One-hundred-six 9th graders and 203 undergraduates wrote a story about baseball for 25 min and then completed a 39-item multiple-choice test of baseball topic knowledge. Students also answered 6 questions about their individual interest in baseball. Confirmatory factor analysis suggested that knowledge and interest tests measured different constructs. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed Grade X Interest and Gender X Interest interactions on thematic maturity. Differences favoring undergraduates at low levels of interest disappeared at higher levels of interest, and differences favoring male students at low levels of interest disappeared at higher levels of interest. Topic knowledge predicted thematic maturity and was a better predictor of the interestingness of students' written texts than was individual interest. Implications for the assignment of student writing topics are discussed.

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Research on mathematics teacher education indicates that offering an appropriate constructivist-based teaching model of mathematics instruction to preservice elementary teachers enhances their teaching abilities and confidence in future teaching. The purpose of this study was to investigate preservice elementary teachers' decisions about teaching strategies and their attitudes toward mathematics and computer-related technologies in a constructivist-centered methods course which included the use of problem solving multimedia. The treatment consisted of six hours of multimedia-enhanced instruction over two weeks. This study focused on three mathematics education topics taught to each group of students: problem-solving, technology, and ratios/proportions. The results indicated that constructivist-based instruction using multimedia helped the participants develop more positive attitudes toward computer-related technologies and influenced their decisions to plan more constructivist-based teaching strategies than those participants in the comparison groups.

Modified instruction to replace the deductive textbook approach helps calculus students improve their conceptual understanding and precision.

This paper describes an innovative course designed for K-12 educators to integrate engineering principles in mathematics and science curricula. "Engineering Connections" was first offered as an experimental summer workshop for practicing teachers and will continue as a semester course for preservice teachers in spring, 2000. The course is constructed as a study of three modules: force, levers, and gears; principles of bridge design; and electricity. Students experience handson, inquiry-based instruction through simple investigations and apply engineering concepts in a four-week internship. This paper presents the course objectives and content, the teaching and learning model, and the student-conducted experiments.