Middle Schoolers Out to Save the World

• In Event: STEM Learning to STEM Careers

Abstract

Middle Schoolers Out to Save the World (MSOSW) is a National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) Project funded 2008–2011. MSOSW project personnel train middle school teachers (grades 6-8) to work with their students to measure standby power usage or “vampire power.” One goal of the MSOSW project is to encourage future scientists to pursue further study in the area. A broader goal is to promote interest among young students in future STEM careers.

Approximately 600 sixth, seventh, and eighth graders from middle schools in Louisiana, Hawaii, Maine, Texas and Vermont are participating to provide comparison data and/or monitor home energy use under supervision of their teachers in the project. The data are used to develop optimum scenarios for conserving energy and reducing production of greenhouse gases in local communities. The teachers are receiving ongoing professional development to carry out the project. Students and teachers record and analyze their data and create projections of future energy use, then share their results within and outside the project via information communication technology.

A baseline year of data acquisition plus two treatment years of pre-post data have been gathered from the project. During the baseline year, the STEM Semantics Survey, a primary instrument used for analysis of STEM dispositions, was analyzed and found to have respectable (.78) to excellent (.94) internal consistency reliability as well as good content, construct, and criterion-related validity for the five areas assessed by its subscales. Large gains in STEM content acquisition have been demonstrated during the 2009-2010 treatment year and replicated for 2010-2011 During the first treatment year (2009-2010), student dispositions toward technology and self-reported creative tendencies were found to have become more positive for students participating in MSOSW activities. Analysis of disaggregated data by gender revealed that females were less positive than males at the time of the pretest in several STEM areas, but generally rose over the course of the school year and approached the group mean for males. No significant change in STEM career interest was found in the 2009-2010 data and so the summer 2010 training institute for MSOSW teachers included a focus on introducing STEM careers during the 2010-2011 school year.

Analysis of 2010-2011 data revealed overall gain in STEM career aspirations and “pockets” of gains in perceptions of math perceptions of technology and self-reported creative tendencies. All gains reported for MSOSW indices had effect sizes beyond the ES = .3 criteria normally considered to be educationally meaningful. As with 2009-2010 data, females generally advanced more than males during 2010-2011, but males were generally more positive at the start.

One issue that has arisen during the course of the project is how to account for the May / June “end of year decline” in attitudes in general among middle school students. This effect appears to be well known among teachers and school personnel but not well addressed in the research literature. Suggestions on how to take into account this time-of-year effect will be addressed in the presentation.

Authors

• Gerald A. Knezek, University of North Texas

• Rhonda R. Christensen, University of North Texas

• Tandra Lea Tyler-Wood, University of North Texas