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EFFECTS OF USING A LAYERED CURRICULUM FORMAT
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SCIENCE ENERGY UNIT

presented by

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EFFECTS OF USING A LAYERED CURRICULUM FORMAT OF INSTRUCTION IN
A HIGH SCHOOL ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE ENERGY UNIT
By

Anne Jeannette LaSovage

A THESIS

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulﬁllment of the requirements
for the degree of

MASTER OF SCIENCE
Department of Science and Mathematics Education

2006

ABSTRACT

EFFECTS OF USING A LAYERED CURRICULUM FORMAT OF INSTRUCTION IN
A HIGH SCHOOL ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE ENERGY UNIT

By

Anne Jeannete LaSovage

During the 2005-2006 schoolyear, I implemented a differentiated energy unit in
my high school environmental science class in order to increase student motivation,
mastery of content and learning retention. The format of the unit was based in part on the
Layered Curriculum® model of Kathie Nunley and incorporated student choice, levels of
learning, and assessment in the form of oral defenses. Activities for the unit were
designed to appeal to multiple intelligences and learning styles.

The hands-on aspects of the unit were a success, as shown by student engagement
and perceived enjoyment. Pre- and post-test scores indicated improvement in most
content areas. Pre-unit and post-unit survey results also indicate affective changes in
student perceptions of relevance of unit content.

Choice was named by students as a positive feature of the unit and could be
interpreted as a positive inﬂuence on motivation. Motivation did appear to improve in
the beginning of the unit, but waned as the unit progressed due to a variety of factors
Speciﬁc to the unit (for example, timelines) as well as general aspects of the student
population (for example, intrinsic motivation of students).

Overall, I would consider repeating this unit in this format with some

modiﬁcations.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to ﬁrst acknowledge my family for their tireless love and support and
for their endless patience as I traveled the path to earning this degree.

To my instructors from the Department of Math and Science Education, in
particular Dr. Merle Heidemann and Dr. Chuck Elzinga: It is with sincere gratitude that I
thank you for presenting such valuable learning opportunities and for making all that hard
work so very worthwhile.

I would like to also thank my cohorts from the Biological Sciences degree
program. It has truly been a pleasure to know and work with you. I consider you friends
as well as colleagues. Not only do I value the learning we did together, but I thank you
for making the process so much fun.

Finally, I extend special thanks to the Towsley Foundation for their ﬁnancial

assistance throughout my degree work. Your assistance was greatly appreciated.

iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Tables ........................................................................................ vii
List of Figures ...................................................................................... viii
Introduction ............................................................................................ 1
Rationale for the Study ..................................................................... 1
Speciﬁc Goals for the New Unit ........................... . .............................. 2
Course Background and Student Information ........................................... 3
Demographics of Southﬁeld-Lathrup High School ..................................... 4
Literature Review ............................................................................ 5
Layered Curriculum and Multiple Intelligences ............................... 5

Learning Styles ..................................................................... 8

Motivation .......................................................................... I l

Disequilibria ....................................................................... l 7

Anxiety ............................................................................. l8

Choice .............................................................................. 19

Memory and Retention ........................................................... 20

Other Inﬂuences on Memory .................................................... 22
Demonstrating and Assessing Learning ........................................ 23

Background Information on Content .................................................... 26
Implementation ...................................................................................... 35
Designing the Layered Energy Unit. .................................................... 35
Implementing with the Students .......................................................... 44

Time Management and Physical Structure of the Unit ................................ 46

Oral Defenses ............................................................................... 47

Other Considerations ...................................................................... 48
Results and Discussion ............................................................................. 50
Analysis of Student Performance on Pre- and Post-Test .............................. 50
Analysis of Pre- and Post-Unit Survey Responses ..................................... 58
Additional Comments ...................................................................... 65
Conclusion .......................................................................................... 68
Preexisting Conditions ..................................................................... 73
Things Which Could Be Changed ....................................................... 74
Things That Worked Well ................................................................ 77
Potential for Lasting Effects .............................................................. 81

Were the Goals of the Unit Met? .................... . .................................... 82

How Do This Year’s Data Compare to Last Year’s? ................................. 83

Will I Do a Layered Energy Unit Again? ............................................... 84

iv

Appendices ........................................................................................... 85
Appendix A: Supplements to Literature Review ...................................... 86
A.l: Further Discussion of Multiple Intelligences ........................... 87
A2: Further Discussion of Learning Descriptions ........................... 88
Learning Style Descriptions ....................................... 88
Processing Styles .................................................... 89
Existence of Preferred Learning Styles ........................... 89
Complexity of Learning ............................................ 90
Inﬂuence of the Environment on Learning Style
and Correlation to the Classroom ........................... 91
A3: Deﬁnitions and Further Discussion of Motivation .................... 92
AA: Further Discussion of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs ................. 93
A5: Teacher Inﬂuence on Student Motives .................................. 95
A6: Stability and Controllability ............................................... 95
A.7: Effects of Student Perception and Self-Concept on
Motivation and Success ............................................... 96
A8: Relationship of Success to Future Success ............................. 98
A9: Authentic and Performance Assessment ................................ 99
A.10: Study of Energy in Various Disciplines ............................. .100
A.11: Detail of Energy Sources for Southeast Michigan .................. 101
A.12: Student Misconceptions about “Renewable Resources” ........... 102
A.13: Values and Conﬂict .............................................. . ...... 103
A.14: Global Warming in Politics and the Media .......................... 104
A.15: Background on Bloom’s Taxonomy .................................. 105
Appendix B: Handouts for Unit and Organization Tools ........................... 106
B. 1: Objectives and Activity Choices (Student Handouts)
Objective Set 1 — “Pink” .......................................... 107
Objective Set 2 —- “Blue” .......................................... I 13
Objective Set 3 — “Green” ........................................ 118
8.2: “Yellow Sheet”
Required Components for the Layered Unit ......................... 122
Daily Planner for Layered Unit (sample calendar page) .......... 123
8.3: Sample Teacher Gradesheet ............................................. 124
Appendix C: Selected Activities ....................................................... 125
CI: “Fusion—Like the Sun” / “Fission — Like a Power Plant” .......... 126
C2: “Current Events Guidelines” ............................................. 128
C3: “I-LERN Form” ........................................................... 130
C4: “Light Bulbs or Heat Bulbs?” ........................................... 131
CS: “Proposition Support Outline for Informational Text” .............. 133
C6: “How to Make Pinwheel” ................................................ 134
C7: “Forms of Energy/ Forms and Sources” ............................... I35

Appendix D: Data Collection and Results ............................................ 13 7

D.1: Pre-Test ..................................... . ............................... 138
D2: Post-Test .................................................................... 139
D.3: Answers to Pre-Test and Post-Test Question 4, by Category ....... 140
D4: Pre-Unit Survey ........................................................... 141
D.5: Post-Unit Survey .......................................................... 142
D6: Post-Unit Self-Evaluation Questions ................................... 144
D7: True Colors Survey ....................................................... 145
D8: True Colors Survey Background Information and Results ......... 146
D9: Multiple Intelligences Survey ........................................... 147
D.lO: Multiple Intelligence Class Data ...................................... 151
DJ 1: Energy Unit Test ......................................................... 152
D.l2: Comparison of 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 Data .................... 158
Works Cited ........................................................................................ 159
References ................................. . ........................................................ l 62

vi

Table 1:

Table 2:

Table 3:

Table 4:

Table 5:

Table 6:

Table 7:

Table 8:

Table 9:

Table 10:

Table I 1:

Table 12:

Table 13:

Table 14:

Table 15:

LIST OF TABLES

Pros and Cons of Nine Common Energy Sources ................................... 30
Excerpt of Student Handout for Objective Set 111 (Green) ........................ 44
Paired t-Test Comparing Pre- and Post-Test Data ................................... 51
Student Answers to Question 6 ........................................................ 56
Number of Responses Earning Zero Points on Pre-Test and Post-Test .......... 57
Number of Responses Left Blank on Pre-Test and Post-Test ..................... 58
Class Survey Responses to Statement 6 “I know a lot about energy” ............ 59
Likert Scale Responses to Relevance and Interest Survey Questions ............ 60
Student Likert Responses to Choice in Learning ................................... 63
Summary of Unit Success ............................................................ 82
Comparison of Post-Test Results Between Current and Previous Years. ...... 83
Compiled Results of True Colors Survey ......................................... 146
Compiled Results of Multiple Intelligence Survey .............................. 151
Energy Unit Test Results Compared Over Two Years .......................... 158
Post-Test Results Compared Over Two Years ................................... 158

vii

Figure 1:
Figure 2:
Figure 3:

Figure 4:

Figure 5:
Figure 6:

Figure 7:

LIST OF FIGURES

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs ............................. . ........................... l 3
Pic Plate Turbine Apparatus. ......................................................... 40
“Make a Pinwheel” Activity Box ..................................................... 47
Mean Class Performance on Pre- and Post-Test Questions by

Percent of Question Value ............................................................ 50
“Light Bulbs or Heat Bulbs?” Lab Set-Up ......................................... 132
Summary of Pre-Test Answers to Question 4 ..................................... 140
Summary of Post-Test Answers to Question 4 .................................... 140

viii

INTRODUCTION

RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY

For the past several years I have taught the Environmental Science course at
SouthﬁeId-Lathrup High School in Lathrup Village, Michigan. During the 2003-2004
and 2004-2005 schoolyears, I was dissatisﬁed with the structure and delivery of my
energy unit in this course. My qualitative observations were that my students did not
engage with the unit, were not interested, and learned only minimally the objectives that I
intended them to learn.

In contrast, I felt my unit on waste had been a success, as it traditionally had been.
In my informal comparison of these two units, I noted a few key differences that might
explain the disparate results. First, the issues of waste were easily made relevant to
students, but the issues of energy were not. As my hook to open the energy unit, I was
using articles about the California blackouts of 2001 , which had in previous years made
the study of energy seem relevant to students. However, I was now ﬁnding that these
events were beyond the memory of most of my students and thus had little bearing.

Second, the format of the waste unit involved a great deal of kinesthetic learning
and a ﬁnal project which allowed student choice and action beyond the classroom. The
energy unit, in contrast, was quite traditional, with lecture, reading and memorization as
the primary pedagogy. Although students built solar ovens, the hands-on and laboratory

aspects of this unit were limited to that. Real-world application also was not obvious.

The third difference noticed between the energy and waste units was that while
not a novice, l was not as conﬁdent or bold in instructing the energy unit as I was in
waste instruction. While this aspect of the unit was improved between 2004 and 2005, I
still wanted to revise several other aspects. In particular, I wanted to increase lab

experiences and possibly increase choice to mimic the positive results of the waste unit.

SPECIFIC GOALS FOR NEW UNIT

In addition to the energy content objectives, speciﬁc goals with a new energy unit

‘ were to:

- Increase student motivation and engagement by providing student choice

- Increase relevance and hands-on activities in the unit

- Allow students to learn and demonstrate learning through multiple
intelligences

- Increase authentic learning by holding students accountable for their learning

- Increase student mastery of content

- Increase retention of learning

Also, I kept in mind the overall goals of the course, including that “students will

become more skilled in making and defending informed decisions.”

COURSE BACKGROUND AND STUDENT INFORMATION

At the time of this study, graduation requirements at SouthﬁeId-Lathrup included
three credits (six semesters) of science. Typically, students are scheduled in science for
all four years. Environmental science is a common senior class, although juniors do
enroll and occasionally the population will include a few tenth graders. Students enrolled
in environmental science generally do not enroll in Advanced Placement courses.

The average grade point of students in this study for the semester of the study was
1.97 on a four-point scale. The range for GPA was from a low of 0.333 to a high of
3.222 with only one student having a GPA of 3.0 or higher for the semester of the study.
As an indicator of the self-view of students in this class, when a sample of students in the
class self-reported efﬁcacy in science, about a third believed that they could do well in a
science class, a third did not believe they could do well, and approximately a third
indicated a neutral response.

The primary text used in the environmental science class is Holt’s Environmental
m and the course is divided into two semesters which may be taken consecutively
or independently. It is not required to take both semesters, although most students do.
While the courses complement each other, they cover different topics and chapters. The
ﬁrst semester topics have a predominant focus on ecology and conservation. Second
semester topics place emphasis on urban issues and hmnan-caused problems in the
environment. Both courses stress improving student conﬁdence and competence in
making and justifying decisions which will affect their environment. Units for the second

semester are Population, Energy, Water, Waste and Air/Atmosphere.

DEMOGRAPHICS OF SOUTHFIELD—LATHRUP HIGH SCHOOL

Southﬁeld-Lathrup High School is one of two high schools in the Southﬁeld
Public School District. The district draws from Southﬁeld, Michigan (a suburb directly
north and adjacent to Detroit) and Lathrup Village, Michigan, a small community
geographically encompassed by the city of Southﬁeld. The district is in Oakland County,
Michigan and has in the past allowed open enrollment, meaning students out of the
district but within Oakland County may attend as space is available. In addition to this
legally serviced population, there is some residency fraud by our students although a
documented estimate is not available. (Students in conversation have estimated that 30%
or more of their classmates are not legal residents in the district.)

At the February 2006 count day, the district had a total of 9800 students in
kindergarten through twelfth grade an additional 237 students enrolled in pre-
kindergarten. The student population of Southﬁeld-Lathrup High School was 1697 at the
February count, just slightly larger than the sister school which had 1548 students.

Demographically, the school population is 53% female and 47% male. The
racial/ethnic demographics are as follows: American Indian/Alaskan <1%, Asian 1.5%,
Hawaiian <1 %, Black 87%, White 8.5 %, and Multiethnic 1.8 %. Overall, fewer than
0.28% of students are eligible to receive free or reduced lunch. Southﬁeld-Lathrup has a
strong English Language Learner program which serves a number of international
students. The school generally has a dropout rate that is slightly lower than the state
average. Between eighty and ninety percent of graduates are accepted to two and four

year colleges and universities or technical or business schools (class of 2005 was 84%).

LITERATURE REVIEW

LAYERED CURRICULUM AND MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES

During 2003-2004 schoolyear, the science department chair and others in my
building had been introduced to and tried out Layered CurriculumTM units in their classes.
While the planning of a layered unit is very intensive, it seemed that the format might
help achieve some of my goals for the energy unit.

Layered Curriculum is a form of pedagogy trademarked by Kathie Nunley of
Utah in the 19905. The format of instruction attempts to meet the needs of differentiated
classrooms by allowing a great deal of student choice, personal accountability for
students, and an emphasis on reaching students within their preferred learning styles.

A layered curriculum unit consists of three tiered layers: C, B and A which
represent both the level of thought and the letter grade a student can earn by completing
that part of the unit. The C layer involves basic knowledge and understanding. The B
layer deals with applying information learned in the C layer and problem solving using
that information. A layer activities involve the more complex thought processes of
critical thinking and analysis. Each layer of the unit is a prerequisite for the next layer.

Student accountability is a cornerstone of layered curriculum. The way Nunley
incorporates accountability is through the use of “oral defenses” to earn points. In an oral
defense, a student meets one on one with the instructor to “defend” an assignment. This
generally involves the teacher asking questions about the assignment and the student
answering although the structure of the oral defense can be different when defending

different types of assignments.

Oral defenses promote accountability as well as reduce cheating. Even a student
who copies a paper still has to know the material in order to defend and earn points for it.
This supports Nunley’s view that teachers should “give credit for actual learning, rather
than for doing” (Nunley, 2004).

Nunley’s motivation to design her format of instruction came out of a desire to
reach a greater percentage of learners in her diverse classroom. Diversity can refer to any
set of conditions which make the members of a certain community different from one
another. Conditions may include religious background, family structure, age, language
spoken, or socioeconomic status. Even in a seemingly monoculture classroom, there are
differences among students in terms of family background, popularity, and even self-
esteem. Educational research makes diversity even more relevant to the classroom; it is
now widely accepted that how students learn and express learning is also a basis for
diversity.

Historically, differences between learners have been conceptualized in terms of
differences in ability—those who were successful in school were more intelligent than
those who were not. This “global intelligence” idea was challenged as observers realized
that students can and do “exhibit different levels of achievement in different subjects”
(Muijs and Reynolds, 2001).

It was such observation that caused Howard Gardner to develop his theory of
multiple intelligences in the later part of the twentieth century (Muijs and Reynolds,
2001). Gardner initially outlined seven intelligences. These were verbal-linguistic,

interpersonal, musical-rhythmic, intrapersonal, bodily-kinesthetic, mathematical/logical

and spatial. He later added another intelligence, naturalist. For more information, see
Appendix A.1 and the Multiple Intelligence Survey (Appendix D.9).

Gardner believed that although many people have one or two dominant
intelligences, individuals are not limited to one intelligence. Rather, every individual
reﬂects some amount of each intelligence and their relative preference can change
throughout an individual’s lifetime (Jensen, 1996).

Gardner’s description of each intelligence provides a way to individualize
instruction for improved understanding. For example, Jensen (1996) suggests that
providing logical-mathematical students with computer time, gadgets to take apart or ﬁx,
museum trips, riddles and calculation activities will likely connect with their intelligence.
In contrast, art, changing locations, using large pieces of paper, videos, map-making and
sculpture are likely to appeal to those learners with spatial intelligence.

Multiple intelligence theory also inspires ways to assess students that are more
valid because they utilize the strengths of that individual (Fetsco, 2005). As teachers, we
want to know what students learn, but we often test how well students can utilize a
speciﬁc intelligence to express it.

Many schools appear to have had success in incorporating the theory of multiple
intelligences into their instruction and assessment. As an example, when Jan
Greenhawk’s school in Maryland (Greenhawk, I997) modiﬁed units to incorporate
multiple intelligences, teachers noticed that in general, “students became more self-
directed and seemed more conﬁdent in trying out new skills.” Additionally, when given
choices in how to research and present their learning, “the students seemed more willing

and able to do the research.”

