to study the role of shearing forces produced by drawdown and spraying application in the formation of 1D assemblies of nanoparticles. Formation of 1D strings was observed to increase with greater application of simple shear, but greater spraying forces were found to decrease formation of strings. This is explained in terms of greater simple shear providing a greater driving force for string formation, while greater spraying shear acted to irreversibly disperse the particles. The second project focused on the development of a learning module for education of students at various academic levels on the significance of the surface area of nanomaterials. This project was commissioned by the Global Waste Research Institute, a multidisciplinary organization based at Cal Poly, concerned with performing research and education in areas related to waste management, particularly of emerging waste streams. As nanotechnology and nanoparticles become more prevalent in consumer products and industrial processes, the volume of nanowaste is increasing rapidly. To address challenges associated with processing this unique form of waste, understanding of the fundamental processes controlling the unique properties of nanoparticles is necessary. A learning module was developed using a laboratory demonstration and video presentation to illustrate concepts related to differences in the properties between microparticles and nanoparticles. The laboratory demonstration was designed to be simple to understand, and quick, simple, and inexpensive to perform. The video presentation was designed to be a 15 minute presentation relating the concepts of nanotechnology, nanoparticles, surface area, and fundamental differences as compared to conventional materials. Dispersions of particles within aqueous media were used as a framework for the discussion, in a manner comprehensible by students ranging from 12th grade high school students to graduate students in relevant programs. The third and final project focused on self-assembly of particles in nematic liquid crystalline colloids. Dispersions of colloidal particles in liquid crystals (LCs) are a relatively new set of composite materials, host to a variety of interactions not seen in colloids in isotropic media. Presence of colloidal particles disrupts the local nematic director, resulting in a loss of long-range elastic energy. Interactions between particles and LC molecules results in dipolar or quadrupolar defects, depending on the nature of the interactions between particle and LC. The loss of long-range elastic energy can be minimized through aggregation of particles. The defects formed by interactions between particles and LC stabilize these aggregations as linear chains, either along the nematic director in the case of dipolar defects, or at an offset angle in the case of quadrupolar defects. Dispersions of silica microspheres in the nematic phase of a thermotropic liquid crystal were studied using polarizing light microscopy. Strong homeotropic anchoring was observed, indicated by the abundant formation of hedgehog defects. These defects were found to play a role in self-assembly of particles along the nematic director, resulting aggregates containing up to a dozen aligned particles. In addition, particles were observed to aggregate in chains along grain boundaries in the liquid crystal, acting to stabilize the high energy interface between different grain directions, an effect not previously reported in the scientific literature for nematic colloids.

Elementary science has made rapid strides in the last four or five years. In our elementary schools we have the laymen and scientists of tomorrow. The masses should have a speaking acquaintance with science and know the value to society through its modern inventions and discoveries. Knowledge of facts discovered by scientists give rise to conceptions that vitalize thinking in many fields and cause the redirection of human activities. Scientific conceptions such as time, space, change, variety, adaptation, and interrelationships have exerted profound influence upon thinking in wide areas of human affairs. These concepts can never be mastered, but they may become part of the whole learning process and provide enrichment to the experiences of the children in the elementary school. It is of greatest importance in developing a course of study suited to use in the Stockton Unified School District that consideration be given to a basic philosophy that shall guide us in the determination of our aims and methods and in the selection of the activities and subject matter. [...]