Authentic learning can be best summarized by John Dewey, an educational psychologists, learning is most effective when students are doing and experiencing.
Method
This quantitative, Quasi experimental study will be conducted with two sixth grade science classes at A. G. Middle School. This urban school is embedded within the students’ community. There are a total of 1077 students that attend the school, 63.6% of these students are at or above grade level, 62% of the students that attend are white, 27% black and 11% is other. In this Quasi experiment, the researchers will compare the two groups attitude and enjoyment of science using the TOSRA as a pre and post test. Both the experimental group and control group will consist of thirty sixth- graders at A.G. Middle School from an Academic Enrichment class. The experimental group will be taught the Ecology Unit through authentic lessons using Briar Creek that is located near the school campus. The control group will be taught the same unit using traditional teaching styles. The dependent variables in this study are the students’ attitudes and their enjoyment towards science. The independent variable influencing the dependent variable will be the authentic Ecology unit taught by Discovery Place staff. The researchers will compare the results of the pre and post test to construct support for the hypothesis.
The participants in this study will be a convenient sample. We will have access to the participants due to one researcher teaching at a school that was selected to partake in the Discovery Place Ecology Unit. One researcher will be embedded in the process as a science teacher who will partake in teaching the authentic ecology unit. The participants will be given the TOSRA as a pre-test to evaluate their enjoyment towards science lessons and attitudes towards science. The participants will then complete an authentic lesson on Ecology for a period of seven weeks taught by Discovery Place.
Quasi-Experimental Design:
Instruments
Test of Science-Related Attitudes (TOSRA) is the instrument used to measure the student’s attitudes towards science. The TOSRA measures seven distinct science-related attitudes among students that are suitable for administration within a normal class lesson. The scales used are referred to as the “Social Implications of Science, Normality of Scientists, Attitude to Scientific Inquiry, Adoption of Scientific Attitudes, Enjoyment of Science Lessons, Leisure Interest in Science, and Career Interest in Science” (Fraser, 1981, pp. 1). Due to the extensive field testing and prestigious development, the TOSRA has shown to be highly reliable. The TOSRA is available for use by administrators, teachers, educational evaluators, and researchers to observe the progress of student’s attitudes towards evident aims. This can be done for individual students, but is most helpful for analyzing groups or classes of students. The TOSRA is useful for obtaining information about changes in attitudes at a particular time or over a period of time by using a pre-test and post-test (longitudinal method).
Hurd (1970) promotes the importance of attitudinal aims in his reviews of overseas curriculum packages, such as the Australian Science Education Project (ASEP, 1974). This research supports the high regard and important aims given to science-related attitudes in many countries. Student’s attitudes towards science are seen as a common problem among science teachers across Australia, according to a survey completed by ASEP teachers (Owen, 1977). Much confusion has been attributed to assigning a meaning on the ‘attitude to science’ (Klopfer, 1971). This research has led to a comprehensive classification scheme being assigned to six different categories of the attitudinal aims. These six categories have contributed to the seven scales used in the TOSRA, Table 1. The seven TOSRA categories involve social implications of science (S), normality of scientists (N), attitude to scientific inquiry (I), adoption of scientific attitudes (A), enjoyment of science lessons (E), leisure interest in science (L), and career interest in science (C). This study will only utilize categories 4 (Adoption of Scientific Attitudes, A) and 5 (Enjoyment of Science Lessons, E), in Appendix I.
Table 1 Name and Classification of Each Scale in TOSRA (Fraser, 1981, pp. 2)
A response format is included in the TOSRA items, first described by Likert (1932). “This format requires students to express their degree of agreement with each statement on a five-point scale consisting of the responses Strongly agree (SA), Agree (A), Not sure (N), Disagree (D), and Strongly disagree (SD). Scoring involves allotting 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 for the responses SA, A, N, D, SD, respectively, for items designated as positive (+) and allotting 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 for the responses SA, A, N, D, SD, respectively, for items designated as negative (-)” (Fraser, 1981). In order to minimize the possibility of faking responses, the teacher will make it clear that the TOSRA results will not be used for grading. The reliability consistency or TOSRA scales was determined by analyzing test-retest coefficients and determining their means. According to this analysis, all TOSRA scales showed quite excellent test-retest reliability.
Procedure
To begin the experiment, the students will be given the TOSRA. Through the TOSRA the students will express their feeling about science enjoyment and their attitude towards science, circling one answer for each of the ten questions. The TOSRA serves as a pre-test to measure each student’s attitude towards science classes and will be followed by a post-test at the end of the unit. The objective of the ecology unit is for students to investigate how humans impact our environment. They will be able to observe how living things interact with the environment by studying soil testing, water testing, macro invertebrates, air quality, and environmental awareness.