Gail Hickey (2004) documented several examples of success stories in her study
of ﬁve middle school teachers who implemented multiple intelligences in their classes.
Beneﬁts included students being more actively engaged, retaining information for longer
periods of time and demonstrating a deeper understanding of content. One teacher
commented that one of his more talkative students did very well when she used her
interpersonal intelligence on an interview project. The student was “doing what she
normally or comfortably likes to do” but it was directed towards achieving a learning
goal instead of becoming an unhamessed distraction in the classroom.

Among Hickey’s conclusions were that student choice is an integral part of
multiple intelligence based learning but that not all students embrace choice equally: A
few students who were considered gifted and talented asked, “Why don’t you just give us
a test?” (Hickey, 2004).

Whether the use of multiple intelligences proves useful in the classroom depends
on the goals of that class or lesson. Latham (1997) states, “If the only goal is to improve
test scores, multiple intelligences may work no better or worse than other theories. But if
the goal is to reach as many students as possible and to acknowledge, celebrate and reﬁne

their talents, then multiple intelligences appears to hold great promise.”

LEARNING STYLES

Multiple intelligences is one construct by which to understand a learner; learning
style is another. David Kolb (1984) has proposed that an individual’s learning preference

can be related to a four-stage learning cycle which progresses from concrete experience

through reﬂection, abstract conceptualizing and ﬁnally experimenting (Appendix A.2).
Learners can be classiﬁed as accommodators, assimilators, convergers and divergers
(Appendix A.2) based on how they choose to approach a task and transform the
experience into something useful (Chapman, 2006).

Muijs and Reynolds (2001) describe additional aspects of learning styles as
proposed by other theorists, including inductive and deductive learning and global and
sequential learners. The authors also compiled this list of styles from several sources:

Visual - learn through seeing

Auditory — learn through hearing and listening

T deﬁle/kinesthetic — learn through touching and moving

Print-oriented — learn through reading

Interactive - learn through discussions and group activities

Olfactory — learn and remember when smell is used during learning experiences
(For further elaboration on learning styles, please refer to Appendix A.2.)

While some modern theorists believe that a learner’s preferred or default learning
style that is more or less ﬁxed, other theorists imply that preferences can change over the
lifetime of an individual or even at different times of the day (Jensen, 1996). While
agreeing that learners do indeed have preferences, Jensen (1996) contends that, “The
human brain does not just have a single ‘learning style.’” In fact, he states, “The whole
notion of learning styles becomes irrelevant when we consider the variety with which the
brain works.” To support this second statement, Jensen claims that learning happens:

1. In context — including conditions of the physical and emotional environments

2. With input preferences — how information is presented

3. By processing it— e.g. global, sequential, analytical, left- or right-brain

4. Then reacting to it — e.g. pattem-ﬁnding, reﬂecting, acting

What does an understanding of learning styles contribute to successful classroom
pedagogy? Throughout the literature, there is strong implication that many students who
are not successful in school are simply not experiencing learning opportunities in a way
that suits them (Jensen, 1996; Muijs and Reynolds, 2001; Henson and Eller, 1999). As
Jensen (1996) states, “Many Ieamers who seem apathetic would be very enthusiastic if
the learning was offered in their preferred learning style.”

Knowing about learning styles, it seems, should help an educator to streamline
one-on-one instruction. However, after reviewing the available literature, Muijs and
Reynolds (2001) concluded that, “while a number of these tips [about teaching to the
learning style] make intuitive sense there is very little research that suggests that teaching
to different learning styles actually improves students’ achievement.” The authors further
cite the research of Stahl in saying “One cannot reliably measure children’s learning
styles and even if one could, matching children to reading programs by learning styles
does not improve their learning.”

How do we reconcile the intuitive drive urging us to utilize learning styles even
though the literature (albeit limited) shows no correlation to “teaching to the style” and
student success? Jensen (1996) and Muijs and Reynolds (2001) suggest that offering
learning with variety and choice will automatically cater to the styles of different
learners, with variety allowing for exposure to many learning styles and choice allowing

students to pick the style that best suits them at the moment.

10

MOTIVATION

Motivation is related to learning in important ways. Wiseman and Hunt (2001)
indicate among other things, that motivation “enhances cognitive processing” and “leads
to improved performance.” Motivation also improves engagement, which can lead to
increased learning (Fetsco, 2005). While understanding and applying multiple
intelligences and learning styles can positively inﬂuence an educator’s approach, to
maximize student learning, motivation must also be addressed. One of the reasons for
designing a new energy unit is to increase learning; if motivation can improve, it follows
that the learning success of students should improve as well.

What is motivation? Sources differ in their deﬁnitions (Appendix A.3), but there
is general agreement that motivation is an internal drive that causes action or inaction on
the part of an individual. Intensity of student motivation can be observed in certain
aspects of student behavior, including the choices students make, the effort they invest to
achieve a goal, the frequency or intensity of certain actions and the persistence to which
an objective is pursued (Fetsco, 2005).

Motivation itself is categorized into two forms. Motivation as a “means to an
end,” or that depends on external rewards or incentives such as grades, accolade or
money is considered extrinsic motivation (Wiseman and Hunt, 2001). An extrinsically
motivated student might ask, “How many points is this worth?” before deciding whether
to complete an assignment. Often, when the reward is removed or loses value, the
behavior that it promoted comes to an end. Externally motivated students may be less

likely to participate in rigorous learning activities of their own volition (Jensen, 1996).

ll

Further, Bigge (1971) cautions that, “When a learning goal is extrinsic, it is obvious that
once the goal is met there ceases to be any point in remembering the learned material.”

In contrast to extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation is “motivation to become
involved in an activity for its own sake” (Wiseman and Hunt, 2001). Intrinsic motivation
has incentives that come from within an individual. These may be apparent, such as the
enjoyment of pursuing a hobby, or they may be less obvious, such as joining a sports
team to meet a socialization need. When learning is intrinsically motivated, retention,
understanding and transfer are increased (Bigge, 1971).

Relevance, choice, varied learning conditions, interest, and fun can positively
inﬂuence motivation. Past experiences, classroom structure, and student self-view also
impact motivation either positively or negatively. But what ultimately affects student
motivation in your own classroom? F etsco (2005) states that “students will be motivated
in your classroom to the extent that your plans allow them to meet and gratify their
personal needs and motives.”

A need is “a physical or psychological condition that a person must maintain to
stay healthy” (F etsco, 2005). Abraham Maslow described several needs universal to the
human condition. He ﬁrrther arranged these needs in a pyramid shaped hierarchy to

describe their relationships (Figure 1; Appendix A.4).

12

     
 

Actualization

/ Esteem \
/ Belonging \
Z Safety \

Survival (Physiological)

 

 

Figure 1: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

"‘ Some versions of the hierarchy include Aesthetic and Intellectual Needs here.
For more information, please see Appendix A.4.

Maslow believed that needs higher on the pyramid could not be satisﬁed until the
subordinate needs were ﬁlled. Henson and Eller (1999) support this in terms of
motivating students within school setting. “If students do not feel secure in the
classroom, they will not be motivated to pursue a higher-level need for knowledge.”
Tangibly, we also see evidence of Maslow’s hierarchy in schools. Regardless of a
teacher’s attempts, if a student is hungry, fearful, or has just been kicked out of her house,
he or she is not going to have academic learning as a priority. Teachers of adolescents
can also see that esteem needs, particularly the need for peer esteem, are often much
stronger than intellectual needs.

In contrast to needs, motives are habits or tendencies to seek out and enjoy certain

activities or accomplishments. Whereas needs are innate facets of the human condition,

13

motives are learned. Individual Ieamers will therefore have different motives because
they have different life experiences. Once acquired, motives can be considered a
relatively stable characteristic of a person and have the ability to inﬂuence a person’s
performance in a wide variety of situations. Understanding the basis for motives is vital
to an educator because motives affect how students respond to the classroom and to the
instructor (Fetsco, 2005).

Two examples of motives are the motive to achieve and the motive to avoid
failure (F etsco, 2005). According to achievement motivation theory, the relative strength
of these two motives in an individual, along with perceived likelihood of success on a
particular task and the value of such success, will engender certain response choices from
that individual.

Typically, students with a strong motive to avoid failure need a level of certainty
in their surroundings (Fetsco, 2005). This can be a signiﬁcant drive, even to the point
that these students will sometimes choose to fail completely if they feel that a reasonable
attempt will not produce acceptable results. Ironically, some students who fail because
they don’t attempt assignments are actually acting on a motive to avoid failure. The need
for certainty outweighs the shame of attempting a task and then failing.

In some ways, layered curriculum provides certainty to learners. Students in
Nunley’s class know exactly what grade will be earned based on the C, B, and A level
organization. In other ways, however, layered curriculum provides a great deal of
uncertainty. Students who have difﬁculty choosing tasks may be overwhelmed and see
the format as guaranteed failure. These students may decide before they even begin that

inaction and avoidance are the safest choices.

14

Learners who have a stronger motive to achieve are more likely to select more
difficult tasks and value the learning potential they provide. Also, they are more likely to
persist in the face of limited success. In contrast, students whose motive to avoid failure
is stronger are likely to select less challenging tasks and in the face of failure are likely to
give up. Henson and Eller (1999) conﬁrm this, indicating that students low in
achievement motivation will respond to failure with even lower motivation, although they
do suggest that teacher actions can affect motives (Appendix A.5). Given the amount of
choice in a layered curriculum, student motives may inﬂuence their interaction with the
unit.

Another attribute of personality that affects motivation and response to situations
is how much control an individual feels he or she has over his or her circumstances.
Weiner’s attribution theory addresses the perception of students in three dimensions: the
locus of control, stability, and controllability (Henson and Eller, 1999).

Locus of control, the most relevant to this discussion, deals with whether
individuals believe they are responsible for their own successes or failures. Individuals
with an internal locus of control are likely to believe that poor or good performance on a
test is due to ability, effort or some facet of themselves which allows them to be good test
takers. In contrast, students with an external locus of control are likely to believe that
performance is due to luck, how easy or difﬁcult the tack was, or other external features,
including bias on the part of the test grader. When receiving a poor test paper, a student
with internal locus of control might say, “I should have studied harder,” while a student

whose locus of control is external might say, “This test was too hard for anyone to pass.”

15

One can see a causal relationship with student motivation. People with a strong internal
locus of control tend to be more persistent at tasks. In contrast, people with a highly
external locus of control feel more powerless and are likely to stop attempting tasks at the
ﬁrst indication of difﬁculty. (For more discussion on the other two factors, please see
Appendix A.6.)

Repeated lack of success is another signiﬁcant contributor to reducing motivation.
Students who continually experience failure may develop what some psychologists call
“learned helplessness” (Wiseman and Hunt, 2001; F etsco, 2005; Taylor and Nolen,
2005). In this state, students have come to believe that studying does them no good and
that they are helpless to do well no matter what effort they put forth. The end result is
that students reduce both their interest and effort in the subject (Taylor and Nolen, 2005).

This does not mean that all students should always be successful, however. Bigge
(1971) states, “For success to be experienced as such, there must be a possibility of
failure.” The joy of success can only occur when students have to work for it. What we
learn from this is that a balance must be met between challenge and success.

Student perceptions and feelings play a signiﬁcant role in student motivation
(Henson and Eller, 1999). Speciﬁcally, a student’s self-concept, self-esteem and self-
efﬁcacy can begin a cycle of increased or decreased motivation, fueled by how a student
perceives the results of attempting a task. Jensen (1996) states, “Those who Ieam less
often expect to learn less.” Empirically, I have seen examples of this in my own classes.
Self-concept, self-esteem and school achievement are elaborated in Appendix A.7.

In addition to student views of self, social, cultural and peer pressure also can

sometimes have a negative impact on student motivation. Henson and Eller (1999) state,

16

“While established institutions, such as the school, work to inﬂuence youths positively,
youths have their own cultures, and the characteristics of these cultures often conﬂict
with the goals of the school.”

The inﬂuence of the environment outside the classroom is beyond a teacher’s
control. However, teacher expectation is an important factor in the classroom. Although
personal efﬁcacy is a stronger force, if the student perceives that the teacher believes he
or she can achieve, there is a positive correlation with increased motivation and success
(Muijs and Reynolds, 2001).

Can a teacher truly motivate students? Wiseman and Hunt (2001) suggest that
teachers do not motivate, they merely “set the stage” for motivation to occur by
managing the learning environment. Learners are more motivated when they perceive
the potential for success, when they believe the learning goals are important, interesting
and relevant, when learning activities address personal needs and motives, and when
variety and choice are offered. A teacher can motivate students inasmuch as he or she

can establish learning environments that strive for optimal levels of each of these factors.

DISEQUILIBRIA

Aside from those aspects already discussed, there are other facets of motivation to
consider. For example, Bigge (1971), applying Piaget’s theories, states that, “We
experience our strongest motivation in situations that are puzzling.” According to Piaget.
the brain is constantly searching for order and balance, so called “equilibration.”

Disequilibria, or puzzling situations, cause tension, and must be resolved (Bigge, 1971).

I7

Given this, Wiseman and Hunt (2001) believe that a certain amount of disequilibria is
actually desirable to encourage students to be motivated. Henson and Eller (1999)
concur, stating that, “Students can be motivated to perform well, not only because of
rewards such as grades or praise, but because of factors such as interest, curiosity, the
need to obtain information or solve a problem or the desire to understand.”

Although some level of tension is essentially required to motivate, too much and
you lose. There is a threshold of stress in the learner, past which the motivation is no
longer to solve the problem but to avoid it.

In a similar balancing act, the balance between challenge level of an assignment
and a student’s skills inﬂuences motivation and student success (Wiseman and Hunt,
2001; Henson and Eller, 1999; Appendix A.8). When challenge far outweighs skill, a
learner can become anxious and motivation can cease. When skill far outweighs
challenge, boredom ensues. The “state of ﬂow” for optimal learning happens when the
mix is right between the challenge level of the activity and participant skill level. You
know a class has been in this state when the bell rings and students say, “Wow—is it the

end of the hour already?”

ANXIETY

Anxiety, deﬁned by Wiseman and Hunt (2005), is a “feeling of apprehension,

worry, tension or nervousness.” Anxiety can be either good or bad for student learning,

depending on the intensity. Anxiety which causes action is termed “facilitating anxiety”

by Wiseman and Hunt (2005). For example, when you are running late in the morning,

18

the worry of missing your meeting time can cause you to pick up your pace and hurry out
the door. Similarly, a small amount of anxiety for students poses a challenge and is a
motivating force. If the situation causing the anxiety is perceived as temporary, and
students can visualize a way to work through the anxiety, they will be motivated.
Correspondingly, in complete absence of anxiety, students may not be motivated at all
On the other extreme, very high levels of anxiety, so-called “debilitating anxiety”
(Wiseman and Hunt 2005), have a negative impact on learning. In times of elevated
stress, students may resort to using avoidance behaviors or a number of other responses.
Wiseman and Hunt (2005) warn of potentially extreme consequences for debilitating
anxiety: “Many students experience levels of anxiety that are virtually paralyzing in
terms of affecting their motivation and performance.” The use of oral defenses should be

approached with care to avoid the possibility of such anxiety.

CHOICE

Choice is noted throughout the literature as a way to increase student motivation
(Wiseman and Hunt, 2001; Hickey, 2004; Nunley, 2004; Taylor and Nolen, 2005).
Choice may inﬂuence motivation simply because it increases the potential for student
interest. As Jensen (1996) states, “If participants are to be predominately self-motivated,
they must be given the opportunity to focus on their areas of interest and to participate in
activities they ﬁnd interesting.” As well as providing for topic interest, choice can assist

in accommodating learning style differences.

l9

Choice may also increase motivation by fulﬁlling adolescents’ increasing needs
for autonomy. Researchers agree that using choice to empower students with feelings of
control, ownership and responsibility can positively impact motivation (Taylor and
Nolen, 2005; Wiseman and Hunt, 2001; Hickey, 2004; Nunley, 2004).

In addition to increasing motivation, choice may also have a beneﬁcial impact on
the quality of the learning. Several studies indicate that when students Ieam on their
own, learning is more meaningful than when they Ieam as a result of others.
Additionally, students learning on their own do not need to depend on the teacher for
external motivation as often as other students do (Henson and Eller, 1999).

For the reasons described above, layered curriculum might address my goal of
increasing motivation as well as learning in the energy unit. However, although choice
overall is good, Taylor and Nolen (2005) warn that students sometimes have difﬁculty
when given the opportunity for choice:

“Students who are used to having teachers guide every step in their work may

resist taking the risk of self-choice—especially if they have learned that teachers

actually have unwritten expectations. In fact, we have found that students’
resistance to self-choice most often comes from experience in school or at home

where self-choice has been discouraged or even punished.”

MEMORY AND RETENTION

An awareness of current theories of memory can also help in teaching for

retention and true learning. According to Nunley (2004, “Why Hands-on Learning is

20

Good”) there are two types of memory: semantic and episodic. Semantic memory is that
which we set out to remember—facts, dates, processes like addition and subtraction.
Episodic memory consists of things that we remember without consciously attempting to
do so. Examples of episodic memories are what we ate for dinner last night, our favorite
gift on our eighth birthday and the sadness we felt at a funeral of someone close to us.
These two types of memories may be formed and stored by separate systems of the brain,
the evidence for this being that persons affected with Alzheimer’s disease can lose much
of their episodic memory but retain their semantic.

According to Nunley (2004, “Why Hands-On Learning is Good”), the episodic
memory is more permanent and more easily accessed than the semantic. It is the reason
many adults remember the frog dissection from their biology class but not the stages of
meiosis. Nunley uses this as justiﬁcation to employ as much hands-on learning as
possible. Her logic says that activities which target both memory systems likely lead to
more retention. Nonetheless, although episodic memory may be more permanent and
accessible, the semantic memory has been shown to be more accurate, thus implying a
need and functionality for this type of memory.

