Abstract
The purpose of this article is to examine the science comprehension retention of 8th-grade science students taught a new weather and climate curriculum. The students’ middle school is part of an innovative Extension youth agricultural science center that has a mission to develop and test new teaching and learning models and curricula in agriculture and natural resources. Our curriculum was developed following a science comprehension model we created and have been testing at the center. It contained lessons on the water cycle, the greenhouse effect, measuring and analyzing precipitation and temperature data, and mitigating and adapting to weather and climate extremes in agriculture and natural resources. For each lesson, students viewed introductory PowerPoint slides, participated in an activating strategy, set up an experiment or analyzed local precipitation or temperature data, formulated hypotheses, participated in a summary activity, and completed a worksheet. We pretested 81 students, taught the curriculum over a 6-day period, and gave the posttest. We returned 2 months later to administer a follow-up to check for science comprehension retention. The students’ overall science comprehension and science knowledge, science skills, and reasoning abilities subcomponent follow-up scores were lower than their post-program test scores. Both boys and girls declined in their overall post-program test gains over the 2 months. Students also declined in their preference for learning-by-doing from post-test to follow-up. Based on these results, we made changes to the curriculum consistent with the literature on learning retention before publishing it online for youth educators.
Highlights
Introduction and Conceptual FrameworkClimate change impacts agriculture and forces producers to mitigate and adapt to avoid disruptions in agricultural production (G. Johnson, 2019; Lengnick, 2018; U.S Global Change Research Program, 2018)
Considering that about 75% of the fresh water humans harvest for productive use goes to agriculture, the impacts of climate change on our water resources must be considered (U.S Global Change Research Program, 2018)
Two months after being taught the weather and climate curriculum, overall science comprehension follow-up scores had declined from posttest scores for our predominantly Hispanic eighth-grade students
Summary
Introduction and Conceptual FrameworkClimate change impacts agriculture and forces producers to mitigate and adapt to avoid disruptions in agricultural production (G. Johnson, 2019; Lengnick, 2018; U.S Global Change Research Program, 2018). Climate change impacts agriculture and forces producers to mitigate and adapt to avoid disruptions in agricultural production Climate change has many deleterious effects on our environment, requiring additional adaptive and mitigating measures (U.S Global Change Research Program, 2018). Considering that about 75% of the fresh water humans harvest for productive use goes to agriculture, the impacts of climate change on our water resources must be considered (U.S Global Change Research Program, 2018). Because the effects of climate change on agriculture and natural resources are so important to understand and an urgent issue with many mixed messages, Extension must be at the educational forefront of teaching youth current and future directions of climate science research. A current and research-based climate science curriculum will better prepare youth to enter STEM/agriscience careers and function as informed citizens
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