ABSTRACTENHANCING GRAPHICAL LITERACY SKILLS IN THE HIGH SCHOOL SCIENCE CLASSROOM VIA AUTHENTIC, INTENSIVE DATA COLLECTION AND GRAPHICAL REPRESENTATION EXPOSUREByAnthony Palmeri This research project was developed to provide extensive practice and exposure to data collection and data representation in a high school science classroom. The student population engaged in this study included 40 high school sophomores enrolled in two microbiology classes. Laboratory investigations and activities were deliberately designed to include quantitative data collection that necessitated organization and graphical representation. These activities were embedded into the curriculum and conducted in conjunction with the normal and expected course content, rather than as a separate entity. It was expected that routine practice with graph construction and interpretation would result in improved competency when graphing data and proficiency in analyzing graphs. To objectively test the effectiveness in achieving this goal, a pre-test and post-test that included graph construction, interpretation, interpolation, extrapolation, and analysis was administered. Based on the results of a paired T-Test, graphical literacy was significantly enhanced by extensive practice and exposure to data representation.
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