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The purpose of this research was to examine the effects of a co-curricular program on the behavior of seriously emotionally disturbed (SED) middle school students. Co-curricular activities are any school-based activities that give students an opportunity to blend the various aspects of their academic learning with personal actions. This was an action research study conducted in a middle school special education program. The participants were 10 middle school students identified as seriously emotionally disturbed. These students participated in the planning and evaluation of their involvement in co-curricular activities during this year long study. Participant observations, interviews, student and staff journals, and documentary evidence provided data for the development of case records. The study generated the following results: Participation in co-curricular activities increased the sense of belonging for these students at this middle school. Seriously emotionally disturbed students reported that adult mentors significantly influenced their level of success. Seriously emotionally disturbed students had higher grade point averages and better attendance and fewer disciplinary issues during this study. During co-curricular activities, these students demonstrated leadership, thinking, communication, and cooperative learning skills that were not apparent in the regular classroom settings. Seriously emotionally disturbed students responded favorably to a solution-focused model of education. Parents reported that their students engaged in more leisure activities involving peers outside school, and were easier to live with at home. Students identified the privilege of participating in co-curricular activities as motivating them to minimize their past use of counter-productive social strategies during interactions with peers and adults. Latino students found it difficult to participate in activities with Anglos if other Latinos did not view the activity as acceptable. The primary implication of this research for schools is that co-curricular programs appeared to increase the sense of belonging for middle school SED students which influenced more positive social and academic behaviors. / Graduation date: 1999

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

This guide was developed to provide a hands-on, interdisciplinary curriculum, based on children's literature for grades four through six. It is a resource for teachers incorporating environmental education into their regular curriculum, revolving around a common theme, trees.

The project is an activity based, interdisciplinary curriculum for a simulated outdoor camp that occurs primarily within the elementary classroom. The purpose of the camp is to increase the students' level of awareness of and appreciation for the outdoors.

This research concerns the development and testing of a new type of introductory astronomy curriculum material called ranking tasks. Ranking tasks are a novel form of conceptual exercise in which students are presented with (usually) pictures or diagrams that describe up to six slightly different variations of a basic physical situation. Students are then asked to make a comparative judgment identifying the order or ranking of the various situations based on some physical outcome or result. These exercises are easily incorporated as collaborative group activities into the traditional lecture-based classroom. This study developed design guidelines for ranking tasks based on several learning theories and classroom pilot studies. A single-group repeated measures experiment was then conducted using eight key introductory astronomy topics with 250 students at the University of Arizona in the Fall of 2004. Our research questions were: * Do in-class collaborative ranking task exercises result in student conceptual gains when incorporated into traditional lecture-based instruction? * Are these gains significant in terms of effect size measures commonly used in education research? * What value do students perceive in the use of in-class ranking tasks exercises? The study found that average assessment test scores across the eight astronomy topics increased from 32% on the start-of-semester pretest to 61% after traditional lecture, to 77% after the ranking task exercises. A mixed factors ANOVA confirmed a significant rise in test scores after the ranking tasks (alpha = 0.05). The average normalized gain on the post-ranking task tests was 0.41, with a Cohen’s d effect size of 0.62 which is described in the literature as moderately large. Interestingly, we found that the normalized gain from the ranking tasks was equal to the entire previous gain from traditional instruction. A repeated-factor ANOVA found that the use of ranking tasks equally benefited both genders and also both high and low-scoring median groups on the pretest. A Lickert-scale attitude survey found that 83% of the students participating in the 16 week study believed that the ranking task exercises helped their understanding of core astronomy concepts. Based on these results, we assert that adding collaborative ranking task exercises to a traditional classroom instruction can significantly improve student understanding of key introductory astronomy concepts. / Mathematical Sciences / Ph. D. (Mathematics, Science and Technology Education (Astronomy Education))

Many environmental educators have realized that in order to effectively teach environmental sensitivity and literacy, they must approach their audience through a cultural context. Thus, environmental education lessons need to incorporate strategies used in multicultural education in order to be more culturally inclusive. This project includes the identification of multicultural education criteria and the application of these to three lessons from Project Learning Tree: PreK-8 Environmental Education Activity Guide.

In 2000 the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at Oregon State University began a new and innovative program named TekBots[superscript TM]. This program was created to solve the problems of students in existing undergraduate engineering education not having sufficient skill when graduating in six program educational objectives; Depth, Breadth, Professionalism, Innovation, Community, and Troubleshooting. TekBots uses several core values such as personal ownership, curriculum continuity, contextual teaching, fun, and hands on learning, to encourage students to learn and improve. Since the inception of the program two courses have been greatly refined. An evaluation of the courses supports our indications of improvement our program educational objectives. This thesis presents the TekBots program and the details of the first two TekBots courses. / Graduation date: 2003