Receive practical ideas to build understanding about how to combine reading and hands-on activities as tools to understand the nature of wave movement.

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Geotourism is becoming more popular and can play a critical role in creating literacy in communities. Moreover, the Big Ideas of the Earth Science Literacy Initiative can be used within signage to address literacy. Because all citizens should have a basic knowledge of Earth Science in order to make informed decisions that relate to Earth Science, geotourism can be used as a way to increase Earth Science knowledge, along with other positive outcomes related to communities' increased well-being. A careful investigation of N=59 geosites reveals that signage can be used to increase this knowledge but that there is a deficit in the number and quality of the signage present at some of these sites. A gap has been uncovered regarding the efforts to teach Earth Science

Abstract This thesis investigates the use of socioscientific issues (SSI) in the high school science classroom as an introduction to argumentation and socioscientific reasoning, with the goal of improving students' scientific literacy (SL). Current research is reviewed that supports the likelihood of students developing a greater conceptual understanding of scientific theories as well as a deeper understanding of the nature of science (NOS), through participation in informal and formal forms of argumentation in the context of SSI. Significant gains in such understanding may improve a student's ability to recognize the rigor, legitimacy, and veracity of scientific claims and better discern science from pseudoscience. Furthermore, students that participate in significant SSI instruction by negotiating a range of science-related social issues can make significant gains in content knowledge and develop the life-long skills of argumentation and evidence-based reasoning, goals not possible in traditional lecture-based science instruction. SSI-based instruction may therefore help students become responsible citizens. This synthesis also suggests that that the improvements in science literacy and NOS understanding that develop from sustained engagement in SSI-based instruction will better prepare students to examine and scrutinize socially controversial scientific theories (i.e., evolution, global warming, and the Big Bang).

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (2000) reports an achievement gap between male and female students and majority and minority students in science literacy. Rutherford and Ahlgren (2000) describe a scientifically literate person as one who is aware that science, mathematics, and technology are interdependent human enterprises with strengths and limitations; understands key concepts and principles of science; is familiar with the natural world and recognizes both its diversity and unity; and uses scientific knowledge and scientific ways of thinking for individual and social purposes. The purpose of this qualitative case study research was to investigate African American eighth grade female students’ perceptions and experiences as learners of science literacy. A social learning theory (Bandura, 1986) and constructivist theory (Vygotsky, 1977) served as a guide for the researcher. Two questions were explored: 1. What are African American eighth grade female students’ perceptions and experiences as learners of science literacy? 2. In what ways do the perceptions and experiences of African American eighth grade female students influence their learning of science literacy? Purposeful sampling (Merriam, 1998) was used with four African American eighth grade female students selected as participants for the study. Data collection and analysis occurred between Feburary and August in a single year. Data sources included an open-ended questionnaire, two in-depth interviews with each participant (Seidman, 1991); classroom observations, participant reflective journals, student artifacts, and a researcher’s log. Data were analyzed through the constant comparative method (Glaser & Strauss, 1967), and richly descriptive participant portraits and qualitative case studies (Merriam, 1998) were used to report the findings. Three themes emerged from the study that positively affected the perceptions and experiences of African American eighth grade female students as learners of science literacy: 1) the influence of family members, especially mothers and grandmothers, 2) the personal connections made to science concepts and real life, 3) the creative student-researched and designed projects, labs, and experiments.Trustworthiness and rigor were established through adherence to guidelines for establishing credibility, confirmability, dependability, and transferability (Lincoln & Guba, 1985).

This dissertation examines college student understanding and attitudes toward biological evolution. In ethnographic work, I followed a cohort of 31 students through their required introductory biology class. In interviews, students discuss their life history with the concept - in school, at home, at church, and in their communities. For some Creationist students, confronting evolution in class has meant confronting existential issues regarding both the basis of science and the basis of faith. For other Creationist students, claims of evolution's theoretical strength are eschewed for its direct challenge to their worldview. For most students, science holds minimal interest against other values in their lives. Faculty and policy makers decry this as poor American science literacy which demands change. This work illustrates the gap between "ideal science literacy", and the everyday practices which result in half of Americans rejecting evolution as sound science.

This study investigated validity evidence for the Science Literacy Assessment, an instrument designed to assess middle school students’ ability to think scientifically as well as their motivation and beliefs about science (Fives, Huebner, Birnbaum, & Nicolich, 2014). Specifically, three sources of evidence were considered; internal structure, concurrent criterion-related, and predictive criterion-related. Exploratory factor analysis was utilized to examine the underlying factor structure of each of the instrument’s two components, motivation and beliefs related to science and demonstrated scientific literacy. Pearson product-moment correlations were calculated to determine the relationship between scores on the motivation and belief component of the Science Literacy Assessment and two instruments widely used to assess students’ attitudes toward science, the Modified Attitudes Toward Science Inventory (Weinburg & Steele, 2000), and the STEM Career Interest Survey (Kier, Blanchard, Osborne, & Albert, 2014). Finally, the extent to which scores on the Science Literacy Assessment predict scores on a general science knowledge instrument was assessed with the use of bivariate linear regression. Results suggested that, for the middle school student sample, the Science Literacy Assessment has appropriate psychometric properties for use with middle school students. Due to an insufficient high school sample size, validity evidence for this group was inconclusive.

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The vision of this project, Science and LIteraCy in Education (SLICE) seeks to enable grades 4-12 STEM and Literacy teachers to reach for excellence in elementary, middle and high school STEM and Literacy education through Hands-on, Standards-based, Project-based and Technology-based (HSPT-based) learning environments. The outlined project assists region-wide elementary, middle and high school teachers to (1) gain a deeper understanding of the subject matter, (2) connect Practices between Common Core State Standards in Literacy and Math, and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), and (3) utilize cross-cutting concepts promoted in NGSS to integrate the disciplines of STEM and Literacy. The project represents a partnership among 120 Grades 4-12 STEM and Literacy teachers from fifteen school districts in Tennessee: Hawkins (Lead), Bristol, Carter, Cocke, Elizabethton, Greene, Greeneville, Johnson City, Johnson County, Newport, Kingsport, Rogersville, Sullivan, Unicoi and Washington; six business partners (Ballad Health, Cooper Standard, Domtar, Eastman, Nuclear Fuel Services and ZF-TRW); ETSU Colleges of Arts and Sciences and Education, School of Graduate Studies and Northeast Tennessee Innovation STEM Hub. This opportunity provides a chance for teachers from surrounding districts to join with STEM and Literacy faculty and professionals to form a strong professional learning community focused on the integration of STEM and Literacy.

We will offer ideas to build knowledge about using reading and hands-on activities as tools to increase student understanding of heat, energy, and matter.