The purpose of this study was to determine if one hour of field instruction by a specialist would significantly increase fifth graders' knowledge and understanding of the concepts of ecological succession in abandoned fields at the Trumbull Area Land Laboratory in Trumbull County, Ohio.The research included the development of educational objectives and a curriculum to teach these objectives. An evaluation instrument was administered to a sampling of six classes before and after instruction. The results were analyzed to determine each question's discrimination index and difficulty level. A control group was utilized to measure the test's reliability.Data proved the test to have high reliability, but too high a degree of difficulty. A positive discrimination was shown on all items, but five were less than satisfactory. Three questions were shown to be invalid and none of the objectives were completely achieved. The conclusion reached was that the topic "Ecological Succession in Abandoned Fields" is too difficult to effectively convey in one hour to fifth graders at the level of understanding which the objectives were written.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/180972 |
| Date | January 1975 |
| Creators | Downing, Norman E. |
| Contributors | Van Meter, Donald E. |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | iii, 75, [1] leaves ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
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