Jensen (1996) criticizes the typical emphasis on semantic memory in schools,
calling semantic memory “a very unnatural way to Ieam and remember things.”
Similarly, Bigge (I971) concludes that natural memory formation (enhanced and
intensiﬁed by sight, smell, sounds, touch and taste, and motivated by curiosity, novelty
and expectations) leads to more retention. He states, “Material that can be learned
insightfully, particularly on the level of generalized insight, becomes a permanent part of

one’s personality structure.”

21

To apply this to the classroom, researchers suggest targeting as many memory
systems as possible when teaching and learning information; the more senses that are
engaged, the less likely the learning will be forgotten. Sensory-rich activities could
include ﬁeld trips, guest speakers, and hands-on learning (Bigge, 1971; Jensen, 1996;

Nunley, 2005, “Why Hands-On Tasks are Good”).

OTHER INFLUENCES ON MEMORY

Several other factors likely inﬂuence memory, including the emotional state,
hormone levels, and intention of the learner, and the learner’s perceived meaningfulness
or relevance of the content.

It is commonly understood that students will be interested in and retain learning
of content that relates to their own lives (Bigge, 1971; Wiseman and Hunt, 2005). In fact,
Bigge asserts that content “will be remembered in proportion to its meaning” even if the
delivery of that content is imperfect.

The effects of hormones on memory are also well established in the literature.
While some hormonal production and response is not within the teacher’s control, it is
sometimes possible to inﬂuence hormone production through the classroom environment.
For example, laughter and smiling can cause the release of endorphins which have a
positive impact on the learner (Jensen, 1996). Conversely, high levels of stress produce
other hormones that have been shown to negatively impact learning and recall (N unley,

2004 “Stress”).

22

A learner’s intention or desire to remember or forget an item or event (whether
conscious or subconscious) is a factor in memory and learning retention as well. An
extreme case is the “blocking out” of a traumatic event or memory (Bigge, 1971; F etsco,
2005). Less extreme cases are more common, but also likely deal with stress levels and
emotional states or associations. At all times the brain, is selecting and sorting which
memories should and should not be retained based on a number of internal and external
conditions.

Emotions can impact motivation in other ways. For instance, if a student
associates bad feelings with coming to class, he or she may decide not to come to class at
all, or if he or she does come, there is likely to be less learning than might occur under

more favorable conditions (Fetsco, 2005).

DEMONSTRATING AND ASSESSING LEARNING

If students are motivated and conditions are suitable, learning should take place.
It follows that good assessment should allow students to demonstrate this learning. There
are many ways to assess what a student has learned. Routrnan (1999) suggests that we
can obtain valuable information about our students and their learning simply by our
ongoing interactions and observations of them, pointing out that the root of the word
“assessment” is the Latin “assidere” which means to “sit beside someone.” However,
standardized tests are a more popular form of assessment, especially for college

admissions and government data collection. Other forms of assessment range from

23

observing a student’s participation in a discussion, checking spelling words on a spelling
test, or evaluating a student’s thesis paper.

Assessments and their relative value may differ based on the actual task requested
and on the real or manufactured nature of the context and audience. Those which model
(or actually are) real life behaviors are sometimes of greater value to both the evaluator
and the student. Educational authorities refer to such types of assessment as performance
or authentic assessment (Taylor, 2003; Muijs and Reynolds, 2001; Henson and Eller,
1999).

Although educational researchers have competing deﬁnitions for authentic and
performance assessment (see Appendix A.9), they do agree that such assessments are a
good way to measure real learning. Additionally, as Taylor (2003) promotes, this type of
assessment often can be used to affect the marginalized student in a classroom (e.g. poor
test takers, students with Ieaming disabilities).

Routrnan (1999) believes these things about meaningful assessment:

- Assessment must promote learning, not just measure it

- A good assessment becomes a learning experience that supports and improves
instruction

- The learners are not just the students but also the teachers, who Ieam something
about their students.

- Meaningful assessment interacts and aligns with instruction and has value for the
student, teacher, and parent
The use of oral defenses addresses my desire to have more authentic Ieaming and
learning retention. Defenses hold students individually and acutely accountable for

knowing their information. Questioning students appears to have beneﬁts to students as

24

well. Speciﬁcally, questioning helps students to clarify their thinking, use higher-level
thinking skills and problem solve (Muijs and Reynolds, 2001; Routman, 1999).

Students who are used to interactive lessons are more likely to respond to
questioning (Muijs and Reynolds, 2001). Thus oral defenses may be out of the comfort
level of many students who have been primarily taught in other ways. The phrase, “But I
did it, doesn’t that count?” from a student irritated by having to defend work probably
stems from a traditional school culture which “has not encouraged students to see the
connection between daily classwork and learning” (N unley, 2004 “Accountability”).
Getting students to buy into the idea that grades depend on what they learn and not what
they did is a challenge with using oral defenses as a form of assessment.

Using oral defenses to assess also has some caveats when considering student
anxiety. TenBrink (I974) cautions:

“The way in which an individual responds to a test (or any other evaluation task)

can cause error. For example, a student’s attitude toward a test may inﬂuence his

score. If he does not care at all, his score will reﬂect this. If he cares too much
and becomes overly anxious, his score will also be in error.”
Similarly, Taylor and Nolen (2005) remind us to be sensitive to learners in all forms of
assessment, stating that when assessments are viewed as a way for teachers to control
students, students become less enthusiastic and less engaged.

Muijs and Reynolds (2001) suggest that a nonevaluative atmosphere is best for
eliciting student response. This of course is less possible to achieve in an oral defense in
which the goal is evaluation of student understanding. Nonetheless, the potential beneﬁts

of this form of authentic assessment outweigh the challenges.

25

BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON CONTENT

For something so much a part of our lives, energy is a rather intangible and hard
to deﬁne term. Colloquially, we use a layman’s deﬁnition of the term in phrases such as,
“Would you like an energy bar?” and “I am just out of energy.” By high school,
scientiﬁcally literate students should know that energy comes in different forms and can
be converted from one form to another but cannot be destroyed. Students should be able
to list forms such as potential, kinetic and possibly others such as thermal, nuclear, light,
electrical, chemical, or radiant.

In fact, all forms of energy can be classiﬁed as potential (stored energy) or kinetic
(energy of motion). Thermal or heat energy is considered kinetic energy because it is a
manifestation of the kinetic energy of individual molecules or particles. Radiant energy,
including light, is also kinetic because the electromagnetic waves are in motion.
Chemical energy, in contrast, can be a form of potential energy because net energy can be
stored in the bonds of chemical compounds.

Each form of energy can be converted and reconverted into other forms. For
example, through the processes of photosynthesis plants convert light energy into
chemical potential energy. Also, a generator can transform kinetic energy into electrical
energy. Braking a car actually converts some of the kinetic energy from the movement of
the car into thermal energy on the brake pads. The Law of Conservation of Energy, also
known as the second law of thermodynamics, states that no matter how many

conversions, the net total energy of a system remains constant.

26

Energy and its multitude of related topics are studied in all the science disciplines
as well as in non-science disciplines (Appendix A.10). In terms of an environmental
science class, energy studies have a two-fold emphasis. First is the ecological theme of
energy ﬂow through an ecosystem, similar to the study of energy in a biology course.
Second is the theme of energy as a natural resource used by humans. How humans
utilize energy resources and the impacts of such use is the focus of this thesis.

The content objectives relating to energy in my environmental science class deal
with four parts: 1) energy forms, 2) how we produce electricity from various energy
sources, 3) pros and cons of our energy use, and 4) personal responsibility and
conservation. These objectives are fully described in the Implementation section.

While energy forms are exarnpled above, energy sources are the raw materials or
natural resources that people harness to convert energy for human use, primarily for
conversion to electricity. The nine common energy sources referred to in this paper are
fossil fuels, wind, hydroelectric, tidal, nuclear, geothermal, biomass, solar and fuel cell.
A brief description of each follows.

Fossil fuels are nonrenewable sources formed from the remains of prehistoric
organisms. The three forms of fossil fuels—coal, oil and natural gas—are used to
produce an estimated ninety percent of the world’s energy needs (Barnes-Svarney, 1995).
Of the fossil ﬁrels, coal is the most often used for electricity production in southeast
Michigan. More detail is available in Appendix A.11.

Electricity is produced from fossil fuels through the following energy transfers
and transformations. First, the fuel is burned, releasing the stored chemical potential

energy from the bonds of the fuel’s molecules and releasing light and large amounts of

27

heat (thermal energy). This thermal energy is used to heat water and convert it into
steam. The steam becomes the motive force (kinetic energy) to turn a turbogenerator.
Essentially, a turbogenerator is a turbine attached to a powerful magnet that turns inside a
set of coiled wires. The net result of the relative motion of magnets and wires is the
induction of an electrical current, in this case, an alternating electrical current.

This phenomenon of inducing an electric current using a wire and magnet is
known as Faraday’s law. It is the premise behind electricity production in seven of the
nine energy sources. These seven sources differ only in what causes the relative motion
of the wires or magnets.

In a manner similar to fossil fuels, biomass uses combustion to release stored
energy from chemical bonds. The thermal energy released from burning biomass (or
biofuels) can then be used to heat water to make steam to turn a turbine. Geothermal also
uses steam to turn a turbine, but the steam is created from water heated by the earth’s
own heat. Nuclear power also uses steam to turn a turbogenerator. However, the energy
to produce the steam comes from ﬁssion—the splitting of nuclei, usually of a massive
radioactive element such as plutonium.

In the sources described so far, several energy transfers are required to make
steam. The next sources also use a turbine and generator, but have fewer energy
conversions. Wind power provides the simplest example of electricity generation using a
turbine—wind itself turns the turbogenerator. Modern turbines have elaborate gears to
maximize the torque provided by a steady wind. Hydroelectric uses the gravitational
potential energy of falling water to turn a turbine. Tidal employs water and potential

energy in a similar manner. (Incidentally, wave action is also used in some locations.)

28

The remaining two energy sources do not employ F araday’s law and do not
involve kinetic energy. Fuel cells, speciﬁcally hydrogen fuel cells, convert chemical
energy directly to electrical energy. In a typical polymer electrode matrix (PEM) fuel
cell, hydrogen and oxygen react in the presence of a platinum catalyst to form water.
Due to the structural design of the fuel cell, the electrons which are stripped from the
hydrogen create a voltage potential across the electrodes.

Photovoltaic cells convert light energy directly to electrical energy. Light is
absorbed by a semiconductor, usually silicon. Electrons within the cell’s matrix are
excited, leaving “gaps” which are ﬁlled in by other electrons. The difference in electric
potential between the top and the bottom of the cell creates a current.

The energy sources themselves can be classiﬁed into two groups—those coming
from renewable resources and those from nonrenewable resources. (Some references use
the term “alternative energies” to describe renewable energy resources.) A renewable
resource is deﬁned as a resource that can be replenished in a reasonable amount of time.
Wind, sunlight, grain, and trees (if not overharvested) are examples of renewable
resources. A nonrenewable resource cannot be replenished in a human lifetime. Fossil
fuels are a prime example of a nonrenewable resource. A common misconception of
students is that renewable means reuseable. This has traditionally been a difﬁcult
misconception to break even though several examples contradict it (Appendix A. 12).

A major theme in the study of energy in this unit is that every energy choice has
consequences. A partial list of pros and cons of each of the nine energy sources can be
found in Table 1. A brief elaboration of two sources, fossil fuels and nuclear power,

follows.

29

Table 1: Pros and Cons of Nine Common Energy Sources

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Energy Source Pros Cons
Fossil Fuels - Very dense energy source - Large carbon dioxide and
- Well established infrastructure other air pollution emissions
contribute to global warming
and respiratory illness
- Cause of acid rain
- Nonrenewable resource
Nuclear - Very dense energy source - Plants are very expensive to
- No air pollution build and maintain
- Fuel supply is nonrenewable
- Safety concerns
- No 1% term storage for waste
Wind - Clean/no air pollution/no - Noisy
waste - Requires space to produce
- Renewable large amounts of power
- Energy payback is good - Dependent on weather/not
feasible in all locations
- Hazard to migrating birds
Hydroelectric - Clean/no air pollution/no - Potential damage to riparian
waste habitat
- Renewable - Expensive to build
- Depends on location-requires
appropriate topography
Tidal (and wave) - C lean/no air pollution - Can damage tidal zones;
- Renewable destroy habitat
- Can only be used in some
locations
Biomass/Biofuel - Cleaner than fossil fuels - For widespread use, may
- Can produce zero net carbon require a large area to grow
dioxide crops
- Can be renewable - Not as dense an energy source
as fossil fuels
Geothermal - Globally renewable - Hotspots can cool off (locally
- Does not produce carbon nonrenewable over time)
dioxide - Sulfur from underground can
cause steam to be a pollutant
- Only available in some areas
Fuel Cell - No air pollution (water vapor - Infrastructure absent
(Hydrogen) only) - Source of hydrogen has issues
- Still being developed for use in
all applications
Solar Cell - C lean/no air pollution/no - Requires large areas to
(Photovoltaic) waste produce power comparable to

 

- New varieties have increased
efficiency

 

fossil fuels

- Raw materials are in high
demand

- Cannot be used efﬁciently in
all places

 

30

 

Positive aspects of fossil fuels are that they are a very high-density fuel.
Essentially, with a fossil fuel, you get a lot of “bang for your buck.” Due to the large
number of carbon-hydrogen and carbon-carbon bonds, a great deal of energy is stored.
Additionally, because the infrastructure for fossil fuels is so well established, deriving
electricity from fossil fuels is less expensive than from many other sources. There is still
a large supply of resources as well. Although petroleum reserves are dwindling
worldwide, coal is still relatively abundant. The estimated United States coal supply is
predicted to last for 400 more years at current use levels (Arms, 2000).

Although fossil fuels have beneﬁts, there are also many drawbacks. First, burning
fossil fuels is not clean. The particulates emitted from oil- and coal-burning power plants
are known to be hazardous and can cause chronic and acute health problems as well as
exacerbate existing health conditions. The burning of coal is also a large source of
nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and sulfur trioxide gases in the atmosphere due to
impurities naturally found in the fossil fuel reserves. These gases, through a series of
reactions, are three of the gases which contribute to acid rain, which is a serious
international environmental concern, particularly since the source of the rain and the
effect of the rain are often separated by tens or hundreds of miles.

Although coal is still fairly abundant, some fossil fuels are in short supply and
international conﬂicts threaten a steady availability of those remaining supplies. Mining
new sources of oil, however, is a source of intense conﬂict due to disagreement between
economic and environmental values. (See Appendix A.13 for further discussion.)

In addition to its other problems, robust evidence shows that the enormous

amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases released through the combustion

31

of fossil fuels contribute to global warming. This phenomenon may cause changes in
global weather patterns, coastland ﬂooding due to rising sea levels, an increase in severe
weather and numerous other problems. Ocean salinity changes due to melting ice caps
may also change ocean currents and cause some parts of the planet to cool. The global
warming issue has recently emerged in both political and popular venues (Appendix
A.14).

Like fossil fuels, nuclear power also has pros and cons. A pro of nuclear energy
is that ﬁssion produces no air pollution. The only expellant to the atmosphere is water
vapor from the cooling towers. Nuclear energy is also a powerful ﬁrel source—splitting
the plutonium nuclei releases enormous amounts of energy. One gram of plutonium fuel
can produce as much electricity as three and a half metric tons of coal (Arms, 2000).

Nuclear fuel is not an unlimited resource, however. The fuel, often from
plutonium ore, is also expensive to mine and reﬁne. Furthermore, spent fuel from
nuclear power plants is highly hazardous radioactive waste. At present, there is no long-
term storage or disposal available for this waste and currently power plants store their
own spent fuel rods on site. A proposed national storage site has been proposed at Yucca
Mountain, Nevada, but this plan is rife with issues and at best storage will not be
available until 2010. It is more likely that concerns with the safety of the location and
waste transportation will keep this in debate for several more years.

In addition to waste being a negative feature of nuclear power, cost is another
factor. Nuclear plants are very expensive to build and maintain, especially to ensure

safety of the plant and its surroundings. Moreover, startup costs increase tremendously

32

when there is public opposition to a nuclear plant. Cost is one part of the reason no new
nuclear plants have been built or planned in the United States for nearly three decades.

There are also safety concerns with nuclear power. The splitting of nuclei
releases enormous amounts of heat and requires special mechanisms to prevent nuclear
proliferation, or uncontrolled splitting of atoms. Although plants incorporate redundancy
and maintain rigorous safety standards, effects of something going wrong can be very
costly. Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania, 1979, is an American example of a “mild”
nuclear mishap; the meltdown at Chernobyl in 1986 is one of the other extreme. To this
day, the core at Chernobyl is still too radioactive to go near without protective gear, and it
will remain so for hundreds of years. It will have elevated radioactivity levels for
thousands of years. In addition, wind patterns spread nuclear fallout to Belarus and
surrounding areas. (http://www.chemobyl-international.org/facts.html)

Due to the nonrenewable nature of many of our energy sources as well as the
detrimental impact many have on our environment, energy conservation is a choice that
should be considered. Conservation can be as simple turning out lights when leaving a
room, installing energy conserving light bulbs, and turning down the thermostat. Other
ways to conserve include insulating homes, carpooling and purchasing energy efﬁcient
appliances.

As with any choice, the choice of whether to conserve energy or not depends on
how information intersects with an individual’s personal values. In the context of this
course, values are used to explain how people evaluate and make decisions about their
world. (Further discussion of values can be found in Appendix A. 1 3.) In the

environmental science course, students are asked to personally evaluate their own value

33

systems and use them along with factual information to justify and understand the
decisions they make.

