CarboOcean Bergen 08-10-2009 Carboschools+ What did students, teachers and scientists learn? Elma...

CarboOcean Bergen 08-10-2009

Carboschools+What did students, teachers and scientists learn?

Elma Dijkstra & Martin GoedhartDepartment of Education Faculty of Mathematics and Natural SciencesUniversity of Groningen


Aims of Carboschools+Key objective:

Establish partnerships between research institutes and schools in developing and conducting student projects on climate change

Related objectives:› Support scientists and teachers to establish

collaboration (co-production and exchange of tools, know-how, materials, methodologies at a European level)

› Inform and stimulate secondary school students to choose science careers

› Involve local players (school authorities, teacher associations, parents associations, teacher training institutes, science museums etc.)


PartnersBergen (N)Kiel (D)Jena (D)Bordeaux (F)Paris (F)Barcelona (Cat)Firenze (I)Norwich (UK)Groningen (NL)Associated partners:Cluj (Rom)Uppsala (S)Heidelberg (D)


Some activities› School CO2 web (NL + others)

› Sustainable agriculture (I)

› Marine research (D,N)


Aims of WP4 (evaluation)

› Evaluation of regional projects

› Impact of projects on ...- students’ attitudes towards science- students’ attitudes towards school science- students’ attitudes towards scientists- students’ attitudes towards climate change


Instruments of WP4

Three instruments

› Self Evaluation Tool

› Attitudes Questionnaires

› Interviews


Structure of Self Evaluation Tool (SET)

SET consists of three parts:

Part A (12 items)› Background characteristics (gender, birthyear, science

background etc.)

Part B (14 items)› Opinions on project (organization, enjoyment, difficulty,

impact).› Likert items: strongly disagree – disagree – agree – strongly

agree

Part C (4 essay questions)› Additional information about the project (suggestions to

improve etc.)

SET is translated to native language students


Results SET 2008-2009 Backgroundcharacteristics› 29 schools from 5 countries

› Total number of students who filled in SET = 585 (305 girls / 276 boys / 4 unknown)

› Age: 13 – 21 year (m = 16.5)

› Grades: 7 – 13 (m = 10.4)

› Time spent on the project: 1 – 100 hours per student (m = 25 hours)

UiB-BCCRBergen

Norway

MPI-BGCJena

Germany

CNR-IBIMETFirenze

Italy

LSCE-IPSLGif sur Yvette

France

IFM-GEOMARKiel

Germany

RuGGroningen

The Netherlands

Total

N = 63 N = 23 N = 157 N = 312 N = 28 N = 2 N = 585


Results SET 2008-2009 Science background characteristics

Most (at least 70%) of the students: - are interested in science topics

- found their grades for science subjects high

- do a lot of science at school

- like science lessons more than other lessons at school

- don’t think that scientists are boring

39% of the students found it difficult to understand scientists in general

Students are positive about science and scientists in general


Results SET 2008-2009 Organization of CS projects

- Projects were well organized (see table below)

- Overall opinion on projects was good

- Instructions for projects were clear for most (at least 70%) students

- Supervisor’s explanations helped most students to understand projects

Sample item: B1 (n = 581)

Strongly disagree

Disagree Agree Strongly agree

“This project was well organized.” 1.4% 14.4% 57.3% 26.3%


Results SET 2008-2009 Enjoyment of the CS projects- Students like learning science in this way (see table below)

- Most students (at least 70%) would like to work on projects like these more often

- Most students enjoyed the projects very much


Strongly disagree


“I like learning science in this way.”

3.1% 14.2% 53.5% 28.7%


Results SET 2008-2009 Difficulty of the CS projects

- Projects were not too difficult

- Most of the students (at least 70%) found their knowledge was sufficient to understand the projects (see table below)


Strongly disagree


“My knowledge was sufficient to understand this project.”

3.8% 24.4% 57.6% 13.5%


Results SET 2008-2009 Impact on students- The students learned many new things from the projects and from the

scientists

- The projects made the students understand that climate change studies are very important for human future and that people can affect climate change (see table below)

- The projects made 43% of the students more interested in choosing a scientific career

Example: B13 (n = 583)

Strongly disagree


“This project made me realize that people can affect climate change.”

