Theses and Dissertations at Montana State University (MSU)
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Item Science service learning : learning in deed(Montana State University - Bozeman, Graduate School, 2013) Glass, Lelia "Dale" Soutter; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Peggy Taylor.Many schools require community service, yet students work at a food bank or stream clean-up without understanding causes or solutions for the issues they encounter. Since students learn best when they make connections between scientific concepts and real-world issues that interest them, integrated science service learning is an effective and engaging way to teach. My fifth grade students at National Presbyterian School in Washington, DC learned about climate change through a service learning project to help the environment on campus. My class of 28 fifth-graders investigated environmental variables affecting our campus. They brainstormed ways they could help the environment and decided to focus on reducing idling in the school carpool lane. Students researched the relationship between automobile exhaust and climate change, acid rain, and health. Students crafted a tally sheet to record the number of cars and their idling times. Over an average week with pleasant weather, 35 of 165 cars (22%) which arrived early for carpool idled for a total of 509 minutes. This put out 75 kg of the greenhouse gas, CO ₂, and cost $34.00 in fuel. Students used this research to develop an anti-idling campaign, which they presented to the whole student body and posted on the school website and e-newsletter. Students showed improvement on climate science knowledge and realized typical or better marks on benchmark assessments. They also became more confident in their knowledge, moving from an average 3 before the project to an average 8.5 afterwards on a 10-point Likert scale. Students also demonstrated a change in their view of science. Before the project they drew chemists with bubbling test tubes but after the project they drew themselves as a variety of different scientists helping to solve problems in the world. This project attests that science service learning can make science more concrete and relatable, teaching students not only about the concepts and techniques of science, but its role as a tool for the public good.Item What are the effects of science outreach by college students with elementary school children?(Montana State University - Bozeman, Graduate School, 2011) Knutson-Person, JoDean Lynn; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Peggy Taylor.This project focused on developing a service learning group of college students to do science outreach with elementary students as a win-win opportunity to increase the content knowledge of all the students involved, give the college students the opportunity to empower the elementary students, and fulfill some of the needs of the college awareness program at an elementary school. Analysis of this project was completed using results from pre- and post-outreach experience questionnaires as a way to establish demographic information of the participants, get comparative awareness and interest of college and science information, and find some common points to make connections between the groups of students. Questionnaires were also used for the classroom teachers to understand how outreach benefited their classroom. Journals were utilized with college students as well as wrap-up meetings after each outreach experience in order to document personal experiences both as a mentor as well as students growing in their own content mastery. I also kept notes of the experience from my viewpoint.Item The impact of service-learning on 'at risk' high school biology students(Montana State University - Bozeman, Graduate School, 2011) Dayton-Wolf, Joann; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Peggy Taylor.Students who may not graduate with their peer cohort are deemed "at risk." This investigation studied the effect of service- learning on attendance, attitude, and achievement of at- risk high school biology students. Students participated in two community service- learning projects: raising trout for release into local streams and/or implementing a vegetable garden on high school property. Data collected included attendance records of students both prior to the projects and during the projects. Surveys and interviews were conducted to assess the confidence factor, and pre- and post-project content questions were administered to assess the achievement portion of the research. An improvement in confidence or attitude was documented, but it did not correlate to a significant improvement in attendance or achievement. Therefore, the results are inconclusive and indicate a longer-term study is warranted.