A full understanding of energy does involve recognizing the individual’s impact
and responsibility in energy issues, matters that must be considered when making
decisions as described above. People who use electric lights, for example, should be able
to extend some ownership of the consequences of coal burning, since, for example, more
than half of electricity in southeast Michigan comes from the burning of coal. Likewise,
all consumers of power are responsible for the nuclear waste created by its production.
Conservation and reducing use are key actions that demonstrate a mature understanding

of our energy use.

It is evident by this summary that energy is a very rich and complex topic of
study. By incorporating choice and allowing students to learn through various
intelligences and learning styles, as in a layered cru‘riculum, it is hoped that students will
develop an interest in and an understanding of energy, as well as be able to see its

relevance to their lives.

34

IMPLEMENTATION

DESIGNING THE LAYERED ENERGY UNIT

The ﬁrst step in designing the layered energy unit was to identify the content
objectives relevant to the MICLIMB standards and benchmarks (Michigan Department of
Education, 2002) as well as those speciﬁc to the environmental science course. Since in
a layered format (the instructional format of this unit) students are allowed to select their
own combination of activities with which to meet these objectives, I was concerned that
in their selection they might by chance miss out on one or more of the objectives.
Therefore, the objectives were divided into three chunks and then color coded to help
students stay organized: Objective Set I was copied onto pink paper, Objective Set II onto
blue, and Objective Set 111 onto green. Speciﬁc activities discussed in this paper will be
referred to by color, letter and number. For the reader’s reference, a copy of all objective
sets and corresponding activities is included in Appendix B. 1.

Objective Set I (the pink objectives) addressed energy basics and how electricity
is produced from the nine basic energy sources. Speciﬁc objectives were:

- List common forms of energy.

- Describe how electricity can be generated using magnets and coiled wire.

- Trace the path of energy through the nine common energy sources.

- Define and distinguish between renewable and nonrenewable energy resources.
- Evaluate energy sources based on cost, availability and environmental impact.

- Investigate and be able to intelligently discuss an alternative energy source.

35

Objective Set 11 (the blue objectives) related to the consequences of energy use.

Speciﬁc objectives were:

- Consider the pros and cons of common energy sources.

- Evaluate long-term consequences of current energy technologies.
Within the blue objectives, 1 also subdivided into categories of nuclear, acid rain, global
warming, and ecosystems. I required that students complete at least one activity from
each subcategory. The remainder of the points could come from any activities. This was
likewise done to ensure that students did not miss out on one or more of these subtopics.

Objective Set III (the green objectives) addressed individual responsibility and
action. Speciﬁc objectives were:

- Evaluate personal energy use.
- Describe ways to conserve energy.
- Identrﬂ and explain reasons to promote energy conservation.

After the objectives were determined, activities were collected and developed to
support each objective. “Activity” in this context refers to any activity students can
select and complete to accrue points. This component of planning the unit was a large
task, since to reasonably allow choice, many times more than the traditional number of
activities had to be offered. Overall, more than 130 activities were gathered or created.

These activities came from textbooks, text ancillaries, the Internet, and various
other sources, including some activities used in previous years. Numerous original
activities and worksheets were designed and tested during the summer of 2005. Some
activities chosen for the unit were traditional reading and “pen and paper” activities such

as reading a section of the text and answering the questions at the end. Along with these

36

types of activities, I also made a conscious effort to identify and include activities that
were less traditional in order to meet the goal of providing activity choices that appealed
to multiple learning styles and intelligences.

For example, I expected that making a pinwheel (Pink C1 1) would appeal to
tactile-kinesthetic Ieaming styles as well as visual. Pink C4, another activity planned
with tactile Ieamers in mind, required that students induce an electrical current in a wire
using a magnet.

Another tactile Ieaming activity was Pink C13 in which students make three-
dimensional models of the two nuclear processes of ﬁssion and fusion. The demos
themselves are very simple, with the necessary supplies being clay, marbles and a
margarine lid (Appendix C. l ). However, they were clear and had the unintended beneﬁt
of sound effects, which particularly captured the attention of some students.

I included lectures and Internet audio ﬁles which might have been preferred
options for auditory Ieamers. Examples of these were the Three Mile Island Interview
(Blue C6) and the current research on nuclear fusion radio excerpt (Pink C38). Most of
the Internet based audio also had corresponding transcripts.

Many activities were not strictly for one learning style, but certainly extended
beyond the traditional school intelligences. For example, Green BS involved students
making two original cartoons relating to one or more of the green objectives. A related
cartoon from Foxtrot® was provided as an example. Making a game (Pink B5; Green B6)
was another activity that could demonstrate understanding of the objectives but was

clearly not a book assignment.

37

An activity that required out of class action was Green C4, bringing in an energy
bill (gas or electric). Although only worth two points, students could earn ﬁve points by
developing a list of ten test questions using the energy bill. This activity actually allowed
me to sneak in a one-on-one lecture to the students. With each student, I could explain
how to read the energy bill, what information was provided, and how to understand
personal energy use by looking at the bill.

The presentation of weekly current events was an existing component of the class
that continued through the energy unit. (Current event guidelines can be seen in
Appendix C.2.) Students could incorporate this required component of the class to the
unit by selecting an article that was directly related to one or more of the energy
objectives.

Creating a song (Pink C30) was an example of an activity aimed at learners with
strong musical intelligence. A musical option would also have been accepted as a “Your
Choice” (student-designed) activity in any section. Cross-disciplinary activities such as
reading Stephen Vincent Benet’s “By the Waters of Babylon” were also offered to appeal
to students who were more literary-inclined. Options to utilize interpersonal intelligences
were also available, including the “I-LERN” form (Appendix C.3), in which students talk
to one another about a lab that one of the two students completed.

Because environmental science is a lab-based course at my school, I wanted to
make sure all students completed at least one lab during this unit. Students could select
from the labs that were offered or design a lab in any of the objective sets to meet the
requirement. Since students would be self-directed, I needed to ensure that the labs I

offered could be easily completed and would give consistent, high-quality data. During

38

my summer work in 2005 I tested a large number of labs for these qualiﬁcations. A
surprising number of lab activities did not meet these requirements and were rejected. In
addition to existing labs that were suitable, several new labs were designed for the unit.

“Heat Bulbs or Light Bulbs?” (Green B1) is an example of an original lab activity
in which students compare the heat output of halogen, incandescent and ﬂuorescent light
bulbs of equivalent lumen value (Appendix C.4). Students use the data to determine the
relative efﬁciency of the bulbs—the cooler bulb is a more efﬁcient bulb because more
electrical energy is converted to light and less energy is converted to heat and wasted.

The equipment for the lab consists of a set ceiling lamp ﬁxtures and lamp cords
affixed to plywood bases with large, transparent plastic barrels on top. Plastic ﬁsh tank
thermometers with suction cups are afﬁxed to the inside of the plastic containers. To do
the lab, students put different bulbs in each of the sockets, turn on the lights and measure
the temperatures inside each container every thirty seconds or minute. The lab is quite
simple but also dramatic, with even the clean up being a learning opportunity—the
ﬂuorescent bulbs are cool to touch in just a minute or two, but students have to wait a
much longer time before the other bulbs can be handled.

Another original lab is the Pie Plate Turbine Lab (Pink B3). As seen in Figure 2,
equipment for the lab consists of a turbine made out of an aluminum pie pan afﬁxed to a
shish kebob skewer. The skewer is supported by two Clothespins attached to a block of
wood. The aluminum turbines are sturdy enough to use a stream of water from the sink
as the turning force. This lab is more open-ended than the light bulb lab and allows for a
variety of questions to be answered. One possible question is, “Does the force or amount

of water have an impact on the turning speed of the turbine?” To answer this question,

39

students can use different amounts or heights of water. The rate of turning, measured by
timing 3 weighted string as it wraps around the skewer, can be related to the amount of
power that can be produced by a hydropower plant. A beneﬁt of the design of this lab is

the necessity that students design a procedure that keeps all variables constant.

 

Figure 2: Pic Plate Turbine Apparatus

The next step in the design process was connecting the abundance of activities to
the objective sets and assigning them a level. To start this, each activity was listed on a
separate Post-It note with different colored Post-Its representing whether the activity was
C level (basic knowledge acquisition), higher than C level, or a lab activity. The Post-It
notes were placed on large sheets of paper representing each of the objective sets. This
helped ensure that there was a fair distribution of activities among each of the objectives
as well as enabled easy reassignment of activities if necessary.

In deciding whether activities were C level or higher than C level, I modeled the

C, B, and A level activities based on Kathie Nunley’s layered curriculum in conjunction

4o

with the levels of Bloom’s taxonomy. (See Appendix A.15 for background on Bloom’s
taxonomy.) Activities that clearly focused on knowledge acquisition were placed in the
C level. An example of this is reading a section of the textbook and answering the
questions at the end of the section. Constructing a pinwheel and modeling ﬁssion and
fusion were examples of tactile activities delegated as C level as they dealt primarily with
explaining and deﬁning concepts.

Eventually, the “higher than C level” activities were further divided into B and A
level activities. Activities which focused on application or making connections among
ideas became B level activities. Most activities designated A level required independent
research and evaluative thought or required students to act beyond the conﬁnes of the
school building. Although actions such as interviewing someone from a local solar cell
plant may indeed be focused on knowledge acquisition, I placed them in level A because
of the social and formal skills needed to complete the activity.

Most lab activities were originally categorized as A level. However, although
most lab investigations did require independent thought, their level on Bloom’s scale was
generally closer to application than evaluation, thus they were moved to the B level.
Other activities that were hard to place were either modiﬁed or categorized according to
what best represented the amount of work required and whether the beneﬁt would extend
beyond the classroom.

Once the activities were set, point values were determined for each. For
convenience, most activities in the C level were assigned a value of 5 points. B level
activities were generally 10 or 15 points each, while A level activities were worth 20

points. At this point, some activities were reﬁned and modiﬁed so that they required a

41

similar amount of effort as their counterparts, making the points and work equitable. In
some cases, this meant having more or less a “Part 1” and a “ Part 2” of some activities.
Students could choose to complete them in sequence or individually. The pink activities
C19 and C24 represent such a pair. At the end of the design process, a grand total of
ﬁfty-eight activities had been selected for the pink objectives, forty-three activities for the
blue and thirty-three for the green. A traditional unit would likely have a quarter of that
many.

The layered curriculum unit designed for this study differed from Kathie Nunley’s
in terms of grade assignment. As stated in the course syllabus, one of my overall goals
was that students make and defend informed decisions. This included understanding
science concepts, as C level mastery should accomplish, but it also required students to
internalize and use those concepts. I therefore did not stress to students that C level
means C work, and B level means a B grade as I did not want to give the impression that
stopping at the C level was a sufﬁcient choice for their learning. Instead, the unit was
graded on the points earned over points possible, as is the format for all grades in the
class. To manage this, for each level, an acceptable range of points students should earn
was provided. Earning the lowest number meant a C or D grade and earning the highest
in some cases meant extra credit. Similar to Nunley’s format, students were informed
that they should complete the C level of an objective set before moving on to higher
levels. However, the points versus letter symbolism of the C, B, and A levels is a
signiﬁcant change ﬁom her format.

As in Nunley’s format, however, oral defenses were used to hold students

accountable for their learning. In order to promote authentic learning, oral defenses were

42

required for most C level activities. Those activities which clearly involved independent
thought or which were of a nature beyond simple worksheets did not require oral
defenses. The Proposition-Support Outline (Appendix CS) is an example of this type of
activity. The process of completing this sheet is of its own nature individualized and
makes students actively engage with a text.

Most B and A level activities did not require an oral defense unless the work was
deemed of questionable quality. Some B and A level activities did require presenting to
the class, writing a lab report or some sort of action which was felt to be a reasonable
replacement for an oral defense.

I also made a conscious effort to provide students who may be anxious about oral
defenses with some choices that did not require defenses to relieve some of the pressure
that the one—on-one teacher interview might cause. Also, having non-defense activities
could help with time management, as having all students orally defend all assignments
could potentially become overwhelming and pose a serious time issue.

Once the background for the unit was ﬂeshed out, all the objectives and activities
were organized into three Excel spreadsheets, one for each objective set (Appendix B. 1 ).
Columns of the spreadsheet included the objective, the level, the assignment number and
a description of the assignment. I also included columns indicating the points that could
be earned and whether the activity required an oral defense. The remaining column,
titled “Points Earned” was left blank. Students could keep track of their own points
earned in the unit in this column. Finally, at the end of each level of each objective set
was listed the expected point range for the set. Table 2 below shows an excerpt of the

Green spreadsheet.

43

Table 2: Excerpt of Student Handout for Objective Set III (Green)

 

Obj Level A'zmi Description Points Oral POIIIIS
Possible Defense Earned/

Required? Teacher

Sig.

 

111 C 1 Journal Entries: Complete on day Variable NO
Iassigned and get stamped same day;
submit as a group at the end of the week
or section. 1 pt each

 

III C 2 Textbook: Read p. 287 - 294. Answer 5 YES
(if I -5. Use complete sentences that
indicate the question and the answer. Do
not do this if you have already chosen it
in a previous objective set.

 

 

III C 3 ideo: Green Fingers List 7 things that 5 NO
ere suggested to conserve resources. Put
a star by one that you think you could do.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IMPLEMENTING WITH THE STUDENTS

Prior to beginning the unit, students completed the energy pre-test (Appendix
DJ) and the “True Colors” survey (Appendix D.7). True Colors is a very simple
personality survey that is often used with students as an introduction to personality types
and learning styles. I used the survey to remind students that each learner is unique and
that in the layered unit there would be choices to ﬁt each of them.

Students also completed a multiple intelligences survey (Appendix D.9) midway
through the unit on March 13. This survey, modiﬁed from a version given to me by a
colleague, consisted of a series of descriptions in nine categories. Students put a check
next to each statement they thought described them well. The number of checks for each
category was tallied and students were able to see their relative strengths in nine different

intelligences. It was hoped that this survey would also cause students to be more self-

44

aware and encourage them to seek and select activities that might be most suitable to
their dominant mode of intelligence; when possible, I had labeled activities in each
objective set with the predominant intelligence that they utilized.

The unit formally began on February 27, the day after mid-winter break. Students
were given the pink set of objectives and the basics of the layered curriculum format
were overviewed. Oral defenses were explained and modeled, and the idea of choosing
activities was explained. Points of emphasis were 1) student choice of activities did not
mean that doing nothing was an acceptable option and 2) time management would be
important during the unit.

Students were also given what will be called the “Yellow Sheet” (Appendix B.2).
Page one of the yellow sheet had a written description of layered curriculum, the C, B
and A levels, and oral defenses. It also had a checklist of the required components for the
unit, including the pre and post-tests, the True Colors survey, lab and other requirements.

The next three pages of the yellow sheet were a calendar to help students plan
their time and keep track of what they accomplished each day. While much of the
calendar was blank, some activity options were already included. These options, such as
lectures, teacher demonstrations and videos would only be offered on the date noted.
Students did not have to participate in these options, but if chosen, they had to do them
on the day they were offered. Additionally, in the ﬁrst week, some suggested activities
were included in the calendar to serve as a starting point for students who did not know
how to tackle the task of planning their own activities. Although the yellow sheet had a
space for my signature each day, students were told that ﬁlling out the yellow sheet was

optional as long as they were getting done what needed to be done.

45

At the end of this introduction, students took the energy pre-unit survey
(Appendix D.4). When ﬁnished, they selected ﬁve activities from the pink sheet that
were of interest to them and were told to choose one of those ﬁve to begin in class and

complete for homework that night.

TIME MANAGEMENT AND PHYSICAL STRUCTURE OF THE UNIT

When students are working on different assignments, management of the room is
essential, both in terms of time and in terms of physical arrangement and access to
supplies. A crate of hanging ﬁles was set up to help with the logistical problems of
students working on different assignments. Each activity that required a handout was
assigned its own manila folder. The folders were organized by the objective (color),
level, and number of the activity. For example, one folder read, “How to Make a
Pinwheel C11” with a pink dot next to the name. “HINT SHEET: Heat Bulbs or Light
Bulbs Lab Bl” with a green dot was another. Several copies of the worksheet, hint
sheet, reading, or article required for that activity were in the folder. An original or
master of the activity was stapled to the inside cover of the folder. The ﬁle box was
freely accessible to students.

For labs and activities, boxes were prepared which included all or most of the
supplies necessary to complete the activity. The “Make a Pinwheel,” box is pictured in
Figure 3. Boxes were readily available to students, and had sheets to explain them in the

ﬁle folders. (The “Make a Pinwheel” hint sheet can be found in Appendix C6.)

46

 

Figure 3: “Make a Pinwheel” Activity Box

Further organization included limiting lecture time to approximately twenty
minutes per day on a lecture day so remaining class time could be devoted to hearing oral
defenses and being a presence in the room. Also, gradesheets for each objective set and

level were premade to facilitate efﬁcient recording of student points (Appendix 83).

ORAL DEF ENSES

Turning in of a worksheet or assignment was a signal to me that the student was
ready to defend. On some days, students were called up individually to defend. Other
days open defenses were employed: students could come up voluntarily on a ﬁrst come,
ﬁrst served basis. When the defense line was long, I made sure everyone had a ﬁrst

attempt before allowing students to defend a second assignment.

47

Oral defenses consisted of asking the student questions about the work he or she
had done. For worksheets and bookwork the questions were often directly from the
activity, although clarifying questions were also used. Because I could refer to the
student’s paper, the defenses could be individualized and focus on areas where the
written answers were weak. Unlike Nunley, there was not a set number of randomly-
selected questions per oral defense. Instead, my goal with defenses was that the student
communicate a full understanding of the entire objective for the activity.

