The Influence of Agriscience and Natural Resources Curriculum on Students' Science Achievement Scores (original) (raw)
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The Influence Of Agriscience And Natural Resources Curriculum On Students' Science Achivement Scores
Journal of Agricultural Education, 1995
Over the past several years, poor science test results have increased the demand for improved science education for American students. New and innovative methods of presenting scientific materials are needed to improve student achievement and enthusiasm for learning science. One solution to this dilemma has been to increase students' interest in science by using agricultural and natural resources concepts to teach science. This teaching method incorporated agricultural concepts of plant science, animal science and natural resources into the curricula to more effectively teach general science concepts and improve students' interest in the subject. This research sought to determine if students who enrolled in agriscience and natural resources comprehend science principles on an equal level as students who did not enroll in agriscience and natural resources. A standardized science test, High School Subject Test-Biology, was used to measure students' science knowledge. The r...
Science Achievement Of High School Students In Complete Programs Of Agriscience Education
Journal of Agricultural Education, 2006
The purpose of this descriptive and correlational study was to describe the science achievement of participants in complete programs of agriscience in Georgia. A secondary purpose was to compare science achievement of agriscience students to the science achievement of college prep, dual track, and technology/career prep students. The findings indicate that agriscience students enrolled in an average of four agriscience education courses, have a high level of engagement in SAE, and a moderate level of engagement with FFA. The mean score for agriscience students on the science portion of the Georgia High School Graduation Test (GHSGT) was 511.24, approximately three points lower than college prep students (M = 514.85). Nearly 78% of the agriscience students passed the test on their first attempt in comparison to 68% for the state average, and only 38% for technology/career prep students. Further findings indicate a low but positive correlation between science achievement among agriscience students and the number of agriscience courses taken. There was also a low but positive correlation between the level of FFA and SAE engagement for both student achievement in science and the first time passing rate for the science portion of the GHSGT.
Teacher Perceptions Of Agriscience And Natural Resources Curriculum
Journal of Agricultural Education, 1994
The past decade has resulted in many calls for educational reform in the United States. Parents, teachers, business leaders, and educational professionals have all called for new and innovative approaches to teaching English, mathematics, economics and science. Agricultural education in the United States is responding to this need by placing more emphasis on teaching scientific principles using agricultural and natural resources concepts. The National Research Council (1988) in its report, "Understanding Agriculture: New Directions for Education" stated, "Teaching science through agriculture would incorporate more agriculture into curricula, while more effectively teaching science." Michigan agricultural education programs addressed this issue by replacing the production agriculture curriculum with a new agriscience and natural resources curriculum.
Social Sciences
Previous studies on global food security have indicated that in order to sustain the global population by the year 2050, a significant increase in food production will be needed. Consequently, it is crucial that today’s students are educated to realize this increasing food demand. One of the problems is that currently too few students seem to be interested in pursuing studies in the fields of agriculture and related sciences. By exploring three research questions, this study assesses the extent to which high school students in each of the 67 counties in the U.S. state of Alabama are being exposed to agricultural-related science courses. For the purposes of this assessment, the high schools were grouped by zones—Northern, Central, Southern and the Black Belt. Relevant high school data, including courses offered, were compiled from Alabama’s Department of Education 2017 directory. Microsoft Excel and SPSS software were used to analyze the data. The findings of this study demonstrated ...
