Carboschools+ What did students, teachers and scientists learn?

1. Carboschools+What did students, teachers and scientists learn? Elma Dijkstra & Martin Goedhart Department of Education Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences University of Groningen

2. Aims of Carboschools+ Key objective:Establish partnerships between research institutes and schools in developing and conducting student projects on climate change Related objectives: • Support scientists and teachers to establish collaboration (co-production and exchange of tools, know-how, materials, methodologies at a European level) • Inform and stimulate secondary school students to choose science careers • Involve local players (school authorities, teacher associations, parents associations, teacher training institutes, science museums etc.)

3. Partners Bergen (N) Kiel (D) Jena (D) Bordeaux (F) Paris (F) Barcelona (Cat) Firenze (I) Norwich (UK) Groningen (NL) Associated partners: Cluj (Rom) Uppsala (S) Heidelberg (D)

4. Some activities • School CO2 web (NL + others) • Sustainable agriculture (I) • Marine research (D,N)

5. Aims of WP4 (evaluation) • Evaluation of regional projects • Impact of projects on ...- students’ attitudes towards science- students’ attitudes towards school science- students’ attitudes towards scientists- students’ attitudes towards climate change

6. Instruments of WP4 Three instruments • Self Evaluation Tool • Attitudes Questionnaires • Interviews

7. Structure of Self Evaluation Tool (SET) SET consists of three parts: Part A (12 items) • Background characteristics (gender, birthyear, science background etc.) Part B (14 items) • Opinions on project (organization, enjoyment, difficulty, impact). • Likert items: strongly disagree – disagree – agree – strongly agree Part C (4 essay questions) • Additional information about the project (suggestions to improve etc.) SET is translated to native language students

8. Results SET 2008-2009 Backgroundcharacteristics • 29 schools from 5 countries • Total number of students who filled in SET = 585 (305 girls / 276 boys / 4 unknown) • Age: 13 – 21 year (m = 16.5) • Grades: 7 – 13 (m = 10.4) • Time spent on the project: 1 – 100 hours per student (m = 25 hours)

9. Results SET 2008-2009 Science background characteristics Most (at least 70%) of the students: • are interested in science topics • found their grades for science subjects high • do a lot of science at school • like science lessons more than other lessons at school • don’t think that scientists are boring 39% of the students found it difficult to understand scientists in general Students are positive about science and scientists in general

10. Results SET 2008-2009 Organization of CS projects • Projects were well organized (see table below) • Overall opinion on projects was good • Instructions for projects were clear for most (at least 70%) students • Supervisor’s explanations helped most students to understand projects Sample item: B1 (n = 581)

11. Results SET 2008-2009 Enjoyment of the CS projects • Students like learning science in this way (see table below) • Most students (at least 70%) would like to work on projects like these more often • Most students enjoyed the projects very much Sample item: B8 (n = 582)

12. Results SET 2008-2009 Difficulty of the CS projects • Projects were not too difficult • Most of the students (at least 70%) found their knowledge was sufficient to understand the projects (see table below) Sample item: B11 (n = 581)

13. Results SET 2008-2009 Impact on students • The students learned many new things from the projects and from the scientists • The projects made the students understand that climate change studies are very important for human future and that people can affect climate change (see table below) • The projects made 43% of the students more interested in choosing a scientific career Example: B13 (n = 583)

14. Effect of background characteristics on opinions Gender: • Girls are slightly more positive about projects’ organization than boys • Boys found the projects slightly less difficult than girls • Girls found they learned slightly more new things from the projects than boys Research institute & student age: - Many differences, but those characteristics depend on projects

15. Effect of science background characteristics on opinions Significant (p < .05) correlations: • Interest in science topics correlates positive with scientific career interest • Enjoyment of science lessons correlates positive with scientific career interest • High grades for science subjects correlate negative with projects’ difficulty • Difficulty to understand scientists correlates negative with almost all evaluated aspects • Opinion that scientists are boring correlates negative with all evaluated aspects

16. Conclusion Evaluation CS Projects 2008-2009 • Students are positive about the organization of projects, enjoyment and difficulty of projects, and projects’ impact • SET reports give useful feedback to all regional coordinators on the projects

17. Attitudes Questionnaires (AQ) Pretest (before project) & posttest (after project) to measure changing attitudes

18. AQ sample items Scores part B: strongly disagree – disagree – neutral – agree – strongly agree Scores part C: true – false – don’t know

19. Interviews Aim: to give additional information on the implementation of the projects in the schools and the curricula • constraints with realizing projects within the school programme • relation between the projects and the curriculum • the role scientists may play in cooperation with schools from the perspective of teachers and scientists Interviews with: • Students • School teachers • Scientists • Regional coordinators

20. Thank you for your attention