It was possible to earn full or partial points on a defense; however, if a student
was unable to provide any quality answers no points were earned. Because I had small
classes, students could re-defend an assignment if they did not earn full points on the ﬁrst
attempt. The points for an oral defense were given based on my overall assessment of the
student’s understanding as well as the number of questions answered correctly or
incorrectly. Because the class sizes were small and there was reduced participation in the
second half of the unit, the time and management concerns that had been anticipated were

not an issue while administering this unit.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

As this was my ﬁrst extended attempt at teaching using a layered curriculum, I
expected to make modiﬁcations as I went along. One example of this was my assessment
of how many points would be needed to achieve mastery in each objective set. Initially,
the required number of points for the pink objective set was 90 to 100 points. As we

went through the unit, this number was determined to be way too hi gh—based on oral

48

defense performances, students who had earned 30 or more points seemed to have
mastered or were at least proﬁcient at most of the objectives for the set. The point range
required for this set was thus lowered to 40 to 50 points. Based on the pink objective
results, point ranges for blue and green objective sets were also reevaluated prior to
passing them out to students.

Because the layered unit overlapped two grading periods on the school calendar, 1
set an initial deadline for completion of the Pink C level objectives. Initially, three
students in particular were not working at a pace that would allow them to successfully
meet this deadline. Completion of the yellow sheet was made a requirement for these
students. Each day, the students would have to ﬁll in their plan, and at the end of the day,
would have me verify that they completed their plan. These students were also required
to give themselves homework. The yellow sheet process was instituted for one week and
then students were allowed to attempt to manage time on their own again.

For the remainder of the unit (after the Pink C ﬁnish date), I incorporated soft
deadlines. For the blue and green objectives there was a combined deadline and students
were able to work on blue and green activities in any order. This was in part to allow
students to develop their time management and self-efﬁcacy skills and to allow ﬂexibility
in the order of doing labs and other activities.

At the end of the unit, March 31, students took a formal unit test (Appendix
D.1 l). The following Monday, April 3, students completed the post-unit survey
(Appendix D5) and the self-evaluation (Appendix D.6). This was also the ﬁnal day for
oral defenses. A unit test retake was administered on April 10, and the post-test

(Appendix D.2) was given on April 11.

49

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

ANALYSIS OF STUDENT PERFORMANCE ON PRE- AND POST-TEST

Overall, students showed improvement between the pre-test and post-test. The
average score out of twenty-four points for the pre-test was 24%. On the post-test the
average was a 62%. Average score on each question also increased, as seen in Figure 4.
A paired t-test of individual scores for each test item shows the null hypothesis clearly
unsupported (p=0.001) in all but two of the questions (Table 3). Additionally, the
number of answers students left blank and the number of answers earning zero points

were both reduced between the pre- and post-test (Tables 5 and 6).

 

Mean Class Performance on Pre- and Post-Test
Questions by Percent of Question Value

1 00%
80%

 

60% a Pre-Tc;

I Post-Test

  
 

 

40% 7
20%

Percent of Points Possible
Earned on Question

 

 

 

0%

Question Number

 

 

 

Figure 4: Mean Class Performance on Pre— and Post-Test Questions by Percent of
Question Value (n = 15)

50

Table 3: Paired T-Test Comparing Pre- and Post-Test Data

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Item t = Degrees of The probability of this result,
freedom assuming the null hypothesis, is
Question 1 -2.20 13 0.047
Question 2 -5.16 13 0.000
Question 3 -6.09 13 0.000
Question 4 -1.10 13 0.293
Question 5 -4.56 13 0.001
Question 6 -4.60 13 0.000
Question 7 -6.62 13 0.000
Total Score -9.72 13 0.000
Answers left blank 3.63 13 0.003
Numbers calculated using http://wwwphysics.csbsju.edu/cgi-bin/stats/Paired_t-test

 

Although overall scores improved, the layered curriculum did not expand
students’ understanding in every area addressed by the pre-test. Of most concern was
Question 1. Students were asked to “List the forms that energy can be found in in the
universe.” Students across the board listed energy sources on the post-test, such as
hydroelectric, fossil fuels and wind, instead of energy forms such as kinetic, potential and
thermal. One student who had correct answers on the pre-test responded with incorrect
answers on the post-test.

One reason for the poor results on Question 1 might be poor reading or test-taking
ability. I have noticed that students in my classes often do not read well, or do not
recognize the subtle differences in meaning between similar words. Sometimes there is

accompanying apathy in situations regarding language nuance.

An equally likely reason for the poor answer quality may be that students did not

know the information and were not exposed to it in the unit. Forms of energy was the

51

ﬁrst objective for the pink set of objectives and was embedded in several activities.
However it was really emphasized only in Pink Activity C23 (Appendix C.7) which was
defended by only four students. Students who did not select this activity may not have
had the learning experience necessary to understand and answer the question. Two of the
three students who earned full credit on Question I did in fact select option C23.
Question 2, “Trace the path of energy from coal to your light switch,” showed
statistically signiﬁcant improvement in understanding of the content. Students were
permitted to use diagrams and labels to explain the process. To earn all four points
possible for this question, students had to list or label all of the following steps: coal is
burned, the heat is used to turn water into steam, the steam is used to turn a turbine and
the turbine turns a generator to produce an electric current. Some students who earned
partial credit on this question knew that the coal was burned, but they indicated that the
burning of coal directly created steam. Still, the difference between the pre- and post-test
was obvious, with the average score (out of four points) being 0.5 on the pre-test and 2.8
on the post-test. In pre-test answers, the maximum earned score was only two points and
was earned by only one student. Several students left the answer blank. Of those who
responded on the pre-test, a few indicated that coal was burned. However, most
explained the process of generating electricity using a “black box” idea: students drew a
building labeled “DTE” or “Factory.” Coal went into the building and electricity came
out. Unlike the content of question 1, this topic was covered in numerous activities
including in lecture, reading, and textbook form. This redundancy possibly contributed

to the student success and improvement on this question.

52

Responses to Question 3 also showed signiﬁcant improvement. To earn all four
points possible, students had to list common energy sources and correctly describe at
least one pro and con for each in data table form. Students were able to earn partial credit
on this question; deductions were taken for incorrect information. The number of
students earning points on this question (as opposed to scoring zero points) increased
dramatically from only three students on the pretest to all but one on the post-test. A few
students did have at least one error or blank in their table. For example, one student
stated that solar power causes cancer, perhaps confusing the use of solar power with the
sun’s emission of ultraviolet light. Many students listed only three energy sources
instead of four, but had a majority of the pros and cons correct. One student had a perfect
score for this question. If the phrasing of the question had been more speciﬁc in the
number of sources expected, the actual percentages earned may have been higher.

In answers to Question 4, “Who is responsible for nuclear waste?” several
students showed a very limited or entirely absent understanding of what nuclear waste is,
even after completion of the unit. This was evident in such post-test responses as:

“I am responsible for nuclear waste. . .because of all the stuff I produce, like trash
and body waste.”

“We are because of the amount of garbage we throw away each year.”

“The entire human population is responsible for nuclear waste because we’re
always dumping trash instead of recycling.”

“Yes, I am responsible for nuclear waste. This is because the amount of pollution
I have placed in the atmosphere not directly but maybe by driving.”

53

In addition to having no understanding of the deﬁnition of nuclear waste, most
students who did not answer correctly had vague answers that showed no conscious
connection between nuclear waste and energy consumption (Appendix D3).

The content for Question 4 was covered in the blue and green sets of objectives
and several activities were available that addressed this objective: Blue activities C2
through C7 emphasized nuclear waste, green activities C4 and C6 emphasized personal
responsibility and what sources are used to produce the electricity for Southﬁeld.
Unfortunately, from all the students in the study combined, only a total of only ﬁve
activities were defended for the nuclear waste subsection of the blue objectives. The lack
of understanding on Question 4 may be therefore attributable to the lack of participation
by students more than a deﬁciency in the activities or activity choices.

Although overall disappointing, one positive aspect of the data for Question 4 is
that on the post-test four of the students earned full credit because they were able to
communicate and justify a high level response, indicating that anyone who uses
electricity that is derived from nuclear power is in part responsible for the waste it
produces. On the pre-test there were no students who earned full points on the question.

Question 5 covered the renewable and nonrenewable resource benchmark. This
benchmark is also addressed in the ﬁrst semester Environmental Science course
(Conservation) that many students took. Although on the post-test, some students still
confuse reusable with renewable, many students were able to provide examples of
renewable and nonrenewable energy sources, earning partial credit on the question. Two

of the video selections which were offered dealt directly with comparing and contrasting

54

renewable and nonrenewable energy sources. Most students in the study had selected
these videos to fulﬁll part of their Pink C requirement.

The confusion between renewable and reusable is one that students demonstrate
over and over again despite the fact that when the concept is introduced in this course, the
misconception is immediately addressed, and deﬁnitions are restated each time the terms
are subsequently used. As students are far better at citing examples of these terms than
actually deﬁning them, it may be that misconception stems from an issue of language
nuance, as might the distinction between energy form and energy source.

For the open-ended Question 6 students had to select the form of energy that they
thought had the least negative impact on the environment and use correct information to
justify their selection. Because I was not as speciﬁc as I often am in the question
phrasing, and because the amount of space provided on the paper was small (which may
have been a nonverbal signal to students about my expectations) students were allowed to
support their answers using only one reason and still earn full credit.

Most students selected a renewable energy source to answer this question. Eight
students selected solar energy, four selected wind, and one selected geothermal (a poorer
answer). These results are satisfactory in that they suggest that students have some
understanding of the negative impacts of many of our nonrenewable sources. Common
supporting evidence included cost, pollution, habitat destruction and renewability. In
order to earn full credit, the reasons had to be factually correct and appropriately support

the statement. Sample answers to this question are shown in Table 4.

55

Table 4: Student answers to Question 6

 

Question 6: What form of energy/electricity has the least negative impact
on the environment and why? Use reasons.

 

Examples of answers earning two points:

 

 

“Wind power because the wind mill does not pollute the air nor give off any
gas. The only negative thing about it would be the fact it kills or can damage
birds and other air habitat creatures.”

“Solar energy because the only impact would be economically. It is a source
that is renewable and we can use time after time.”

“Wind power has the least negative impact on the environment because it
doesn’t give off dangerous chemicals or kill people if it explodes. And it is
renewable and it can’t be overused.”

“Solar has the least negative impact on the environment because it causes no
pollution”

“Sun has the least negative impact on the environment. It is apart [sic] of the
environment and is in abundance and it’s a renewable resource.”

 

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Examples of answers earning one point:

 

 

“The form of energy that has the least negative impact on the environment
would be solar, because not only is it cost efﬁcient, but it is a good way to
conserve energy.”

“Solar energy has the least negative impact on the environment because solar
panels are used on the roof and it does not harm other species.”

 

Some reasons the second group of answers did not earn full points are that their

factual information was incorrect or debatable, or their reasons did not support their

argument. For example, depending on the location, solar energy is not necessarily cost

efﬁcient. Also, stating that solar energy is “a good way to conserve energy” is signal that

the writer does not have an understanding of either solar energy or conservation. That

56

 

solar panels are used on the roof is irrelevant to the argument that solar energy has the
least negative impact on the environment.

Like Question 5, prior knowledge was also evident on Question 7: on the pre-test,
only one student left this question blank and all but two students earned two points or
higher out of four points when asked to list ways to conserve energy. Nonetheless,
students still were able to provide more answers on the post-test, with one student listing
nine different methods of energy conservation. The phrasing of this question (“list as
many as you can”) may account for some students not earning all four points. Four was
chosen as a number that represented a high quality answer, but many students answered
three correct responses. Had a speciﬁc number of responses been requested, there may
have been an even higher percentage of students earning full credit on this question.

The number of responses earning no points was reduced from 40% on the pre-test
to just 8% on the post-test (Table 5). In particular, questions two, three, ﬁve and six
show noticeable improvement. The number of blank (unanswered) responses decreased,
from 14% to 8% (Table 6). Blank answers can be an indicator of lack of knowledge or
lack of conﬁdence. The smaller number of unanswered questions on the post-test could
therefore be interpreted as a positive indicator of Ieaming or of improved self-efﬁcacy.

Table 5: Number of Responses Earning Zero Points on Pre-Test and Post-Test
(n = 15) (n = 16)

 

01 Q2 Q3 Q4 05 Q6 Q7

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pre-Test 5 6 9 5 6 l 0 I
Post-Test 3 0 I 3 I l 0
Di[ference 2 6 8 2 5 9 l

 

57

Table 6: Number of Responses Left Blank on Pre-Test and Post-Test
(n = 15) (n = 16)

 

or Q2 Q3 Q4 QS Q6 Q7

 

 

 

Pre-Test 2 4 2 2 l 3 l
Post-Test 0 3 2 l I 2 0
Difference 2 I 0 I 0 I 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ANALYSIS OF PRE- AND POST-UNIT SURVEY RESPONSES

The data from the pre- and post-unit surveys (Appendix D.4; Appendix D.5)
correspond with the differences in pre-and post-test data. On the post-unit survey, forty-
seven percent of students (seven out of ﬁfteen) agreed or strongly agreed with the
statement, “I feel more conﬁdent about what I know about energy than I did at the
beginning of the unit.” Only thirteen percent of students (two out of ﬁfteen) disagreed or
strongly disagreed with that statement.

Based on the post-unit survey responses to Statements 21 through 23, the class as
a whole did not like layered curriculum, prefer it to traditional instruction or feel that it
helped them Ieam more. Half or more of students disagreed or strongly disagreed with
each statement (21: 50%, 22: 57%, 23: 57%) while fewer agreed or strongly agreed with
them (21: 29%, 22: 29%, 23: 36%). It is of interest to note: four students strongly
disagreed with all three statements, while four students strongly agreed with all three.

While the proclaimed enjoyment of the unit was limited, students did express that

they knew more about energy at the end of the unit than at the beginning. Sixty-seven

58

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percent of students indicated agreement and only twenty percent disagreed with
Statement 24 on the post-unit survey (“I feel like I know more about energy than I did at
the beginning of the unit”). Likewise, on Statement 6 (“I know a lot about energy”),
there were overall changes toward agreement, with all but four students moving their
answers to the right. The four students who did not express stronger agreement had no
change in response. Table 7 below summarizes the class trend, with notable movement

along the gradient in a positive direction.

Table 7: Class Survey Responses to Statement 6 “I know a lot about energy”

 

 

 

. .. Disagree or Agree or
Statement 6' I’lfnow a Strongly Neutral Strongly
lot about energy .
Disagree Agree
Pre-Unit Survey 79% 14% 7%
Post-Unit Survey 14% 71% 14%

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another positive outcome revealed by the post-unit survey was that students felt
strongly that, “The study of energy relates to my life.” On the pre-unit survey, half of
students disagreed or strongly disagreed that the study of energy relates to their lives.
Only thirty four percent agreed or strongly agreed. On the same prompt after the unit,
only fourteen percent disagreed with the statement while seventy-one percent of students
felt that the study of energy was relevant to their lives.

Students also showed change in their perception that “Learning about energy can
be interesting.” Half of students agreed in the post unit survey whereas only slightly
more than a fourth had agreed beforehand. Table 8 below summarizes the responses to

the relevance and interest prompts.

59

Table 8: Likert Scale Responses to Relevance and Interest Survey Questions

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pre-Unit Post-Unit
Disagree or Agree or Disagree or Agree or
strongly strongly strongly strongly
disagree agree disagree agree
“The study of
energy relates to 7 5 2 10
my life”
“Learning about
energy can be 4 4 2 7
interesting”
Data are included only from students who participated in both the pre-
unit and post-unit surveys; n = 14

 

 

 

Self-awareness of energy use and willingness to act on information did show
change. More students agreed with the Statement 10 (“I use a lot more energy than I
really need”) at the end of the unit than at the beginning. Agreement increased from
seventy-one percent to ninety-three percent, with all but one of the students indicating
agreement. (N 0 student gave a neutral response to this on the post-unit survey although
one student disagreed with the statement.) Students also seemed willing to take action in
regards to energy consumption. At the outset, nine students responded neutrally to
Statement 11 (“I would be willing to make changes to conserve energy”) while only three
agreed. After completion of the unit, six were neutral and seven agreed. Fifty percent of
students expressed willingness to change whereas the pre-unit number was twenty-one
percent. (Analyzing data individually, two students had less agreement than their original
response suggested, but all others remained the same or moved toward more agreement.)

Students seemed to have less positive views of their ability to set goals and

complete them on time at the end of the unit, as shown by their responses to survey

60

Statement 4. (Pre-test: 21% disagreed while 42% agreed; Post-test, 42% disagreed while
only 29% agreed.) Although these results could indicate a decrease in self-efﬁcacy, the
results from Question 5 (“I can do well in a science class”) show that efﬁcacy in science
for the class as a whole did not change across the midline. Individual data show that
most students did not change much: Eight out of fourteen students did not change their
responses at all between the pre- and post-unit survey, three students decreased their
numerical response by one step on the Likert scale, two students moved up the scale by
one step, and one student increased agreement by two steps. More research would have
to be done to investigate the effects of this unit on student views of self-efﬁcacy.

Although many students could not articulate their relationship to nuclear waste on
the post-test, the survey responses showed a dramatic increase in ownership of the
nuclear waste issue, implying at least an affective change in this content area. Initially
responding to the statement, “I am [partly] responsible for nuclear waste,” thirty-seven
percent of students disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement. On the post-test
the combined disagree percent had dropped to seven percent. While the number of
responses which were neutral remained the same between the pre and post-test, the
number of students who agreed or strongly agreed on the pre-unit survey increased from
thirty-ﬁve percent to sixty-four percent on the post-test.

On the free-response portion of the post-unit survey, students wrote these answers

identifying the best thing about layered curriculum:

“that we got to set our own dates to turn in assignments”
“that I picked what assignments I wanted to do”

“you choose what you’re going to do each day”

61

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“that you had your own pace and not that rushed into a deadline”

“the ability to choose what you want to Ieam and how you want to Ieam it.”
“the different assignments you had a choice in what you wanted to do”

“the variety of different assignments”

“not having to listen to an instructor everyday”

“I didn’t have to listen to the teacher.”

