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Reported is a research project which investigated whether junior high students in the Ithaca, New York, area can acquire and use the "concept mapping" and "Gowin's 'V' mapping" strategies to facilitate meaningful learning. Concept mapping involves the identification, hierarchical organization, and graphic depiction of relationships among concepts in a body of study material. These procedures are consistent with Ausubel's theory of meaningful learning. The second learning strategy involves recognizing that all knowledge in the sciences is constructed by using records and record transforming procedures which are guided by the concepts, principles and theories that people employ. Gowin's "V" is a heuristic device that students use to graphically illustrate the interplay between the methodological and conceptual elements of each episode of knowledge-making, such as a laboratory investigation. Although many project activities centered on implementation of the two learning strategies, the positive cognitive and affective data lend support to the effectiveness of this "learning how to learn" project. Included in the appendix are the teacher's handbook and samples of student-constructed concept maps and "V" maps. (Author/WB)

1Boy Crusoe

By Allan Eric

Also published as" A Yankee Crusoe" . A 15 year old hard working and studious farm boy finds the lure of adventure on the seas as a merchant seaman more than he can resist. This is his story. " I was born in a little town in the State of Maine, near the close of the Civil War. My boyhood life did not differ materially from that of the average farmer's son in the remote country districts of New England--except, perhaps, that I read more and thought more. Hard work on the rugged soil, two terms each year in the little yellow country schoolhouse, a day's fishing now and then filled the early years of my life full to over-flowing. " What he gets is enough excitement and adventure to overflow his wildest dreams. How he experiences disaster and uses his wits and knowledge to overcome every problem makes for a great read. - Summary by Phil Chenevert