We will conduct our research project at Alexander Graham Middle School in two sixth grade classrooms during an Academic Enrichment (AE). This class is designed to challenge students that are high achieving in academics based on previous EOG scores in 5th grade. The AE classes are designed to challenge students to become critical problem solvers and provide them with opportunities that will enhance the North Carolina Standard Course of Study. Every nine weeks, the students rotate on a wheel through four Academic Enrichment classes: Science Exploration, Problem Solving, Current Events, and AVID. The experiment will take place in the two sixth grade Science Exploration Academic Enrichment classes, which is a forty minute class, which meets every day for nine weeks. The students will be told that Discovery Place Science Reach staff will come to our class throughout the quarter to conduct an ecology workshop. The teacher will also explain that the students will have the option to participate in a study by conducting pre and post test about their attitudes and enjoyment toward science. The teachers will send home consent and assent forms (Appendices II and III) for students and parents to review and sign. It will be made clear that regardless of student’s participation in the TOSRA test, they will all be participating in the ecology workshop with Discovery Place.
The ecology unit will be taught to both the experimental and control group over a six week period. Students in the experimental group will follow the outline below. They will role play as scientist by collecting real data from their campus and surroundings while using tools that scientist utilize in the field. Activities such as observing the air quality around campus and testing the water quality will be implemented. The Raptor Center will also come in with a variety of wildlife to help students understand the importance of habitats in our community and what we can do to protect them.
The control group will do the same objectives but instead of students being actively engaged participants, the lessons will all be teacher-centered. Students will read about how scientists conduct water testing, soil testing, and air quality test to better understand the relevancy of these issues in relations to their communities. Students will look at pictures of animals that the teacher brings into the classroom. These pictures will consist of animals that are endangered or have become extinct. They will use the McDougal Little 6th grade textbook to learn the terminology by coping definitions and related lessons.
Ecology Unit for Experimental Group
Week One: The Hydrosphere
Water Testing- students test their water samples for impurities using dissolved Oxygen, nitrates, phosphates, and Coliform Bacteria tests.
Macroinvertebrate Study- students collect, identify and study macroinvertebrates for the purpose of monitoring overall stream health and water quality.
Week Two: The Lithosphere
Soil Sampling- students learn the proper techniques for soil collecting and sample for pH, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (or potash). Students then learn what the indicators mean and what those indicators tell us about soil quality and it’s ability to support plant life.
Decomposers- students learn how decomposers contribute to healthy soils and observe earth worm behaviors and characteristics up close.
Week Three: The Atmosphere
Air Quality Testing- students learn proper techniques for preparing agar plates and test air quality both inside and outside the school. Students will then incubate the plates and study the colony growth on both nutrient and starch agar plates.
Week Four: The Biosphere
Interconnectivity- students will perform quadrat studies to see how flora, fauna, and non-living thing interact within a specific plot.
Food Chains & Food Web Activity-
Visit from Carolina Raptor Center to demonstrate interdependence of organisms within the food chains of birds of prey.
Week Five: Population Ecology
Population Study- students will replicate the speckled moth natural selection experiment. They will learn about Dr. Kettlewell’s original observations and studies of the moths outside Manchester, England.
Week Six: Our Environment
Recycling and Environmental Awareness
Composting Activity
After the completion of the Ecology unit, both sets of students will be given the TOSRA again; this time as a post-test. Results of the post-test will be compared to the pre-test. This will allow us to analyze any changes in the students’ enjoyment of science and attitudes towards science classes. This data will provide any changes discovered between the experimental and control group and their attitudes towards science classes based on style of learning.
Results
The data for this study will be collected and analyzed for review following the 6 week unit on ecology. The conditions for collecting the data will be the same for both the control and experimental group. Pre and post test results will be displayed in a table. The researcher will find the mean and standard deviation of the pre and post test for each group. The data will be analyzed to verify if there is a significant difference between group means.
Pre-test
Post test
Significance of the Study
Assuming that the proposed hypothesis produces positive results within the experimental group in promoting positive attitudes towards science classes, this study could be very beneficial to educators across the country. Students will be more apt to have better attitudes about careers in science when using authentic lessons in the classrooms. Based on these findings, teachers can begin to incorporate lessons where students are able to learn new material as it relates to the world around them. Educators can develop workshops that train teachers how to incorporate the use of authentic lessons in all content areas, not just science. This study is essential to all teachers who have a hard time building a rapport and motivating students. Authentic lessons will provide both teacher and student opportunities to actively engage in lessons, while being immersed with one another in relevant lessons connected to real issues. This is evident in a student’s response to previous research, “I never thought that science could be so close to my daily life style” (Farris, 2008).