Nearly all these responses imply that choice and variety were a central facet of the
enjoyment of the unit. However, students were ambivalent about choice. One student
who stated that the best thing about layered curriculum was “I have a choice of what I
wanted to do” answered that the worst thing about layered curriculum was, “I had a
choice of what I wanted to do which made me very indecisive.” The student who cited
not having to listen to an instructor stated that the worst thing about layered curriculum
was “being overwhelmed with choices of assignments”

The Likert portion of the survey showed a change in attitude by the class as a
whole regarding the role of choice in learning (Table 9). Students overall were less
emphatic at the conclusion of the study than they had been at the beginning on both
Statement 2 and Statement 3. On an individual basis, seven students kept their original
answers from the Likert scale, three students moved their answers one space to the right,
four students moved one space to the left and one moved two spaces to the left.

Statement 3 results were similar.

62

 

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Table 9: Student Likert Responses to Choice in Learning

 

Number and percent of students answering
l, 2, 3, 4, and 5 on Likert Scale

(1 = strongly disagree (--) strongly agree = 5)

 

Pre-Unit Survey Post-Unit Survey

 

 

 

1 2 3 4 2 3 4 5
Statement 2:
Students should be 1 1 3 2 2 5 3 4
fgﬁgacrgoose how 7% 7% 21%14% 14% 36% 21% 29%
“WWW” 1 2 3 2 2 4 3 4
It rs easrer to learn
Zlﬁf'fc‘lilfefm 7% 14% 21%14% 14% 29% 21% 29%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(n =14)

Explanations for this change could include that students attributed frustration in
the unit to the amount of choice, students were overwhelmed by the challenges of being
self directed, or that students perceived that having choice is more work than being told
what to do. Further study is needed to make a valid assessment of the cause.

Some students seemed aware of their own involvement and expectations in the
unit. One student who did not like the layered curriculum wrote, “I felt like I had a lot of
ﬁ'ee time but I really did not.” Another student wrote, “There where [sic] some
assignments that I had reall [sic] truble [sic] with and they were computer assignments so
I had to do them at home.” This student stated that she learned the most from lecture.

Asking about oral defenses elicited a variety of responses. Two students cited the
best thing about layered curriculum were activities that did not involve oral defenses.
One of these even described the defenses as “devastating,” although he did complete all

required points for the C level of the ﬁrst objective set.

63

Other students stated that, “Oral defenses were. . .”:

“different. I don’t like them at all though, yes it did prove that you know your
work, but if your [sic] not good at oral things that is bad news.”

“kind of hard but at times easy depending on what you know”

“OK, but nerve reckoning [sic]”

“pretty easy. They made me feel like I was smarter because I knew the answers.”
“starting to get on my nerves”

“hard at ﬁrst but you learned a lot afterward”

“Pointless because I wouldn’t remember most of the information anyway”
“one of the main reasons people didn’t turn in work like they should”

“good because that way I could remember what I did longer”

“easy if you read”

“neat and it made me actually read what I do”

Two students responded that oral defenses were “neutral” and “okay.”

Three themes rose up from students’ answers regarding the worst thing about layered
curriculum. They were
1. oral defenses
2. time limits being too short

3. not having direction from teacher/being overwhelmed with choices

Several students named learning about their own energy use and how to conserve
energy as their favorite part of the unit. Another frequently listed answer was Ieaming

about other kinds of energy. Two students named labs as their favorite part of the unit

64

 

Illll

while one student listed videos. One student listed his favorite part of the unit “the pink

packet because I got all my points.”

In an illustration of the individuality of Ieamers, there was almost no duplication

in responses to the prompt, “I learned the most in this unit from...” Students wrote that

they learned the most from:

Labs and creative assignments

Writing essays and researching

“The blue packet”

Lecture

Textbook and videos

The “ODS” [oral defenses]

News articles

“The time that I used the work to compare to my life”
Worksheets and the lab

Worksheets and videos

Discussing and working as a class

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

Although these data show improvement in comprehension of particular energy

content objectives and other positive changes, the overall performance of the students

after the ﬁrst week or two of the unit was disappointing and indicative of lack of

motivation. After the pink C level, a majority of students simply stopped completing and

65

Oll

m:

defending assignments: Of the students in the study sample, more than half earned no B
level nor A level points. Only one student earned any A level points in any objective.
Four students earned zero points in the blue set of objectives and three students earned
zero points in the green set of objectives. Two students each earned a total of only ﬁfteen
points overall out of the required minimum of 265 points, even with teacher support.

Students were given the opportunity to assess themselves in the context of the unit
on through a set of self-evaluation questions (Appendix D.6). Self-ranked motivation
ranged from two to ten on a ten-point scale with the average being 6.8. Self-ranked effort
ranged from 40% to 100% with the average being 74%. Students’ declared motivation
and effort did not always correspond with their grade. One student who claimed
motivation as a ﬁve out of ten and responded that she gave about forty percent of her best
effort stated that she felt her honest grade in the unit should be a C-. This lack of
causality and seemingly external locus of control was also reﬂected in the one-on-one
interviews I had with students at the end of the unit.

A few students did show some cognizance of their actions or inaction affecting
their grade. Many students justiﬁed giving themselves a higher grade, however, by
saying they did the work but just didn’t defend it. Some students were honest in their
self-evaluations:

“Had I the MO [(modus operandi?] to work period I would have done better now

than before.”

“After I realized that I was not understanding and unable to keep up I just kind of
gave up.”

66

One student who noticed that the level of achievement in the class had decreased
proposed a reason why in his comments on the post-unit survey.

“1 like [layered curriculum] because it makes you have to teach yourself but in a

way that same reasoning can also or was many of our down fall, especially in the

blue and green packets because after a while you start to get lazy.”

Another student suggested that oral defenses were the reason students did not do work.
Overall, a disappointing number of students rejected their own accountability in

the unit in favor of identifying an external cause of failure.

67

CONCLUSION

My excursion into designing a new energy unit was driven by my desire to
increase student engagement and learning and to provide more ways to meet the needs of
the diversity of my leamers’ intelligences and learning styles. In terms of the content
objectives, the pre- and post-test data suggest that students did increase in their
understanding of most of the objectives (Table 3). Additionally, students professed an
increased likelihood to act on their knowledge as shown by responses to Statement 11 on
the post-unit survey, “1 would be willing to make changes to conserve energy.” Half the
students in the subject group agreed with this statement. This can be interpreted as
authentic learning because it involves action within a real context. It also speaks to
learner retention as retention is more likely when students internalize and use what they
have learned. Further, students choosing to apply energy unit information to their lives
clearly indicates perceived relevance as well as motivation.

The unit also met the objectives of providing more hands-on activities and
incorporating more opportunities to Ieam through multiple intelligences. Several new
labs and activities were designed with this intent in mind and existing classroom
activities were selected for their ability to convey relevance and appeal to different types
of learners. Some of these activities were very successful at engaging students.

The “Bring in your Energy Bill” activity (Green C4) was one such activity. Some
Students came in with their bills having no idea how to read or interpret any aspects of
them. In essence, this provided a “teachable moment” for each individual who brought in

a bill. With each student, I went over how to read the bill, how to estimate future bills

68

based on use history, and had the student suggest reasons why some month’s charges
were greater than others and ways to reduce the total bill. Because the bills were real and
relevant, students seemed authentically motivated to ﬁnd out about their bills and their
own energy use. The end result of this activity choice was that it was both enjoyable for
me as a teacher and relevant and informative for my students as learners.

I was most surprised by the success of the baby food jar galvanometer activity
(“Create an Electric Current” Pink C14). During one of the teacher demos (Pink C6), 1
had made an electrical current using the same supplies as were provided to the students
for this activity (baby food jars, magnets, assorted wire and ammeters). I showed how
the number of coils, the size of the magnet, and the intensity and direction of the motion
of the magnet relative to the coils all inﬂuenced how much current could be created. To
earn points for C14, all students had to do was induce a current perceptible to the meter.

Students tried creative arrangements, some incorporating combinations of
magnets and multiple baby food jars. I had expected students to easily induce a current,
but this was not the case. In fact, several students worked on this assignment for two
class periods and showed surprising persistence to achieve the goal. As F etsco (2005)
suggests, persistence is an indication of motivation, thus it can be followed that there was
strong motivation to achieve the goal. Indeed, these students were so excited when they
ﬁnally saw the arnmeter needle move that I couldn’t help but feel their sense of pride!

I believe the labs and tactile activities really did affect Ieaming for the simple fact
that they were most engaging. Surprisingly though, the “Heat Bulbs or Light Bulbs” lab
(Green Bl ), which I thought would be the biggest hit, was not. This may have been

inﬂuenced by the fact that some students had waited too long to do the lab and were

69

rushed. Some students may not have wanted to do the minor set up that the lab involved.
It may even involve the fact that the lab took up a lot of room and made students feel
conspicuous in the classroom—a private student might not like the possibility of being a
focal point in the room. Students who did conduct the lab did say they enjoyed it.

The Solar Cell Lab (Pink B1) was selected by many students. Some students did
the lab on one day, and word of mouth seemed to spur several other students to complete
the lab on the next day. This lab was more open ended than the Heat Bulb or Light Bulb
Lab and allowed for more variety in the question that was answered. I was genuinely
impressed at the design skills (selecting a question), problem-solving skills (the
movenient of the sun had to be accounted for during the lab), analytical skills (tools had
to be selected and used correctly to ensure same conditions for each trial) and patience
that some students showed while completing this lab.

The insulation lab (Green BZ) was successful as an engaging tactile activity; the
three students who did this lab were meticulous in fabricating their insulated containers.
It seemed that students needed more guidance in meeting the content objectives of the
lab, however. More background reading may have helped with this, although a tactile
student will usually jump right in to a lab without reading background or supporting
materials. Emphasizing the post-lab graphs or requiring oral defenses before the lab
write-up might be practical places to start to make sure students grasp the objectives.

Two students worked with the pie plate turbines, although only one wrote a lab
report. This lab gave students an opportunity not only to develop and answer a question,

but to determine how to use the equipment in answering that question. The report turned

70

in was not of the best quality, but given the student’s background, was an acceptable ﬁrst
attempt. I did request a rewrite of some sections; unfortunately I did not get the rewrite.

Incorporating current events was also a nice aspect of the unit. This worked out
very well for the four students who got to “double-dip” for points, as no extra work was
required to earn the layered points. Since current events are presented to the entire class,
this part of the unit also helped students who did not choose the activity by providing
examples of relevance.

Although some of my goals were clearly met, whether or not student motivation
increased is more difﬁcult to assess. I do think that initially, motivation was improved
from previous years.

Bigge (1971) indicates that relevance and interest can increase motivation. As
seen in Table 8 in the Results section, after the unit a majority of students felt that the
study of energy was related to their lives. Students also indicated that the study of energy
could be interesting. These data imply that students had some motivation during the unit.
Student engagement and positive attitude also imply motivation, and several activities
encouraged these conditions.

The literature also indicates that choice is a powerful contributor to motivation.
By de facto, the entire format of the unit should have caused increased student
motivation. Nearly all responses on the post-unit survey regarded choice as a positive
aspect of the unit. Additionally, some students were observed to be very deliberate in
their selection of activities so as to meet personal goals. Affective enjoyment encourages
motivation, and deliberate choice signiﬁes that it exists. Thus, circumstantially, it

follows that motivation was enhanced by the student choice involved in the unit.

71

Although conditions supported motivation and evidence supports that students
were motivated at times, other evidence indicates that motivation was not sustained for
the duration of the unit. The lack of participation, one of the most disappointing aspects
of this unit, was a direct product of poor motivation. While most students completed or
had come close to completing the requirements for the Pink C Level, subsequent levels
and objective sets were not even attempted. Even though the opportunities for choice and
engagement still existed, students were not motivated to ﬁnish the remainder of the unit.

Another indication that students were not fully motivated was their failure to take
advantage of second chances. For example, I chose to give a retake on the formal energy
test because I did not accept the poor results I saw in the exams. I told students that they
would retake this same test in a week, and at any point before then, they could come see
me at lunch or after school to go over their answers. This was to allow students to
improve their grade and also to give me the opportunity to reteach on an individual basis,
but essentially, students were being allowed to practice with the same test they would be
retaking. As evidence that motivation was lacking, only two students came back for help
even given the generous conditions.

Some of my most unmotivated students in the layered curriculum were also
unmotivated in other units of the semester and showed the same level of apathy. For
example, two of students who were required to complete the yellow sheets showed no
improvement in performance, even after parent contact. Although theoretically the
layered format should encourage motivation, as Fetsco (2005) states, “It is impossible to
predict precisely how an instructional activity will affect individual students.” Some

burden rests on the student alone.

72

PREEXISTING CONDITIONS

Some reasons for the unsuccessful aspects of the unit are likely similar to those
experienced by all high school teachers. Students come to classrooms with varying levels
of intrinsic motivation, external loci of control, and predispositions to learned
helplessness. Based on student behaviors and conversations and on past performance in
science classes (some students were in the position of needing the half credit from this
course in order to meet graduation requirements due to past failure), it is likely that some
of my students have learned helplessness and/or an external locus of control, both of
which can negatively affect motivation and endurance.

The intrinsic motivation and the intentions of students are also complex factors
that have their start well before a student enters class. As an example, during the middle
of this semester, I heard two students say that they didn’t care about doing well because
they didn’t need this class to graduate. One of these students said this loud enough to
ensure that I heard. This particular student seemed in fact to actually have more
motivation to fail than to pass. More than once she said comments that portrayed the
attitude of, “I’ll show you—I’ll fail, and I’ll gill graduate.” Obviously the issues behind
such motivation are very complex.

Also presenting a challenge is the predominant student culture in my school
which tends to encourage denial of ownership and transference of blame. I tried to
alleviate this kind of peer pressure by having individual conferences with students to
discuss their grades. However, it seemed as if this condition of denial was very deeply

ingrained. General absence of accountability and ownership was particularly noticeable

73

in conversations with students in which they showed no acknowledgement of the
connection between their work and their grade. Students justiﬁed their nonwork behavior
by the fact other students also were not working. A few students were honest in the one-
on-one conversations, but many reverted back to transference when the class was
perceived to be involved. The lack of ownership students had over their performance
was very frustrating to me as the instructor.

One last less tangible thing that impacted the learning was the development of
“senioritis” by some of my students. Although the unit was administered in March,
seniors in my class were already counting down days until graduation and exhibiting less

effort on assignments.

THINGS WHICH COULD BE CHANGED

Many students claimed that they were not given enough time to do the blue and
green objectives and this may indeed be true. However, the result should have been
simply lower scores in these areas, and not the absence of a score as was often the case.
Nonetheless, in analyzing the successes and failures of the unit, including the diminishing
work, some factors were noted which could be changed to improve success on a future
attempt at this format.

Deadlines were one such factor. As stated earlier, due to the end of the school
marking period, a ﬁrm deadline for the C level of the pink objectives was established.
While some students were working at a reasonable pace at the beginning of the unit and

others were slow to complete and defend assignments, as we approached the deadline,

74

many students made a much more concerted effort. Three students even came after
school to defend assignments. Of the students in the study at this time, seven out of
ﬁfteen met the goal of 25 points. An additional ﬁve earned between 20 and 24 points.
The remaining three students earned 16, 13 and 8 points, respectively. The average
points earned per student was 22.5 points. Having a short-term, set deadline seemed to
positively inﬂuence student work.

When I passed out the blue and green objectives to students and gave a combined
deadline, I think students perceived this as an overwhelming task, especially since some
students still needed to complete their pink B and A level activities. While I wanted
students to develop their planning and time management skills, I think I gave too much to
handle at once and students were not ready for that level of autonomy. Some students
responded by shutting down; it would seem that certainty of failure was more attractive to
these students than the uncertainty of how to approach and break down the task. The
ambiguity of where to start on such a large task may also have increased anxiety in some
students. Procrastination, or failure to start [the blue and green packets] may have been
employed by some students in order to avoid this stress (Fetsco, 2005). Unlike the ﬁrm
Pink C deadline, which motivated students to action, the seemingly abstract deadlines for
the other objective sets motivated students to inaction.

Deadlines could be restructured to prevent some of the debilitating stress that they
caused. What might have better results would be to give out the unit in smaller pieces, or
at least only one objective set at a time. Also, weekly checkpoints could be incorporated
into the unit, similar to the hard deadline set for the pink C objectives. At each

checkpoint, students would be required to total their points from their sheets. Those

75

students not meeting the posted goals would need to use the yellow sheet until the next
checkpoint. Doing this even weekly would allow students more tangible feedback than
merely assuming students will set deadlines on their own. Such guidance would help my
students who are driven by a motive to avoid failure. Considering this was the ﬁrst time
through a layered curriculum for many of my students, and that many of them are not
used to having choice, I feel that instituting short-term deadlines would be an
improvement to the unit.

Another way to improve would be arranging for either more lab time or more
direction. Because of the desire for labs to be student-driven, “the answer” to the lab was
not given in the information provided to students. Unfortunately, several students
absolutely missed the point on some of the labs—one student conﬁdently explained that
the hot light bulb was the better choice for conservation because it was giving off more
energy. Clearly this student had misconceptions or absence of knowledge on the basic
deﬁnition of efﬁcient, and on the relationship of watts and energy. I found that even after
discussing these concepts with her she maintained her misconceptions in her lab report.
Either lab format, pre-lab information or post-lab discussion need to be addressed.

The issue of some students not being able to relate the forms of energy might be
addressed by some modiﬁcation of the pink objective activity choices. Since there was
only one worksheet which overtly addressed this content area, adding more activities,
making C23 a required activity or making alterations to other activities might help to
alleviate this problem. Again, this is something I can modify.

