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The purpose of this work was to create a framework for the design of a hands-on approach to explore environmental issues in Puerto Rico with emphasis on endangered species. The product of the action research is a curriculum for children, ages seven to eleven consisting of fourteen formal lessons and twenty-three informal lessons that focus on ten chosen endangered species of Puerto Rico. The framework created in this study is based on the Environmental Education Goal developed in the Belgrade Workshop that took place in Yugoslavia in 1975. A theoretical framework for the curriculum design was presented as Chapter III of the dissertation. It included a description of the historical background of the island of Puerto Rico. It also presents a general historical review that identified specific moments in the history of education in Puerto Rico and general information about the science curriculum on the Island. The hands-on curriculum in Spanish for Puerto Rican children, ages seven to eleven, was developed as part of the study and was presented as Chapter IV. The chapter addressed environmental issues pertaining to ten specific endangered species from Puerto Rico and included fourteen formal lessons and twenty-three informal. The ten endangered species included in the study are the following:(UNFORMATTED TABLE OR EQUATION FOLLOWS)$$\vbox{\halign{#\hfil&&\quad#\hfil\cr$\underline{\rm Scientific\ Name}$&$\underline{\rm Common\ Name}$\cr\cr Amphiphous:\cr {\it Eleutherodactylus jasperi}& Golden Coqu\'\i\cr\cr Birds:\cr {\it Falco peregrinus tundrius}& Arctic Peregrine Falcon\cr\cr {\it Pelecanus o. occidentalis}& Brown Pelican\cr\cr {\it Charadrius alexandrinus-}\cr {\it tenuirostris} & Piping Plover\cr\cr Plants:\cr {\it Cyathea dryopteroides} (Fern)& Helecho Arb\'oreo del Bosque\cr & Enano\cr\cr {\it Stahlia monosperma} (Tree)& C\'obana Negra\cr\cr {\it Ternstroemia luquillensis} (Tree) & Palo Colorado\cr\cr {\it Cassia mirabilis} (Shrub)& $\surd$\cr\cr Reptiles:\cr {\it Chelonia mydas} & Green Sea Turtle\cr\cr {\it Cyclura stejnegeri} & Mona Ground Iguana\cr}}$$(TABLE/EQUATION ENDS) ftn$\surd$ = Some species do not have common name.

A United States organization, called the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), was initiated to strengthen the pedagogy of teaching and, subsequently, improve student achievement. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of the NBPTS in terms of whether National Board Certified (NBC) teachers are effective in promoting positive classroom environments and student attitudes and in enhancing student achievement. The sample consisted of 927 Grade 8 and 10 science students from 12 secondary schools. Altogether, 443 students in 21 classes comprised the NBC teacher group and 484 students in 17 classes comprised the non-NBC teacher group. Students completed a learning environment questionnaire, the What Is Happening In this Class? (WIHIC), and an attitude scale based on the Test Of Science-Related Attitude (TOSRA). Scores from the science portion of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test FCAT, a state-mandated examination, were collected to measure achievement. This research is unique in that it is the first time that a learning environments study has included a sample of National Board Certified (NBC) and non-NBC teachers in order to compare their effectiveness in terms of secondary students' perceptions of their science learning environment, attitudes toward science, and science achievement. The study revealed that the revised version of the WIHIC and the modified attitude scale are valid and reliable instruments for assessing perceptions of the classroom environment and attitudes toward science among secondary science students in Miami-Dade County, Florida. / In addition, a much stronger association with learning environment was found for students' attitude than for students' achievement. The contributions and significance of this study are not only that it adds to the area of research that pertains to the efficacy of NBC teachers, but it also adds to the field of learning environments research. This study is useful because it could be replicated to provide additional empirical evidence about the effect National Board teachers have on students in the classroom and add to the growth of educational data on the impact of National Teacher Certification and classroom learning environments research.

This thesis reports a computational corpus study of textbooks used in high school science programs in Queensland, Australia. The central research issues concern: 1. how textbook authors deploy linguistic resources in representing scientific knowledge; 2. whether or not authors deploy linguistic resources differently across the disciplines of science, and for younger and older readers; and, 3. whether or not variation in the deployment of linguistic resources can be interpreted in terms of the processes and mechanisms for establishing reliable and valid scientific knowledge. The thesis first summarises theoretical debates concerning the nature and teaching of science. An extended discussion, in the form of a case study of Galileo's work on motion, is presented, along with examples of how the 'Galileo story' has been revised and modified into popular and professional / educational imagination. This discussion thaws out critical points about the relationships between science as an observational and empirical activity and science as an abstract and intellectual activity. This is contrasted with educational constructivist accounts of learning and pedagogy, and how constructivist pedagogy is influenced by constructivist accounts of the doing of science. The data collection and analysis methods are then described in detail. A variety of tagging and marking techniques relating to vocabulary, logical formation and connection words, and grammatical formations are used. These provide the bases for a variety of frequency and collocational analyses, which, in turn, feed into a series of multivariate analyses. After presenting a descriptive overview of the corpus of textbooks, the results are reported in four chapters. Each chapter considers one linguistic resource in turn: vocabulary diversity, lexical organisation, words used to establish logical and structural formations, and grammatical organisation. These chapters show that there is systematic variation in authors deployment of linguistic resources, and that variation with respect to one linguistic resource is associated with variation with respect to the others. In particular, when scientific knowledge is presented through elaboration, persuasion, and description, there is little or no underlying structure to the phenomena being discussed, or there are few or no underlying concepts to which authors can return as their discussions progress. Alternatively, when scientific knowledge is presented in terms of rules, statements, procedures, and arrangements, the content of a topic is structured around a small number of underlying and uni~ing concepts. The contrast is between a loosely structured science that is descriptive, factual and observational, and a highly structured science that is for the most part theoretical. Furthermore, authors selectivity in their deployment of linguistic resources is associated with the major scientific disciplines. The suggestion is that the contents of Biology and Geology, with only a loose structure or no structure to the contents underlying concepts, are presented through elaboration, persuasion, and description, whereas the contents of Physics and Chemistry, structured around a small number of underlying and uni~ing concepts, are presented in terms of rules, statements, procedures, and arrangements. The thesis concludes that what is missing in textbook accounts that embody naive empiricism is the discernment evident in Galileos work: when, how and with what cost to 'simplify' the experiential world, and how to add back to theoretical accounts the complexities of the experiential world. It is an understanding of these processes and the ways in which they can be displayed and developed in classrooms that could better inform the preparation of science teachers as well as laying a stronger base for high school programs.

Thesis (M.S.)--California Polytechnic State University, 2009. / Title from PDF title page; viewed on January 12, 2010. Major professor: Clinton Staley, Ph.D. "Presented to the faculty of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo." "In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree [of] Master of Science in Computer Science." "December 2009." Includes bibliographical references (p. 89-91).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Baylor University, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 126-132)