Date of Graduation

1996

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

Man and the Gulf of Mexico (MGM) was a federally-funded curriculum development project which produced a four-volume set of marine science curriculum materials for use by junior high and secondary school students in Alabama and Mississippi. Individual titles in the series are Marine and Estuarine Ecology, Marine Habitats, Diversity of Marine Animals, and Diversity of Marine Plants. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the implementation of these materials by investigating the possible relationships among MGM-based inservice teacher training, geographic residence of students, marine science knowledge acquisition by students as measured by the "MGM Unit Achievement Tests", student evaluations of the MGM curriculum materials as measured by the "MGM Unit Evaluation Form", and student scores on the marine knowledge, and marine attitudes portions of the "Survey of Oceanic Attitudes and Knowledge" (SOAK). Additionally, the study was designed to document marine-related experiences of student participants as measured by the marine experiences section of the SOAK. A total of 21 biology teachers, nine Alabama residents and 12 Mississippi residents, and their students {dollar}\\rm(n=612){dollar} took part in the study. Participating teachers selected two of the four MGM units to teach to their students with the instructional phase for each unit lasting approximately six weeks. Prior to the instructional phase students completed a battery of pretests including the "MGM Unit Achievement Test" that corresponded to the unit that was to be studied and the SOAK. Following instruction the students were posttested using the "MGM Unit Achievement Test" and the marine attitudes portion of the SOAK. Additionally, students completed the "MGM Unit Evaluation Form" for each MGM unit that they studied. Results of the study indicated that a significant {dollar}\\rm(p<.05){dollar} relationship existed among MGM Unit Achievement posttest scores, pretest scores, MGM-based inservice teacher training and residence for each of the four MGM units. Similarly, MGM Unit Evaluation Form scores were significantly related to MGM-based inservice teacher training and residence for each of the MGM units. Finally, a significant relationship was found between marine attitudes posttest scores, marine attitudes pretest scores, MGM-based inservice teacher training, and residence.

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