Science and Mathematics Education Commons^™

An Exploratory Study To Understand Elementary School Students’ Conceptions Of Food Chains, Shelby Snowden

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Research has shown that elementary school is a critical time to pique children’s interest in science. However, many enrichment activities known to pique this interest in young children are not available to students of low socioeconomic status, English Language Learners, racial minorities, and students with disabilities. This has encouraged many higher education institutions to develop STEM outreach programs. Because of the cognitive gap between STEM professionals and young children and the logistics of implementing student-centered activities in heterogeneous classrooms, programs usually consist of activities that impress students with “sophisticated” science but are beyond the cognitive levels of most students and …

A Curricular Design For Integrating Writing With Science: A Benchmark Handbook Approach, Marci Jayne Gano

All Graduate Projects

The purpose of the project was to create an integrated science and writing benchmark handbook. Review of the literature, Washington State Academic Learning Requirements for science and writing, published scie.nce lessons, and teacher's guides were utilized. Classroom teachers, district and school science and writing goals were consulted in the creation of this project. The activities presented in all five units were designed to provide hands-on experience in both science and writing. Possible assessment options are also provided.

Environmental Awareness Curriculum For First Grade, Dianna Lynn Whitley

All Graduate Projects

An environmental curriculum was created to increase student's awareness about their environment. The purpose was to provide students with knowledge and skills to participate in environmental issues. Three sub-topics were researched, Waste Management, Water Pollution and Water Conservation. Lessons were developed for all three areas to implement in a first grade classroom. The lessons are diverse and will meet the needs of all learning styles.

Educational Math Games For First Grade, Shelly Christine Harberts

All Graduate Projects

The purpose of the project is to create appropriate educational math games for first grade. Thirty-six new games were generated to replace the math games used in the Everyday Math curriculum used in my classroom. The games were taught to twenty first graders. The results showed that using mathematical games relating to the concepts being taught, helped students better understand and master the concepts.

A Thematic Unit For Integrating Social Studies And Science In The First Grade, Lin Marjorie Lasater

All Graduate Projects

A thematic unit for integrating social studies and science with other curriculum areas was developed for first grade students. The theme for the unit centered around farms. The unit was divided into five subunits: farms, farm animals, orchards/vineyards (to include fruits of the Yakima Valley and apples), crops (to include vegetables of the Yakima Valley, pumpkins, and wheat), and nutrition/four food groups. The literature was reviewed to establish a theoretical foundation for the unit and for activities that focused on reading, writing, and language development.

Computer Banking And Cross-Referencing Of Mathematical Materials For The Elementary Grades, Daniel Jordan Martin

All Graduate Projects

The specific area and focus of this project will be that of arranging District and program math learning objectives for eventual computer banking along with materials cross-referenced to those objectives. In addition, the cross-referenced materials will be labeled as to grade level, interest level, mode of learning, and time needed for their use. The computer banking will facilitate use and prescriptive accessibility to given objectives.

The justification for such a project can be broken down into several areas: (1) the need of the elementary math teachers to have a bank of supplementary materials cross-referenced to facilitate their instruction of math …

A Readability Survey Of The Science Textbooks Used In University Place Elementary School, District No. 83, Melvin Hans Jangard

All Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to determine: 1) the readability of an intermediate series of science textbooks, Concepts in Science, published by Harcourt, Brace and World; 2) if the text was readable for the students at University Place Elementary School near Tacoma, Washington; 3) whether the gradation or slope of difficulty rises progressively from the beginning of the book to the ending of the book.

Providing For Individual Differences In The Elementary School Arithmetic Program, Robert S. Allen

Graduate Student Research Papers

How can individual differences be provided for in the elementary school arithmetic program? It is obvious that if all pupils in the elementary schools are required to follow the same course of study, read the same books, do the same exercises, solve the same problems, and pass the same examinations, there can be little provision for individual differences. It was the purpose of this study to present practices used or usable to provide for individual differences.