Implications of Integrating Science in Secondary Agricultural Education Programs
Journal of Agricultural Education, 1998
Agriscience teachers' perceptions of the impact of integrating science on their agricultural education program were examined through a survey of all 253 state, regional, and national winners of the National Future Farmers of America AgriScience Teacher of the Year Award Program in 1988-1995. The survey contained 38 Likert-type statements. Usable responses were received from 131 (71.98%) of the teachers. The study population generally believed the following: (1) integrating science improves students' understanding of science concepts and their application to agriculture; (2) agriscience teachers need more preparation time before they can emphasize integrated science concepts, and they are better prepared to integrate biological science concepts than physical science concepts; (3) undergraduates will be better prepared to teach if they receive instruction in how to integrate science and if their student teaching experience is with a cooperating teacher who integrates science; and (4) enrollment of high-quality students in agricultural education will likely increase as agriscience teachers integrate more science into agriculture programs. Recommendations called for more inservice and preservice training in integrating science into the agricultural education curriculum and scheduling more planning time for teachers attempting to integrate science into their agriculture curricula. (Contains 30 references.) (MN)
Journal of Agricultural Education, 2000
The purpose of this study was to determine the attitudes of Agricultural Science and Technology teachers toward integrating science into their curricula. Perceptions regarding integrating science and agriculture, the role of teacher preparation programs in integrating science, and integrating science to meet state standards indicated teachers had a positive attitude toward integrating science into agricultural education programs. More specifically, teachers believed that integrating science assists students in better understanding science concepts and their application to agriculture. According to the teachers in this study, students are more aware of the connection between scientific principles and agriculture and students are better prepared in science after completing a course in agricultural education that integrated science. Teachers felt that teacher preparation programs should provide instruction at the pre-service and in-service level on how to integrate science into the curriculum and that student teachers should be placed with cooperating teachers who integrate science into their agriculture programs. As many states face educational reform, teachers contend that integrating science is a solution in helping students and aligning agriculture programs to meet state standards and that little or no changes will have to be made for agriculture programs to facilitate educational reform.
Journal of Agricultural Education, 1999
The purpose of this study was to determine the attitudes of Illinoisguidance counselors in model student teachingsites towardagriculture, agricultural technologies, andagriculture andscienceprograms. Results indicated that counselors heldpositive perceptions in all areas, with the mostpositive attitudes reported in agricultural technologies. Agriculture and science programs were both viewed as being high in quality. Counselors believed agricultural education to be too vocational and not scientific enough. Counselors in schools with applied science in agriculture coursework rated agriculture program quality to be higher than did those in schools without these courses. Counselors expressing the most positive attitudes towards agriculture and agricultural education were female; 40 or more years of age; had knowledge of agricultural coursework; and had teaching backgrounds in science, special education, or English. Journal of Agricultural Education 57 676,106 to 506,94 1 (ISBE, 199 1), suggesting that other factors contributed to attrition of agriculture program enrollments. While enrollment in agriculture classes was declining, enrollment in science classes increased. The percentage of high school students studying science increased from 95.2% to 99.4% from 1970 to 1990. However, overall science achievement for students tested at ages nine and thirteen showed no increase between the two periods. Achievement levels actually decreased in high school age students (Office of Educational Research and Improvement, 1993).
Journal of Agricultural Education, 2007
Agriculture teachers and science teachers who taught in a high school with an agricultural education program were targeted for this study to determine and compare their perceptions of integrating science into agricultural education programs. The data indicate that while both groups have responded positively to the call to integrate science into the agricultural education curriculum, some differences in attitudes do exist. A majority of the teachers indicated that teacher preparation programs should provide instruction on how to integrate science both at the preservice and inservice levels. More agriculture teachers were in agreement than science teachers that integrating science would help agriculture programs meet state standards and help students meet requirements for state standards. Although a majority of science teachers agreed, a significantly greater number of agriculture teachers agreed that students will be better prepared for standardized testing if they learn science through an agriculture context. Note: A = agree, DA = disagree. Following data analysis, strongly agree and agree were collapsed into the agree (A) column and strongly disagree and disagree were collapsed into the disagree (DA) column.
Biology in the Agriculture Classroom: A Descriptive Comparative Study
Journal of Agricultural Education, 2016
Agricultural education can take scientific topics to higher levels, emphasize scientific concepts, involve hands-on learning, and develop interrelationships with the other sciences, thus making the living and non-living world around them relevant for students, potentially supporting a STEM curriculum. As such, in 1996, Utah deemed agricultural biology an adequate substitute for general biology in preparing Utah high school students to meet state biology requirements. The appropriateness of that decision was not tested until this 2014 descriptive comparative post-test only analysis of 2008-2012 data from the Utah State Office of Education Data and Statistics. As seen in this study, not only did agricultural biology students tend to score lower than their general biology counterparts, in multiple cases this difference was significant (p ≤ .05), indicating a potential gap within the agricultural biology curriculum. Further, there were cases where Cohen's d was ≥ .2, indicating at least a small effect size. This suggests that reevaluation is needed to ensure that biology standards taught in agricultural biology classes are better aligned with content tested by the biology portion of the Utah end-of-course core biology test standards.