Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Availability

Open Access Thesis

Keywords

Science--Study and teaching (Secondary); Science--Public opinion; High school students--Attitudes;

Abstract

There exist a multitude of global issues in the 21st century that can be addressed with the scientific process. In response to these dilemmas, there are a number of education initiatives that aim to raise interest in science careers. This study provides an evaluation for one such effort. Over 200 students from 4 different high schools and 4 teachers were presented with a pre to post survey to measure the impact of Research Experience for Teachers (RET) curricula. High school science teachers participated in a research experience, created curriculum with a scientist, taught the content in their classrooms, and distributed the survey instruments before and after the teachings. The surveys included questions addressing perceptions of scientists and science careers. The findings showed statistically significant differences pre to post for quantitative student survey responses. Qualitative student responses were categorized and compared pre to post for three different questions. Students had a statistically significant change in understanding of where scientists perform their work. Further pre to post student survey analysis indicated science perception differences between male and female respondents, prompting a need for further research. This report includes no significant findings for the teacher responses, potentially due to a low sample size. Suggestions for curriculum design and RET program structure are discussed, as well as the need for future studies to include a larger sample size and a slightly modified survey instrument to account for habituation bias.

Year of Submission

2017

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Education

Department

Science Education Program

First Advisor

Lyn Countryman

Date Original

2017

Object Description

1 PDF file (viii, 82 pages)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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