Scholarworks
ScholarWorks is an open access repository for the capture of the intellectual work of Montana State University (MSU) in support of its teaching, research and service missions. MSU ScholarWorks is a central point of discovery for accessing, collecting, sharing, preserving, and distributing knowledge to the Montana State University community and the world.
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Improving student literacy through science teaching techniques: through analyzing real-world informational text
(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2024) Olmstead, Aislee Erin; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: C. John Graves
The purpose of this action research project was to determine the impact of scientific reading on student overall literacy levels. Given low literacy levels in middle school age students in Colstrip Montana, this project began to assess to what extent does the implementation of case study reading in a science classroom impact student literacy rate. This project included benchmark data from state testing to assess levels prior to and post treatment in the classroom. Eighth grade students were broken into two groups for this project, one was the treatment group, and the other was the non-treatment group. Over the course of the school year, treatment group students in the general 8th grade science classroom increased their reading assignments to include scientific journals, case studies and current scientific events. Following each scientific reading, students would complete a Likert scale to determine their understanding level and engagement for each reading. Students also completed guided journaling assignments that were used to understand the impact that the scientific readings had on their comprehension. Prior to treatment there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups of students. Post treatment STAR scores were taken to assess overall literacy growth. This led to the conclusion that students in the treatment group increased slightly in the subsection of informational text reading of the STAR test. Students in the non-treatment group did not have this increase.
How participating in climate action projects affects students' understandings and perspectives about global climate change
(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2024) Rose, Julia Renee; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: C. John Graves
I recognized I have avoided teaching climate change as an entire unit due to the uncomfortable nature of the subject and the fear of push-back from both students and parents. I also recognized the students in my district have had little to no exposure to climate science in any curriculum and understand that, if our goal is to support scientific literacy in our students, climate literacy needs to be a part of the program. I developed a climate science unit for four physical science classes which included the science behind climate change, investigations into climate solutions and participation in climate action projects. Research has shown that participation in climate action helps to improve attitudes regarding climate change. I wanted to find out how student understandings and perspectives about climate change might improve following the implementation of the unit. Students took pre- and post-surveys regarding their understanding of climate trends, cause and effects of climate change, their own perspectives of climate change, and their levels of interest in taking action regarding climate change. Other data was collected through pre- and post-focus group interviews, student reflections to prompts at different stages of the unit development, teacher journaling and communication with a collaborating teacher. Overall, student responses from the surveys, interviews, and reflections showed an increased understanding and appreciation for the impacts of climate change. A notable improvement was seen in the number of students who understood that current global climate change is not caused by natural processes. A second notable improvement was in the number of students who felt empowered to take actions to help reduce climate change. It is difficult to determine the impact that participating in the climate action projects alone had on student attitudes about climate change, but the gains I saw give me encouragement to incorporate this unit into my curriculum and to share what I have learned with colleagues to develop a cross-curricular approach to global climate change.
The matrix that schools work within to execute overnight field trips at Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center
(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2024) Pavlisich, Charles Jacob; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: C. John Graves
In the world of Residential Environmental Learning Centers (RELCs), our existence hinges on the attendance of students via visiting school groups. Whether a school visits or not often comes down to the effort and will of one or few teachers from each school willing to organize the trip. How teachers and schools organize, fund, and plan trips to RELCs is understudied. This research looked into Lead Teacher preparation efforts, funding acquisition, and compensation, as well as the barriers faced in executing a successful visit to Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center in Finland, MN. It was found that teachers spend on average 38 hours planning and on average received 381 dollars in compensation, though 68% of Lead Teachers received no compensation. They found funding for the trip through piecing together money from fundraising, grants, scholarships, and donations to pay for the trip and major challenges faced such as high bussing costs, lack of outdoor equipment for students and finding volunteer chaperone. How schools overcome these limitations and barriers often hinges on the support of the community, teachers, as well as federal and state programs.
The effects of CASEL based SEL lessons on a middle school science classroom
(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2024) Scherer-Wojahn, Orianna Lynn; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: C. John Graves
Middle school years are often filled with significant academic, social, emotional, and routine based changes for many students. These struggles were exacerbated by COVID-19, which caused major gaps in social, emotional, and academic development. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to determine if content-based bellringers could be replaced with social emotional learning discussions to improve three areas of student success in a middle school science classroom: social and emotional success, behavioral success, and academic success. To understand the changes in student success, a control and treatment unit were compared to one another. During the treatment unit, the typical content-based bellringers were replaced by SEL prompts and discussions. Pre- and post-assessment data were collected for both units, Likert student reflection surveys were conducted at the end of both units, observational behavior data was collected during both units, and a student questionnaire was completed at the end of the study. The assessment data indicated a decrease in academic growth throughout the treatment unit compared to the control unit, while both behavioral data and responses to the questionnaires and surveys suggested the treatment unit had no significant impact on social and emotional, or behavioral success in the classroom. Multiple students reflected that although they thought the SEL discussions were useful, they didn't learn anything that they didn't already know. Additionally, the lack of content-based bellringers seemed to significantly impact their academic success in a negative way. Based on both qualitative and quantitative data, it appears that replacing content-based bellringers with SEL discussions is not a justifiable way to implement SEL in a middle school classroom.
Citizen science project impact on students' motivation, attitude, and self efficacy in their chosen career
(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2024) Myron, Jessica Leigh; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: C. John Graves
As a graduate teaching assistant for a calculus based physics two, my students in the past have expressed to me that they don't feel they belong in their major and that they wish they could start research sooner. I designed this study that aimed to increase student motivation, attitude, and self-efficacy in their chosen career, to do so I gauged the impact of student participation in an active citizen science project of their choice. Citizen science is where professional scientists create a research project and volunteers then aid scientists by collecting data, analyzing data, conducting experiments, discovering something new, and helping solve real world problems. To determine this impact a pre and post project survey was administered in a three-week time frame, students also filled out a project report and participated in an optional interview. I used a mean, median, and mode analysis of the Likert data, a Chi-Square test of independence to determine statistical significance of that Likert data, and emerging thematic analysis of the qualitative data. The results show that there is a slight positive impact for the mean of the data there is a 12.5% increase in motivation, an 8.8% increase in attitude, and a 7.5% increase in self-efficacy, but based on the Chi-Square test these impacts are not statistically significant. Based on emerging thematic analysis of the qualitative data the evidence shows no impact in student motivation, attitude, and self-efficacy emphasizing the Chi-Square test showing no statistical significance. Two major themes from the data emerged, that there were no significant changes towards their major, and that the project was interesting and fun, but not completely relevant to their major. Overall based on the three analysis forms I believe there is no significant impact on the students, but there was still an overall positive experience and open students' eyes to different types of research and the citizen science community.