Many students used, “But I did it, doesn’t that count?” as a justiﬁcation for not

doing oral defenses, even though the expectations of the unit and the value of oral

76

defenses were clearly expressed to students at the beginning of the unit. Some students
failed to see or admit the direct connection between failing to defend activities and failing
the unit. It may or may not be possible to inﬂuence the attitude of students. However, in
a future attempt at layered curriculum, some aspects of oral defenses could be changed, to
make them seem less like a teacher-imposed facet of the unit and more like an
opportunity to express learning. For example, students could be allowed more choice in
defenses, such as determining the time, place, number of questions or other aspects of the
defense. Changes could also be made to reduce the likelihood that students get so far
behind in their defenses that they feel like giving up. This could also address anxiety, as
fear of the unknown might diminish as students get more comfortable with each

subsequent defense.

THINGS THAT WORKED WELL

Although oral defenses overall were not the most successﬁrl aspects of the unit,
one of the very positive aspects of the unit to me was when individual defenses were
successful. A few times I really experienced the best aspects of this form of assessment.
For example, I had one student come up early in the unit with a textbook activity. Every
written answer on the page was incorrect or incomplete. However, as I probed with
additional questions, I could almost see the light bulb go on. After a few stumbling
answers, the student began to correctly explain each of the questions on the paper. This
student who had turned in a paper that would have earned zero points in a traditional

format was in the end able to talk me through the ideas she needed to earn full credit.

77

(Incidentally, this student had a tie score in ﬁve different intelligences but was very
strongly “blue” in the True Colors Survey.)

A few of the comments on the survey indicated that some students also saw
beneﬁts of oral defenses. In addition to responses already listed in the Results section,
one student communicated that doing oral defenses allowed him to learn what he didn’t
know. Another commented that oral defenses were “good because I could remember
what I did longer.”

Something else that worked out well in some cases, albeit not in the way I had
anticipated, was student choice. Speciﬁcally, one student sought out and completed
every activity that did not require an oral defense. While I was somewhat discouraged
that this student was not getting the beneﬁts of the oral interviews, the student certainly
showed motivation as well as conscious choice in picking activities that he wanted to do.
He was in actuality meeting some of my goals for the unit and certainly felt more control
in the classroom than he may have in a traditional unit.

The research indicates that teaching speciﬁcally to a student’s learning style is not
always effective but that varying instruction and offering multiple activities may
effectively meet the goals of addressing learning styles and intelligences. Anecdotal
evidence from my unit supports this: Although two students scored musical intelligence
in their top two on the multiple intelligences survey, surprisingly, no one elected the
option of creating a song.

One of my students was always reading for pleasure. I included the Benet short
story thinking it would appeal to her. She did begin the story, but did not follow through

with it (another example of student selections surprising me). However, other activities

78

caught her interest. She named labs and creative assignments as what she learned most
from in the unit. An example of one of her assignments is below. This is what she

submitted for Blue C4, writing a poem dealing with nuclear waste issues.

Goodbye to the trees 1 used to know

Goodbye to Mr. Chow

Goodbye to candy shops and ice cream stores
Goodbye to soft pillow shop with the hardwood ﬂoor
For you are all gone from a 10 day ﬁre

No more signs in windows say looking to hire
April 26, 1986 was a day of pain

There is nothing left to gain

When ton of toxic waste was ﬂung into the air
And land on my new bobcut hair

Which was carried by a soft breeze into Belarus

It ’s all because of a little fuse.

While this is not full of facts, it does show an understanding of the emotional
response to a potential negative consequence of using nuclear energy. Therefore it met
the stated requirements for this selection. It also allowed this student to meet an objective
in a way that suited her learning style and intelligence, which was one of the goals of the

unit. To complete the points, this student opted to read her poem to the whole class.

79

The teaching objective of individualizing instruction did work, as indicated by the
range of student choices. While there were a few very popular activities (e. g. the video, a
few of the worksheets) no two students selected the same combination of activities. As
mentioned above, I was often surprised at the activities students chose, but choice
certainly changed the atmosphere in the classroom.
One of the non-academic goals for the unit was for students to become more
skilled in planning their time and making good academic decisions. One student who did
poorly at this did have this learning experience through the unit. She commented on her
self-evaluation that:
From my answer in number 3 the grade that I would have received shows that I
had a hard time in this unit yet I was able to do this work. Knowing that I did not
do my best I am not expecting to receive an A but I do feel that this unit showed
me a little about myself That when I go to college I will not have a push so if I
don ’t start within myself I won’t make it. Even though 1 many not have learned
much through this unit I had really got to know myself I may have set my mind to
not caring for this unit but I do thank you because talking with my parent and
evaluating myself I have realized that I need to get more focused and have a push

for myself and not wait for someone to push me!

For this student, fulﬁlling the lower tiers of Maslow’s hierarchy was more
important than participating fully in the class. Although this student’s learning did not
include all of the energy objectives for the unit, what she did learn was just as valuable.

Also, in the development of healthy human beings, sometimes Ieaming has to happen in

80

other areas before content can be addressed. Incidentally, this student will be the ﬁrst

ever in her family to attend college.

POTENTIAL FOR LASTING EFFECTS

Due to the engagement and relevance of some activities, it is expected that
students will retain some of the learning from this unit. For example, students who
participated in making an electrical current were so involved tactilely and mentally that it
is possible that both semantic and episodic memory systems were activated, increasing
the chances of retention. Likewise, the concepts tied to activities with obvious
relevance—for example making connections between energy bills and the students’
energy use—might also potentially be retained. Conversations with some students about
current events well after the unit was over also suggest that retention will occur at least in
these students, who were able to make connections from the unit to events beyond the
school.

As a ﬁnal anecdote regarding student Ieaming and retention: I attended my
students’ prom in June and ran into one of the students from this class. “Ms. LaSovage!
l have to tell you what I saw on MTV!” There she stood in the banquet hall, in her
formal gown and with her date by her side, and excitedly told me that the station she had
been watching had talked about the issue of global warming—and that she knew what

they were talking about. It doesn’t get any better than that.

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WERE THE GOALS OF THE UNIT MET?

Some of the objectives for this redesigned unit were clearly met, while others
were either partially met or results inconclusive. A summary of objectives and outcomes

is in Table 10.

Table 10: Summary of Unit Success

 

 

 

Goal Met/Not Met Evidence

Increase student motivation Initial motivation was good

and engagement by as evidenced by student

providing student choice Met and Not Met participation and endurance;
subsequent motivation was
absent

Increase relevance and Many new and existing

hands-on activities in the activities were incorporated

unit in the design of the unit;

Met post-survey responses imply

that students did perceive
energy to be related to their

 

lives
Allow students to Ieam and Activities incorporated
demonstrate Ieaming multiple Ieaming styles and
through multiple designs to appeal to multiple
intelligences intelligences; Emphasis on
Met oral defenses may have

limited some demonstration
of Ieaming through other
intelligences for some C
level activities

 

Increase authentic Ieaming Oral defenses were intended
by holding students to hold students

accountable for their accountable; not all students
leamrng Attempted defended in later parts of the

unit; student perceptions
showed little evidence of
personal accountability

 

Increase student mastery of
content

Pre- and Post-Test scores
signiﬁcantly improved on
Met“ most areas; *some areas did
not improves; overall scores
were mediocre

 

 

 

 

 

82

Table 10: Continued

 

 

Goal Met/Not Met Evidence
Increase retention of In some situations, conditions
Ieaming were right in maximize the

potential of retention,
however, I will not have the
opportunity to assess these
students in the future.
Anecdotal evidence suggests
that some students will retain
and use information and skills
learned in the unit.

lnconclusive

 

Meet other course content Some students became more
Objectives and behavioral aware of time management;
goals most students stated
willingness to change
Met behaviors outside of class;

post-test and post-unit survey
answers show an increase in
understanding of global effects
for personal energy use

 

 

 

 

 

HOW DO THIS YEAR’S DATA COMPARE TO LAST YEAR’S?

An attempt was made to compare results from this year’s unit test and post-test to
results from last year (when the unit was taught in a traditional format). Comparisons are
shown in Appendix D.12. An initial survey of the data yields a few points of interest:

- There is only slight difference between average Unit Test scores of the two years
- Average Post-Test scores appear to be higher in 2005-2006 (the year of this study)

- Average scores on individual Post-Test questions show varied results (Table 11)

Table 11: Comparison of Post-Test Results Between Current and Previous Years

 

 

 

Little difference Question 1
Improvement in 2005-2006 Questions 2, 3, 6, 7
Lower scores in 2005-2006 Question 4

 

 

 

 

83

Although these comparisons are interesting, the data must be considered
inconclusive due to factors such as small sample size, minor changes in the grading
rubric and natural variation that exists in class composition from year to year. However,
this data can serve as a launching board for questions and a basis for further studies.

Note: No statistical analysis was done on this comparison.

WILL I DO A LAYERED ENERGY UNIT AGAIN?

I have not decided if I will conduct the energy unit in a layered format or
traditional format when I teach the energy unit next year. If I choose to use a layered
format, I will revisit the deadline schedule and offer more structure to my students.

The almost unanimous response by students that choice was the best thing about
the unit is one reason I would consider doing the unit in layered format again. Across the
board students identiﬁed this as a positive feature of the unit. Not only does choice give
some control to my students, who are in an age group where autonomy is a growing need,
choice allowed students to feel more conﬁdent and produce better results than imposed
activities. Although there are other issues to reﬁne with layering, if I can hook the
students in with choice, learning should be more likely to occur.

Regardless of the format I choose for the unit next year, I will deﬁnitely include
many of the new activities that worked well this year. I believe the use of hands-on
activities and activities that address multiple intelligences and learning styles did produce

positive results in this unit.

84

APPENDICES

85

APPENDIX A

86

APPENDIX A.l

Further Discussion of Multiple Intelligences

According to Jensen (1996), Gardner deﬁned intelligence as the ability to “1) use
a skill, 2) fashion an artifact, or 3) solve a problem in a way that is valued by the
particular culture of that individual.” F etsco (2005) lists eight qualiﬁcations that must be
met for inclusion as a true intelligence. Among them are that the intelligence is
associated primarily in one part of the brain and that damage to that area of the brain
should inﬂuence the intelligence. Also, for each intelligence, there should be an
identiﬁable subpopulation of persons who are extremely apt in that intelligence. A
musical prodigy or a mathematical savant are examples. Other requirements include that
each intelligence should have its own mental processes and symbol system and should
have evidence of a social and evolutionary history.

Andrew Latham (1997), citing research from Hoerr and Gardner, states that the
number one caution for using multiple intelligences in school settings is attempting to
incorporate all intelligences into every lesson “regardless of whether it makes sense to do
so.” As Latham puts it, “Multiple intelligences theory should catalyze ideas, not impose
an inﬂexible structure” and should be used to help cultivate skills that are valued in
community and society, approach new concepts and subjects in a variety of ways and
personalize instruction as much as possible. As Latham interprets, “[Gardner himself]
would prefer that educators engage in thoughtful, exploratory, trial-and-error reform, not

blindly accept some established Ml [multiple intelligence]-based norm.”

87

APPENDIX A.2

Further Discussion of Learning Style Descriptions

Kolb’s Ieaming cycle has four components: concrete experience (being involved
oneself/feeling), reﬂective observation (observing others’ experience/watching), abstract
conceptualizing (creating theories to explain observations/thinking) and ﬁnally active
experimentation (using theories to problem-solve and make decisions/doing).

Four Ieaming styles (accommodator, assimilator converger, or diverger) come out
of this cycle, based on a learner’s internal decisions in a learning situation of 1) whether
to do or watch and 2) whether to think or feel. For example, an individual might
generally choose to “do” (as opposed to “watch”) and “feel” (as opposed to “think”)
would have an “accommodating” Ieaming style. “Watching” and “thinking” is indicative
of an assimilating style (Kolb, 1984; Chapman, 2006).

Kolb views a learner as preferring a single learning style (Chapman, 2006) and
has described key characteristics of each style. Accommodators tend to be active, use
intuition over logic, and like to connect learning to personal meaning and real life.
Assimilators typically prefer to use logic over intuition, enjoy abstract ideas and respect
information from expert authority. Convergers enjoy relevance and utility and tend to
enjoy hands-on tasks. Divergers want to know why, enjoy hearing a variety of

viewpoints and are imaginative in their problem solving (Muijs and Reynolds, 2001).

88

Processing Styles

Distinctions have been made between inductive learning (starting with details and
then forming the big picture) and deductive learning (understanding examples by ﬁrst
seeing the big pictures). Global Ieamers have also been differentiated from sequential
learners. Chieﬂy, global Ieamers prefer Ieaming in large chunks and are good at
synthesis. They are “big picture” Ieamers who may seem slow until they have
constructed a full understanding of an idea. Sequential Ieamers are happy learning one
piece at a time, analyze well and can deal well with partial understanding; however they

sometimes miss the big picture (Muijs and Reynolds. 2001).

Existence of Preferred Learning Style

To defend the existence of the preferred Ieaming style, Eric Jensen uses an
example of how different people might respond in the high anxiety situation of being in a
building on ﬁre. Response will vary according to baseline Ieaming style of an individual.

1) Visual — quickly looks around to assess the situation, locate exits and see if others
are in need

2) Auditory — immediately starts yelling “ﬁre!” or gives directions

3) Kinesthetic — starts running for the exit or grabbing others to help them out

While all people in the burning room may indeed do all three of the activities, the
one which comes to mind ﬁrst—the default, gives a clue as to the preferred Ieaming style

of the person, and perhaps the one that was relied on most heavily as an infant or toddler.

89

Complexity of Learning

Jensen claims that learning happens in context, with input preferences, by
processing it and then reacting to it. Context refers to the circumstances under which
learning occurs. This includes such things as temperature, social conditions, and the
relationship with the presenter. Input is the form in which information is delivered or
received. This may include visual means, auditory, kinesthetic, olfactory, gustatory or
other forms. Furthermore, input can be internal (created in the learner’s mind) or
external.

Once the learner is exposed to the input, there is a great deal of variety in how the
data can be processed. This includes processing globally, sequentially, analytically,
multi- or single-task, concrete or abstract, left- or right-brain or others. Once processed,
the mind ﬁlters the information and acts or summarizes based on a preference inﬂuenced
by several factors including time, risk assessment and internal and external situations.
For example, some Ieamers will respond by ﬁnding patterns (matchers); others will
intuitively identify breaks in patterns (mismatchers). Externally referenced Ieamers will
respond after assessing how they think others would have them respond. Impulsive
experimental ﬁlterers are likely to respond with immediate action while analytic

reﬂective ﬁlterers may stand back and reﬂect on what is learned.

90

Inﬂuence of Environment on Learning Style and Correlation to the Classroom

Learning styles can be culturally and geographically inﬂuenced (Jensen, 1996). It
may be that in order to thrive in the given culture and its corresponding environment,
certain Ieaming styles are favored from infancy. For example, rural Ieamers tend to be
more ﬁeld-dependent (“need to be there”) than urban learners, who can learn out of
context. Other trends observed are that Midwestemers and Northern Asians are likely to
be matchers while more mismatchers are found in learners from Australia and Israel;
Native Americans and a high percentage of blacks are right hemisphere dominant, and
women tend to be more auditory than men (Jensen 1996). Although the bell-curve of
preferred Ieaming style may indeed be culturally inﬂuenced, it is very important not to
make stereotypes based on any cultural interpretations. The brain is unique to the
individual, and even within populations of similar culture there is variation.

Jensen intimates that a student’s preferred Ieaming style can inﬂuence success in
school. According to Jensen, the traditional school setting favors a ﬁeld-independent,
reﬂective, cognitive style. This virtually guarantees success for students who have a
Ieaming style that matches that while it will likely “doom a learner to failure” whose
learning style is incompatible with it.

The nonstatic and complex nature of learning styles makes applying elements of it
in the classroom a less than straightforward matter. As we have seen, the literature
suggests that trying to identify and teach to one student’s particular learning style may
not actually beneﬁt that student. However, teaching to solely one Ieaming style will

almost certainly cause many students to be unsuccessful.

91

APPENDIX A.3

Definitions and Further Discussion of Motivation

Wiseman and Hunt (2001) deﬁne motivation as “an internal state that arouses
students to action, directs them to certain behaviors, and assists them in maintaining their
arousal and action with regard to behaviors important and appropriate to the Ieaming
environment.” Bigge (1971) states that motivation happens, “When a person develops a
state of tension resulting from unsatisﬁed need.” Piaget believed motivation to be the
result of an individual trying to reconcile some internal disequilibrium (Henson and Eller,
1999). More simply, Fetsco (2005) deﬁnes motivation as “a mental process that
activates, directs, and maintains behavior.”

The actual impetus for any motivation may be internal (a response to mental and
physical states), external (a response to the environment) or a result of the interaction of
the environment with internal states (F etsco, 2005). The consequences are often apparent
in the classroom; Henson and Eller state, “Those [students] who are unmotivated are
rarely successful academically, whereas motivated student are typically the best students,
both academically and socially” (Henson and Eller, I999).

Wiseman and Hunt (2005) warn that “teachers cannot count on students being
intrinsically motivated on every task that they present before [the students].” Although
motivation can be inﬂuenced by variations in classrooms and instruction, F etsco (2005)
similarly states that “It is impossible to predict precisely how an instructional activity will

affect individual students.”

92

APPENDIX A.4

Further Discussion of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Examples of physiological needs are those required for basic survival such as
food, water, and shelter. Safety needs include physical safety as well as the security of
knowing what to expect. The need for belonging and the need for esteem involve having
supportive interactions with other people and status in a group. Esteem also includes
one’s own view of self. Self-actualization, at the top of the pyramid involves
development of a person’s individual abilities and talents.

Two additional needs are intellectual needs and aesthetic needs (Fetsco, 2005).
Although some sources include these as part of the pyramid (situated between esteem and
self-actualization), Fetsco interprets these to be parallel hierarchies which are ﬁlled in
tandem to other needs. Often an intellectual or aesthetic need can support the basic
needs. A male student who knows about basketball may ﬁnd a group of friends with
similar interests, thus fulﬁlling a need for belonging. A student who writes well may
receive esteem from her peers and teachers, which may also increase her self-esteem.