3.1% 16.1% 53.2% 27.4%


Effect of background characteristics on opinionsGender: - Girls are slightly more positive about projects’ organization

than boys- Boys found the projects slightly less difficult than girls- Girls found they learned slightly more new things from the

projects than boys

Research institute & student age:

- Many differences, but those characteristics depend on projects


Effect of science background characteristics on opinionsSignificant (p < .05) correlations:

› Interest in science topics correlates positive with scientific career interest

› Enjoyment of science lessons correlates positive with scientific career interest

› High grades for science subjects correlate negative with projects’ difficulty

› Difficulty to understand scientists correlates negative with almost all evaluated aspects

› Opinion that scientists are boring correlates negative with all evaluated aspects


Conclusion Evaluation CS Projects 2008-2009

› Students are positive about the organization of projects, enjoyment and difficulty of projects, and projects’ impact

› SET reports give useful feedback to all regional coordinators on the projects


Attitudes Questionnaires (AQ)

Pretest (before project) & posttest (after project) to measure changing attitudes

Part Scale Number of items

Cronbach’s Alpha

A Background characteristics

12 -

B Attitudes School Science

Attitude towards School Science 7 .90

Science Attitude towards the Social Implications of Science Attitude towards Scientists Attitude towards a Career in Science

765

.74

.68

.86

Climate Change

Attitudes towards Climate Change Environmental Awareness

68

.76

.77

C Climate Change Knowledge Test

12 -


AQ sample itemsScale Sample item

B Attitude towards School Science “Science lessons are fun.”

B Attitude towards the Social Implications of Science

“Science helps to make life better.”

B Attitude towards Scientists “Scientists are less friendly than other people.”

B Attitude towards a Career in Science “A job as scientist would be interesting.”

B Attitudes towards Climate Change “Climate change is a threat to the world.”

B Environmental Awareness “I feel it’s important to take good care of the environment.”

C Climate Change Knowledge Test “Because of climate change certain plants and animals may become extinct.” “If my city will have a heat wave this summer, it means climate is changing.”Scores part B:

strongly disagree – disagree – neutral – agree – strongly agree

Scores part C: true – false – don’t know


InterviewsAim: to give additional information on the implementation of the

projects in the schools and the curricula

› constraints with realizing projects within the school programme› relation between the projects and the curriculum› the role scientists may play in cooperation with schools from the

perspective of teachers and scientists

Interviews with:

› Students› School teachers› Scientists› Regional coordinators


Thank you for your attention

A7 My interest in science topics is low

A8 My grades for science subjects are high

A9 We do a lot of science at school

A10 I like science lessons more than other lessons at school

A11 It is difficult to understand scientists

A12 Most scientists are boring

B1 This project was well organized. -,23

B2 I enjoyed this project very much. -,19 -,18 -,34

B3 I learned many new things from this project. -,15 ,09 ,13 -,15 -,30

B4 This project was too difficult. ,19 -,14 ,26 ,24

B5 The instructions for the project were clear. -,16

B6 This project made me understand climate change studies are very important for human future.

-,13 -,19

B7 I would like to work on projects like this more often.

-,17 ,08 -,12 ,10 -,24 -,30

B8 I like learning science in this way. -,14 ,10 ,16 -,17 -,23

B9 The supervisor's explanations helped me to understand this project.

-,10 ,15 ,13 -,12 -,15

B10 My overall opinion on this project is good. -,12 ,14 -,11 -,29

B11 My knowledge was sufficient to understand this project.

-,19 ,18 ,11 -,16 -,11

B12 I learned very much from the scientist(s) in this project.

,10 -,10 -,21

B13 This project made me realize that people can affect climate change.

-,10 -,18

B14 This project makes me more interested in choosing a scientific career.

-,27 ,16 ,32 -,19 -,30

CarboOcean Bergen 08-10-2009 Carboschools+ What did students, teachers and scientists learn? Elma...

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