General Science Testing Program of the Louisiana Interscholastic Athletic Literary Association, 1953

Abstract

Study questions were made out by the writer and mailed to s c i ence teachers in the state at the beginning of the first semester of the school year 1952. Concepts and principles for the study questions were taken from astronomy, chemistry, geology, meteorology, and physics. Ques tions in geology were included in the study questions as a means of sug gesting that a teaching unit in geology be placed in the high-school gen eral science course. It is pointed out that the study questions and the teacher-made mastery objective test are improved from year to y ear in light of the previous performance of high-school pupils on the test. The major purposes of the teacher-made mastery objective test are (1) to eventually raise the academic level of high-school pupils in the state of Louisiana, (2) improve the teaching situation on the high-school level, as well as improving the physical science instructional program at Southern University, and (3) create in high-school students and teach ers a greater interest in science. The questions for the teacher-made mastery objective test, 50 in number, were made up from the study questions. Two hundred twenty-six selected pupils from 90 public schools and three parochial schools, 168 girls and 58 boys, participated in the gen eral science competitive testing program in the state. The geographical location of the schools participating gave a g o o d representation of the status of learning in general science in the state. The results of this test in terms of scores reveal a score range for