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Carly Legg St. Mary’s College of Maryland MAT 2013

Exploring the Outdoors: Using Outdoors Education to Increase Relevance, Interest, and Academic Achievement in Elementary School Mathematics. Carly Legg St. Mary’s College of Maryland MAT 2013. The Central Questions.

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Carly Legg St. Mary’s College of Maryland MAT 2013

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  1. Exploring the Outdoors: Using Outdoors Education to Increase Relevance, Interest, and Academic Achievement in Elementary School Mathematics. Carly Legg St. Mary’s College of Maryland MAT 2013

  2. The Central Questions How can we make this standardized material relevant to our students’ lives in a way that is manageable for the teacher? Additionally, how can we use available resources to improve our students’ academic performance?

  3. Why should we use outdoors instruction?

  4. Why Math?

  5. Research Questions ENVIRONMENTAL EXPLORATION Attention Perceived Relevance Content Knowledge

  6. Sample and School Site • Hollywood Elementary School • About 500 students • Predominantly White • 82% White • Diverse Socio Economically • About 26% of students qualify for free and reduced lunch • Fourth Grade • 27 students • 24 out of 27 students identify as white • 13 girls and 14 boys • 3 students in my class who carry Language Arts (IEPs) • 1student who has an IEP consult, • 3 students with 504 plans.

  7. Methods • Behavioral Checklist • Affective Scale • Content Exam Ten Lesson Unit Outdoor Excursions Three Instruments:

  8. Findings Overview • Significant decrease in instances of observed inattentive behavior (p < .001) • There was an increase in how likely students ranked that they were to use math outside of school that approached significance (p = .062) • Increase in content exam scores (p < .001)

  9. Attention Attentive Behaviors Inattentive Behaviors • There was not a significant increase in attentive behaviors • Inter-rater reliability • Problems with the instrument

  10. Relevance Students’ Overall Perception of the Relevance of Math in their lives Students’ perception that they will use math outside of school • There was not a significant increase in students’ overall perception of how relevant math was to their lives (p=0.322). • Problems with the instrument

  11. Academic Achievement There was a significant increase in students’ content exam scores. What does this mean?

  12. What does it all mean? My findings supported the body of research on the matter Outdoors instruction is a viable way to teach mathematics Outdoors instruction made math more enjoyable to teach Students were eager to complete the assignments associated with the excursions

  13. Future Research How does outdoors instruction affect teachers’ perception of their teaching effectiveness? How does outdoors instruction affect teachers’ enjoyment of the subjects they are teaching?

  14. Questions?

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