Science and Mathematics Education Commons^™

A Student Handbook For The Environmental Education / Outdoor School Program In The Middle School, Robert Charles Kenck Jr.

All Graduate Projects

The purpose of this project was to develop a student handbook that can be used from the onset of an environmental study through the inter-active field study. Students will use the handbook as they begin to study environmental education in the classroom. The handbook will continue to be used as each student attends a three day outdoor school to study firsthand their environment through field activities. The handbook will remain the property of the students.

Predicting Success In High School Computer Programming, John C. Gevedon

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There are great differences in performance among students taking high school programming courses, and instructors debate over what elements contribute to these differences. Some students develop logical thinking abilities and problem solving techniques, while others fail to develop skills beyond memorization of specific terms and procedures. It is not known whether these differences are causally related to the specific educational environment or student backgrounds. Without more information, the factors that actually contribute to the success of high school students in computer programming courses cannot be accurately determined. It was the purpose of this study then to isolate certain student characteristics …

Transformational Geometry Unit, Elizabeth Ann O'Neill

All Graduate Projects

The study included the development and writing of a unit on transformational geometry which involved a holistic approach including the cognitive, psychomotor, and affective domains. This unit was taught to the eighth grade class in the Oakville School District in Oakville, Washington. The results showed support that the teaching of this unit was effective.

The Regular Polyhedra: A Study In Visual Aids For Teaching Geometry, Sammye Halbert

Honors Theses

Traditionally, mathematics, past simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, has been taught of as being so boring, irrelevant, and in short, one of the unavoidable evils of school. An advertisement in The Mathematics Teacher expressed the general attitude of many students when it said, "mathematics was invented by an old magician in the desert who, with the help of his talking monkey, bakes equations and cupcakes in the hot sun." It seems that many students think mathematics is just one problem after another that has some mystical answer floating around in the air somewhere. The object is to get that …

A Comparative Investigation Of The Effects Of Frequent Testing Upon Achievement In Secondary Advanced Algebra, John Thomas Fullerton

All Master's Theses

Relatively speaking, few studies have concerned themselves with the problem of frequent testing, and as Keys pointed out, empirical evidence, uncomplicated by differences in the amount of testing material employed, on the effects of frequent testing is, at best, scarce (14:427). Also many studies used tests and test results for direct instruction, thus introducing additional variables. Furthermore, the choice of subjects and disciplines has been limited, the better part being taken from college psychology and sociology classes or high school science classes. This investigation was not an attempt to modify previous experiments, nor was it an attempt to identify which …

A Laboratory-Centered General Chemistry Course For College Freshmen, Alexander Vavoulis

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

In order to give the laboratory-centered course a trial run and to compare it with a lecture-centered course it seemed necessary to the author that both courses should be taught and compared. The latter gave rise to the following hypotheses:

1. Students in a laboratory-centered general chemistry course show more favorable attitudes toward chemistry than do students in a lecture-centered course.
2. Students in a laboratory-centered course show as good a subject-matter mastery as students in a lecture-centered course.

A New Approach To General Chemistry Laboratory In College (With) A Laboratory Manual For General Chemistry, Constantine G. Vlassis

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Statement of the problem. This study was carried out to determine: (1) what advantages a laboratory-centered general chemistry course might have over the conventional laboratory course, and (2) whether improved understanding of laboratory work leads to better learning of chemistry. The four following questions were raised in connection with the study or this problem:

1. What is the need for a laboratory-centered course?
2. What has been done in the past to meet this need?
3. Can students learn chemistry more effectively in a laboratory-centered course as compared to the conventional course?
4. Is a laboratory-centered course to be preferred over the conventional course …

Experimental And Observational Geometry, Albert D. Field

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Geometry has the distinction of being one of the oldest subjects given in the high-school.

Its subject-matter was formulated and organized by the Greeks into a fine system of thought before the time of Christ. Since leaving the hands of the Greeks, geometry has received only a few minor changes, and these largely in recent years.

Heretofore, the study of geometry has been made almost entirely dependent upon memory and reasoning. Geometricians have been slow in adopting the laboratory and observational methods.

This thesis has been written to encourage the student in his work of observing geometrical forms, and in …