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It is the purpose of this thesis to determine the science interests of the pupils of the North Elementary School of Odessa, Texas, during the school year of 1940-1941.

Lo Suet-yee. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 143-153). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstracts --- p.i-iii / Acknowledgements --- p.iv / Chapter Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1. 1 --- Emergence of Primary Science Education and the General Development of Science Curriculum in the World / Chapter 1.2 --- Literature Review of Development of Primary Science Curriculumin Hong Kong / Chapter 1.3 --- The Organization of This Study / Chapter Chapter 2 --- Historical Review of the Hong Kong Primary School System and Major Research Concerns of This Study --- p.8 / Chapter 2.1 --- "Historical Review of Primary Schooling and its Political, Social, and Economic Context" / Chapter 2.2 --- Curriculum Decision-Making in Hong Kong Primary Schooling / Chapter 2.3 --- Concluding Remarks / Chapter 2.4 --- Major Research Concerns of This Study / Chapter Chapter 3 --- Literature Review --- p.29 / Chapter 3.1 --- Functionalist Theory / Chapter 3.2 --- Conflict Theory / Chapter 3.3 --- Institutionalist Theory / Chapter Chapter 4 --- Methodological Approach --- p.56 / Chapter 4.1 --- Official Syllabi of Primary Science Curriculum / Chapter 4.2 --- Government Document on Educational and Curricular Policies / Chapter 4.3 --- Documentary Analysis / Chapter 4.4 --- Limitations of My Study / Chapter Chapter 5 --- Historical Analysis of Primary Science Curriculum in Hong Kong --- p.63 / Chapter 5.1 --- Historical Review of Primary Science Curriculum in Hong Kong / Chapter 5.2 --- Analysis of Educational Aims / Chapter 5.3 --- Analysis of Pedagogy / Chapter 5.4 --- Analysis of Educational Content / Chapter 5.5 --- "Summary of the Evolving Pattern of Primary Science Curriculum: Aims, Pedagogy, and Educational Content" / Chapter 5.6 --- Historical Changes of the Primary Science Curriculum and Assessment of Major Sociological Perspectives / Chapter 5.7 --- Some Concluding Remarks / Chapter Chapter 6 --- The Role of Government in the Development of Primary Science Curriculum --- p.115 / Chapter 6.1 --- Development of Discourses in Education and Curriculum / Chapter 6.2 --- Concluding Remarks / Chapter Chapter 7 --- Conclusion --- p.139 / Chapter 7.1 --- Sociological Implications of Curricular Changes / Chapter 7.2 --- Limitations of This Study / Chapter 7.3 --- Agenda for Further Research / Bibliography --- p.143

In response to the federal legislation No Child Left Behind, schools across the country implemented required reading programs for classroom instruction. Open Court's Reading program meets this criterion for many schools. The text in Open Court Reading for grades two and three was evaluated for science and social science content standards that would be supportive of environmental education. Supplemental lessons from Project Learning Tree, Project WILD, and Project WET were identified.

The purpose of this research was to learn more about the uses and benefits of educational robotics in an elementary school curriculum.

published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

School gardens can have a profound, positive influence on a student's academic achievement, social skills, and attitudinal orientation. Despite these clear benefits, the use of school gardens as an instructional medium is not as prevalent as would be expected. There are several types of obstacles that can prevent teachers from using school gardens, including facets of time, support, and knowledge-based challenges. This multiple case study employs a mixed methods design to uncover factors that influence primary school teachers' decisions to utilize a school garden in their STEM curriculum. The goals of this study were to determine the types of benefits and barriers primary school teachers encountered in the study school district. All of the teacher participants worked within the same school district, had access to established school gardens on their campus, and were supported in their instruction and use of materials by the district's Science and Technology Center (STC). Quantitative data was collected from garden resource and teacher self-efficacy surveys; qualitative data about teacher rationales was extracted from in-depth teacher interviews. Overall analyses determined that aspects of instruction and logistics were the most important factors for a teacher to have in her decision to utilize her school garden. These data are presented and discussed in the context of identifying trends in teachers' use of school gardens as instructional tools so that actions might be taken to remove barriers and increase curriculum opportunities.

The purpose of this study was to assess whether guided practice is more effective than no guided practice (1) in fifth and sixth grade classrooms, (2) in fifth and sixth grade social studies classrooms and fifth and sixth grade science classrooms, and (3) in science classrooms and social studies classrooms. In this experimental study, all fifth and sixth grade students in a small school district in north Texas were randomly assigned to two experimental groups and two control groups in each grade. Over the course of one month two teachers who had previously been trained in the use of guided practice procedures taught the experimental groups in each grade, using, extensive guided practice. Two other teachers taught the control groups in each grade without the use of guided practice. Students in both groups were administered a pretest before beginning each of two chapters in each textbook, while a posttest was administered after the study of each chapter. The analysis and interpretation of data yielded the conclusions that the use of guided practice in classes can be expected to result in higher student achievement than in classes using little or no guided practice in the following areas: science classes, social studies classes, sixth grade classes in general, fifth grade classes in general, fifth grade science classes, and fifth grade social studies classes. The use of guided practice did not result in significant gains in student achievement in sixth grade science classes and sixth grade social studies classes when compared with classes which used little or no guided practice.

The purpose of this study was to gather information about how students learn the foundational concept of conservation of matter during a non-chemistry unit on the rock cycle. The unit covered the rock cycle, rock types, and the law of conservation of matter and took place in a sixth grade classroom of 30 students. A mixed methods, quasi-experimental, pre-post, delayed post design was used to measure student understanding of the concept of conservation of matter as it relates to the rock cycle. Students made significant learning gains from pre-test to post-test and showed mastery in less complex subject areas, but struggled to learn the more complex concept of conservation of matter. More research is needed in order to gain a greater understanding of how students learn difficult foundational concepts such as conservation of matter, and how they are able to apply their understanding across disciplines in science. This study offers suggestions for future work including a series of questions to assess student misconceptions about matter, and how to use those questions to measure students' ability to transfer knowledge to different learning contexts. The recommended questions ask students to transfer knowledge from the conservation of matter as it applies to the rock cycle to chemistry concepts including conservation of matter, mass and volume.

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