Student Awareness on Global Warming

Tina Tsantakis

Education 703.22

Spring 2009

Dr. O’Connor - Petruso

Table of Contents Research Design Threats to Internal Validity Threats to External Validity Proposed Data Correlation Graphs Data Analysis References

Research Design Quasi Experimental:

Pre-test, Post-test

- two groups are pre-tested (o), exposed to 3 lessons (x) and post-tested (o)

Groups are randomly assigned. Symbolic design:

◦ O X1 O◦ O X2 O

Threats to Internal Validity History – Students will be filling out one attitude survey and completing a pre-

test and post-test. Possible disturbances such as firedrills, constant announcements, classroom phone ringing, ELL pull out group, other teachers entering the classroom can effect my research. Some students may not be honest on the survey or tests.

Maturation – Some students are lazy and tire out quickly on tests. The survey and tests have never been administered before so therefore the students may lose interest quickly.

Instrumentation – Several students have difficulty reading English.

Mortality - Two students have already been discharged and one student is often absent, suspended or pulled out due to behavioral issues.

Selection Maturation Interaction – The students I’m testing and surveying fall into different age groups (7-9 yrs old & 13-16 yrs old)

Threats to External Validity Ecological Validity – The students come from poor economic backgrounds

and are low performing on standardized tests.

Specificity of Variables – All variables are related to my research project.

Treatment Diffusion – Students communicate with other students, parents and administrators and therefore can influence their beliefs.

Reactive Arrangements/Participants Effects – People tend to change their thoughts and opinions over time especially after gaining more knowledge on a specific topic.

Proposed Data Pre – Test Post – Test Attitude Survey KWL chart

Correlation GraphsPre-Test

(Students knowledge on global warming before treatment)

020406080

100120

0 20 40 60 80

Scor

e

Awareness

Pre-Test Data

Pre-Test Data Y axis

Correlation GraphsPost-Test

(Students knowledge on global warming after treatment)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

0 20 40 60 80 100

Scor

e

Knowledge

Post-test Data

Series1

Linear (Series1)

Bar Graph

0

1

2

3

4

5

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Awar

enes

s lev

el

Effort

Student Awareness

Series1

Series2

Data Analysis In Scatterplot 1 there is a fair correlation (Rxy = 0.7). The data in the chart

represents the score on the pre-test does shows how much knowledge students have before treatment.

In Scatterplot 2 there is a good correlation (Rxy=0.81). The data in the chart shows that after treatment students do gain more knowledge on global warming.

The bar graph represents how much prior knowledge students have on global warming, what the students want to learn and what they learned (KWL chart) and is based on their effort during the activity.

References O’Connor-Petruso, S. (2008). Threats to Internal and External Validity

Powerpoint. Brooklyn College, Graduate Department of Education.

Causes of global warming

Effects of global warming