Expected Results
The data collected will pose a significant difference between post attitude scores between the experimental and control groups. There will be a positive change in the attitudes of the experimental group student’s towards science class. These results are in correlation with what was discovered in various literature reviews.
References
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Appendix II
PARENTAL CONSENT FOR STUDENT SURVEY
Dear Parent,
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools continues to be committed to providing students with comprehensive skills and education. Students enrolled in Academic enrichment will be asked to complete a survey during class time, once at the beginning of a particular unit of study, and again at the end of the unit of study. The survey will take approximately 40 minutes, and asks questions about your child’s enjoyment, attitudes and interests in science.
Research results will assist teachers by providing useful information. In order to develop better science education programs, educators must discover what students know and how they feel about science. The data collected will be used for research purposes to inform educators about specific science related attitudes held by students, which would be important to know when designing and delivering science curriculum. The survey results will be used for research purposes and could also be used to guide development of school programs in order to make science class more interesting and enjoyable for students.
Participation in this paper and pencil survey will pose little or no risk to any student. The survey has been designed to protect each student’s privacy.
Students will not put their names on the survey.
Students will never be mentioned by name in the reported results.
Students can skip any question that they do not wish to answer.
Students may stop participating in the survey at any point without penalty.
We would like for all students to take part in the survey, but the survey is voluntary and participation is anonymous.
Please read the section below. Please see the other side of this form for more facts about the survey.
I have read this form and know what the survey is about. My child has permission to participate in this survey.
Student’s name: ___________________________________ Grade: _______
Parent’s/Guardian’s
Signature: ___________________________________ Date: ________
Survey Information Sheet
Q. Why is the survey being done?
A. The survey results will help measure the effectiveness of a particular unit of study within the Earth and Environmental Science course. The survey results may also be used to make decisions about how to make science classes more interesting for students.
Q. Do students have to answer every survey question?
A. No. Students may choose to leave any answer blank on the answer sheet.
Q. Will students’ names be used or linked to the surveys?
A. No. The survey has been designed to protect each student’s privacy. Students do
not put their name on the survey.
Q. Do students take the survey more than once to see how their behaviors change?
A. Yes. By taking the survey at the beginning of a specific unit of study and again at the end of that unit, student responses can assist in measuring the effectiveness of this unit of study.
Appendix III
SURVEY ASSENT FORM
Dear Student,
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools continues to be committed to providing students with comprehensive skills and education. Your thoughts concerning what counts as science are important. To help solve environmental problems within our community we must first understand our thoughts and feelings concerning this problem. You are being given an opportunity to share your thoughts and feelings concerning a specific unit of study within Earth and Environmental Science in a written survey. The survey asks questions about your enjoyment, attitudes and interests in science.
The survey results will be used for research purposes and could also be used to guide development of school programs to help make science classes more interesting and meaningful for you.
Participation in this paper and pencil survey poses no risk to you.
The survey has been designed to protect your privacy.
You will not put your names on the survey.
You will not be mentioned by name in the reported results.
You can skip any question that you do not wish to answer.
You may stop participating in the survey at any point without penalty.
We would like for all students to take part in the survey, but the survey is voluntary and participation is anonymous.
I have read this form and know what the survey is about. I consent to participate in this survey.
For Researcher’s Information Only
Participant’s name: ___________________________________
Participant’s signature: ___________________________________
Date: ________
Survey Information Sheet
Q. Why is the survey being done?
A. The survey results will help measure the effectiveness of a particular unit of study within the Earth and Environmental Science course. The survey results may also be used to make decisions about how to make science classes more interesting for students.
Q. Do students have to answer every survey question?
A. No. Students may choose to leave any answer blank on the answer sheet.
Q. Will students’ names be used or linked to the surveys?
A. No. The survey has been designed to protect each student’s privacy. Students do
not put their name on the survey. When students finish the survey, they place the
survey in an envelope and seal it shut. The envelopes are then placed in a big
box and will be stored in a locked cabinet in the office of the researcher. Only
the principal investigator and his research staff will have access to the raw data.
Q. Do students take the survey more than once to see how their behaviors change?
A. Yes. By taking the survey at the beginning of a specific unit of study and again at the end of that unit, student responses can assist in measuring the effectiveness of this unit of study.