There has been an influx of funding in science, technology, engineering and
mathematics (STEM) allocated to adapting educational systems that engage, motivate
and train learners with new and innovative techniques.
This exploratory research project investigated the student outcomes associated
with undergraduate biology learner' engagements in the ER Project. Thirty-one students
interacted in small groups within an inquiry-learning environment supported by an
innovative technology that introduced a database of images of green florescent
endoplasmic reticulum and golgi apparatus. The aim of the ER Project was to increase
learners' conceptual understanding of cell structure and movement and engage in
scientific processes in an authentic inquiry setting.
To identify relationships between and among independent and dependent
variables in a causal model hypothesizing relationships among Prior Knowledge, Learning Preference, Attitudes toward Computers, Inquiry Task Performance and
Conceptual Understanding were tested using path analysis.
The study found that while prior knowledge was a strong predictor for
conceptual understanding, it was not as effective for observing the inquiry task
performance. But, the Motivation towards Computers and their Inquiry Task
Performance indicated that learners understood the scientific processes and were able to
communicate their results.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2010-12-9000 |
| Date | 2010 December 1900 |
| Creators | Lane, Cleveland O., Jr. |
| Contributors | Stuessy, Carol L. |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
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