All people, and thus all Ieamers, will have an inescapable drive to satisfy needs.
How individuals seek to meet these needs, however, may differ. Cultural and geographic
differences exist in how people fulﬁll some of the basic needs; people in China have
different diets and housing than people in Norway. Differences in culture can also
inﬂuence other needs. For example, to meet the needs of acquiring esteem in a

community, a student from rural Montana may decide to become a rancher. Conversely,

93

a student from Silicon Valley might earn the esteem of others by pursuing a career in
computer engineering.

To apply this concept to the classroom, educators should be aware that there is
often more going on in a student’s life than what is externally evidenced in the few hours

they are in the classroom.

94

APPENDIX A.5

Teacher Influence on Student Motives

Although motives are somewhat ﬁxed, they are not immutable. Henson and Eller
claim that “teachers can increase achievement motivation in students by encouraging
them to be independent, to accept personal responsibility for their performance, and to
accept some goals that require taking some risks.” This must happen, of course, in a
positive and safe environment for the student, and does not bring about change overnight.
Experiencing success can also increase motivation, even in students with low level of
achievement motive. Layered curriculum could provide an opportunity to positively

inﬂuence the motives of some learners.

APPENDIX A.6

Stability and Controllability

Stability, the second dimension of Weiner’s theory, refers to whether a cause is

ﬁxed (such as ability or teacher bias) or variable (such as mood or luck). Controllability,

the third dimension, refers to whether the cause can be controlled by the learner. Teacher

bias is considered stable and uncontrollable, for example, while luck is unstable and

uncontrollable. Receiving help from others is unstable yet controllable.

95

APPENDIX A.7

Effects of Student Perception and Self-Concept on Motivation and Success

Perceptions can have outward consequences as well as internal effects. Certainly,
continuous frustration in a certain venue can have negative impact on the learner’s
production, but it can also impact a learner’s self-concept, self-esteem and self-efﬁcacy.
The deﬁnition for self-concept used by Muij and Reynolds (2001) is “A person’s
perceptions of him/herself, formed through experience with the environment, interactions
with signiﬁcant others and attributes of his or her own behavior.” Students may have
separate self-concepts for a number of areas. For example, a student might consider
herself good at sports and average at English. Self-esteem is deﬁned as “a personal
judgment of worthiness that is expressed in the attitudes that individual holds towards
him or herself” (Muijs and Reynolds, 2001). Both self-concept and self-esteem can
inﬂuence motivation. Although not entirely, these views of self can be inﬂuenced by past
experience.

Research of Purkey suggests a strong relationship between self-concept and
school achievement, with academic self-concept more strongly related to success or
failure than self esteem. Whether achievement affects self—concept or self-concept affects
achievement has not been determined. However, improving the view a student has of his
or her abilities is likely to improve academic performance (Muijs and Reynolds, 2001).

In my own experience, I have seen that students who are in classes perceived to

be the “dumb” classes are more likely to give up instead and consider themselves “dumb”

96

than are students in perceived higher-level classes. Muijs and Reynolds (2001) suggest
having high expectations of students, providing structure and empowering students with
responsibility and autonomy can help improve their self-view.

The belief that a student has about himself and his competency is also related to
self-efﬁcacy. As expected, this inﬂuences Ieaming as well. Students with high self-
efﬁcacy “may be willing to try harder behaviors, and succeeding at these harder

behaviors can elevate their self-efﬁcacy” (F etsco, 2005).

97

APPENDIX A.8

Relationship of Success to Future Success

Jensen (1996) and Wiseman and Hunt (2001) concur: students must experience
success in order to maintain motivation. States Bigge (1971), “Although occasional
failure is not inimical to the progress of Ieaming, fairly regular success is a must. . .A
continuous succession of failure discourages students to the point where frustration
blocks further effort.” According to Wiseman and Hunt (2001), “Success, even in small
amounts is a more potent motivator for most students than failure.” In Jensen’s words,
“Learners need to know that it’s possible for them to succeed. Regardless of the
obstacles or how far behind, hope is essential” (Jensen, 1996). Bigge further intimates,
“An uninterrupted series of successes may be as bad as an uninterrupted set of
failures. . .especially when goals are too easy and students are left with much extra time
and energy.”

Wiseman and Hunt summarize: “Achievable goals are more likely to sustain
motivation by students that are goals whose ends seem impossible to attain.” This has
ramiﬁcations for the classroom teacher. Constance Cloonan, a former New Jersey
Teacher of the Year considers, “In motivating students, it is vital to create an academic
environment that is highly challenging but within the intellectual reach of the students”

(Henson and Eller, 1999).

98

APPENDIX A.9

Authentic and Performance Assessment

According to Meyer, performance and authentic assessment are different. In both,
the student does demonstrate the actual behavior that the assessor wants to measure in a
format that requires no inference. However, authentic assessment does so in a real-life
context (Taylor, 2003).

Wiggins makes no distinction between authentic and performance assessment, but
qualiﬁes that “performance assessments permit pupils to demonstrate what they can do in '
real situations, rather than articulate how a task of skill should be completed” (Taylor,
2003). Similarly, Muijs and Reynolds (2001) describe performance assessments as those
which measure Ieaming directly, as opposed to by using proxy items. Henson and Eller
(I999) feel that authentic assessment is aimed at preparing students for life—that is,
assessment that measures those skills that citizens need to perform those tasks common in
daily life.

Taylor (2003) also applauds performance assessment: “Performance assessment
can provide another avenue for pupils with disabilities and other pupils who do poorly on

certain tests an alternate way to demonstrate mastery of skills” (Taylor, 2003).

99

APPENDIX A.10

Study of Energy in Various Disciplines

Being such an irreplaceable component of living and nonliving systems, studies of
energy occur in nearly all the science disciplines. Biology content involves energy
through studies of photosynthesis, respiration, ecosystems and food chains. Physical
sciences deal primarily with quantifying energy and looking at mechanical conversions.
For example, a physics student might be asked to compare the relative amounts of
potential and kinetic energy of a roller coaster car at the top of a hill and at the bottom.
Speciﬁc forms of energy such as electricity are also studied as specialties. Even beyond
the science curriculum, energy is a prevalent topic in other content areas. For example,
social studies courses can involve a discussion of energy when discussing “the energy
crisis,” a national “energy policy” or international conﬂicts caused by fossil fuel shortage.
The prevalence of energy in multiple disciplines clearly demonstrates that the concept of

energy is an important part of both human life and human culture.

100

APPENDIX A.11

Detail of Energy Sources for Southeast Michigan

For electricity production in southeastern Michigan, coal, oil and gas combined
provide 79.2% of the electrical power from Consumers Energy (Consumers Energy Bill,
October], 2004 — September 30 2005). Speciﬁcally, coal provides 57.1% of energy
locally and an average of 71.3% of energy in the ﬁve-state area. Fossil fuel use is up

from a similar period in 2003, and particularly the use of coal is greater.

It is interesting to note that the original energy source for a fossil fuel is actually
the sun. It is through photosynthesis that the original light energy was converted to
chemical energy which is later released through combustion. This is why fossil fuels
have been referred to by some as “buried sunshine.” However, solar energy and energy
from fossil fuels are considerably different in their energy conversions and impact on the

environment.

101

APPENDIX A.12
Student Misconceptions about “Renewable Resources”

Several common examples exist to show that the terms renewable and reusable
are not interchangeable. For example, copper metal is reusable. A copper coin can be
melted and turned into a copper wire. However, copper, is got renewable since no more
copper is being made in the earth. The total source of copper is ﬁnite. On the other hand,
sunlight i_§ renewable. We can reasonable expect that the sun will continue to send
electromagnetic radiation to earth tomorrow and indeﬁnitely. However, technically
speaking, the sunlight from today dissipates into the environment (mostly as heat). This
energy, unless somehow stored, can mt itself be reused again tomorrow. Once absorbed
or reﬂected, our ability to use it is lost.

Even with a multitude of similar examples, a percentage of students still retain the
misconception that renewable is the same as reusable. In many situations I ﬁnd that
many of my students misuse common words and do not pay attention to language details.

This may be one reason this misconception is so lasting.

102

APPENDIX A.13

Values and Conflict

Value systems develop through personal experience, family culture, and other
inﬂuence and individuals have a tendency toward some values more than others, though
the relative strength of values may change as a person ages. For the purpose of analysis,
values can be categorized in such groups as environmental values, which deal with
preserving or conserving the natural world, health values, educational values, aesthetic
values, entertainment, economic values, and ethical and moral values which deal with
what is right or wrong. In addition to Ieaming how values inﬂuence decision-making,
students should see that conﬂicting values are a key reason there are disagreements in
environmental issues.

The decision of whether to drill or explore for Oil in the Alaska National Wildlife
Refuge is a good example of how conﬂicting values can cause disagreement. Oil
prospectors, who can be assumed to have strong economic values, believe there may be a
six-month supply of oil beneath the refuge and that that is worth the potential
environmental risk of drilling. In contrast, environmentalists, who are utilizing a
different set of values, believe the risk of damaging the fragile ecosystem outweighs the
possible beneﬁts of extracting Oil.

Whether or not to build new nuclear power plants is another situation where

conﬂicting values cause different responses to the same set of facts.

103

APPENDIX A.14

Global Warming in Politics and the Media

The global warming issue spurred Senators John McCain and Joseph Lieberman
to sponsor the bipartisan McCain-Lieberman Climate Stewardship Act to encourage a
national reduction in greenhouse gas emission. Also, Senator John McCain has spoken
out in favor of replacing traditional coal-burning plants with nuclear power plants, which
do not emit greenhouse gases. Further, since the implementation of this energy unit in
this study, former Vice President Al Gore has released a documentary called “An
Inconvenient Truth,” which deals with our dependence on fossil fuels and the causes and
consequences of global warming. Popular cinema also put climate change front and

center, Hollywood-style, in the recent ﬁlm “The Day After Tomorrow.”

104

APPENDIX A.15

Background on Bloom’s Taxonomy

A well—accepted explanation of the hierarchy of thinking skills was outlined by
Benjamin Bloom. Bloom’s taxonomy of the cognitive domain classiﬁes six thought
processes by the complexity of thought involved (TenBrink, 1974). The lowest level is
knowledge, and deals with fact memorization. Comprehension involves not only
remembering facts, but understanding. Comprehension can be measured in whether a
student can explain an idea in his or her own words or can provide examples independent
of those he or she has already been provided with. According to Bloom, application is
the next complex level of cognitive thought. Application deals with using knowledge and
comprehension in a new situation. For example, a student Ieaming to read can apply a
learned rule of phonics to a word he or she has never before encountered. Analysis is the
next level of the taxonomy, followed by synthesis. Analysis involves breaking down
given data into its component parts; an example would be separating a newspaper article
into elements of fact or opinion (TenBrink, 1974). Synthesis, on the other hand, involves
combining information to make a new whole. Constructing personal opinions given a set
of facts and events or describing patterns in an information set can both be considered
synthesis. The top layer of Bloom’s cognitive hierarchy is evaluation. This involves a
student using other levels of thought to ﬁnal come to a value assessment of some item

and come to a fuller understanding of it.

105

APPENDIX B

106

OBJECTIVE SET I (PINK): Activity Choices

Objective Set I: Energy Forms and Transfers and Evaluam Energy Sources
> List common forms of energy.
2 Describe how electricity can be generated using magnets and coiled wire.
3 Trace the math of energy through the nine common energy sources.

 

: Consider pros and cons of the nine common energy sources.
3 Deﬁne and distinguish between renewable and nonrenewable energy resources.

2 Evaluate energy sources based on cost, availability and environmental impact.

3 Investigate and be able to intelligently discuss an alternative energy source.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Obj Levell Asn Description Points Oral Points
mt # Possible Defense Earned/
Required? Teacher
Sig.

l C I Journal Entries: Complete on day assigned and get variable NO
stamped same day; submit as a group at the end of the
week or section. I pt each

I C 2 Lecture I: Wind. Hydropower and Tidal Energy WilhOU! YES, see
Sources. Take notes during lecture. highlight or "0‘55 -3- details
organize notes for homework, and be ready to OD using with notes
notes the following day. A

I C 3 Lecture 2: Fossil Fuels, Fission. and Geothermal WilhOUI YES, see
Energy Sources Take notes during lecture, highlight or "0‘95 -3- details
organize notes for homework, and be ready to OD using “I!“ notes
notes the following day.

I C 4 Lecture 3: Biomass/biofuel, Solar. and Hydrogen Fuel WithOUI YES, see
(‘ell Energy Sources Take notes during lecture, "0‘95 _3_ details
highlight or organize notes for homework, and be ready MI“ “0‘35
to OD using notes the following day. —§-

I C 5 Lecture 4 (mini): Renewable vs. Nonrenewable WilhOU! YES, see
Resources Take notes during lecture. highlight or "0‘35 -3- details
organize notes for homework, and be ready to OD using Wi‘h notes
notes the following day. A

I C 6 Demo/Small group lecture: Generators and how they 3 NO
work

I C 7 Demo/Small group lecture: Getting ethanol from yeast 3 NO

I C 8 Video: Alternative Energies--Fuels for the Future Scott 5 NO
Resources Earth Science (~21 minutes) Take at least 10
notes of things that are new to you. Use complete
sentences.

I C 9 Video: Renewable Energy Energy Australia (~24 5 NO
minutes) Write at least 8 sentences noting things that are
new or of interest to you.

I C 10 Video: Nova: (Energy Sources) (~50 minutes) Write at 5 NO
least 15 facts that are new or interesting to you.

I C II Tactile: Construct a working pinwheel using the 2 NO, but
directions provided by Ms. LaSovage. Write a paragraph must show
that explains why this is an activity appropriate to this pinwheel
unit. You must show me your pinwheel and have your working
name clearly written on it.

 

107

 

OBJECTIVE SET I (PINK): Activity Choices

 

C

12

Tactile: Construct a second working pinwheel that is
different from your ﬁrst in one way. (Examples:
different size, different paper, different number of blades.
different shape...) Compare and contrast your
observations about how each of your pinwheels works.
Be prepared to CD.

YES

 

I3

Tactile: Complete the ﬁssion and fusion demos and
answer the worksheet questions.

YES

 

l4

Tactile: Create an electric current using a wire and
magnet. See if it matters how the wire or magnet is
moved. Complete the short worksheet.

NO. but
must show
Ms.LaSovag
e working
current.

 

15

Active Reading/Textbook—Captions: Look through
Chapter I I and pay special attention to the captions and
diagrams. For EACH caption, write a good teacher-style
question that would help a student to get the most out of
the caption. Answer all your questions.

NO

 

l6

Texboook: Read p. 278-282. Pay special attention to
diagrams and vocabulary. Take notes as desired and
helpful. Answer #1-3 on p. 282 completely. correctly,
and with complete sentences that tell the question and the
answer. Be prepared to submit and OD

YES

 

l7

Textbook: Read p. 287-293. Pay special attention to
diagrams and vocabulary. Take notes as desired and
helpful. Answer #1-5 on p. 293 completely, correctly,
and with complete sentences that tell the question and the
answer. Be prepared to submit and OD

YES

 

Textbook: Read p. 283-286. Pay special attention to
diagrams and vocabulary. Take notes as desired and
helpful. Answer #14 on p. 286 completely, correctly,
and with complete sentences that tell the question and the
answer. Be prepared to submit and OD

YES

 

19

Active Readingfl' ext: "Our Energy Sources" 1) Reed
2) Highlight or underline as appropriate 3) Group the
types of energy sources into two categories 4) Give pros
and cons and how it works for each italicized energy
source. Be prepared to OD.

YES

 

20

Active Reading/I ext: "Article 5.10" Read article and
complete a proposition/support worksheet

NO

 

 

 

 

21

 

Active Reading/Text: "Fuel Cell Background
Reading" Read, highlight and take notes. Draw and
label a diagram of a fuel cell. Deﬁne cathode. anode and
catalyst.

 

 

NO

 

108

 

 

OBJECTIVE SET I (PINK): Activity Choices

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I C 22 REQUIRED ASSIGNMENT Article: Read, then YES
summarize. including main idea, proponents/pros,
opponents/cons, values involved and key facts. Be
prepared to OD. AT LEAST ONE ARTICLE IS
REQUIRED. You may do more if you wish.

Article A: "Biodiesel popularity grows " 3 YES
Article B: "Expert says fuels cells will benefit 3 YES
nation"

Article C: "Firm plans state ’3 largest windfarm " 3 YES
Article D: "Heat a Home with Biomass " 3 YES

I C 23 Worksheet: Forms of Energy/ F arms and Sources. 5 YES
Complete worksheet and know types of energy. Be
prepared to OD.

I C 24 Worksheet: "Our Energy Sources-~After Reading 5 YES
Guide" Use article "Our Energy Sources" to complete
worksheet. Be prepared to OD.

I C 25 Worksheet: "Energy Sources Worksheet-Jenn 5 YES
Diagrams" or "Energy Sources Worksheet--Grid"

I C 26 Worksheet: "Evaluating Energy Sources" (Pros/Cons 5 YES
of 9 Energy Sources)

l C 27 Worksheet: Chapter II Review (p. 77-78) 5 YES

I C 28 Independent work: C heck out a Consumer's Energy variable YES
Handbook from Ms. LaSovage. Flip through it. ON A
SEPARATE SHEET, complete one or more of the
activities in the book that relates to energy. Points
variable. OD.

l C 29 Creative Writing: Choose one of our nine energy 10 YES or
sources. Write a poem, rep or short story that tells in present to
ﬁrst person the path that energy takes from the original class
source to the electric current reaching our house. Be sure
to include all forms and conversions that take place.

I C 30 Musical: Write, memorize and sing a song to learn the 10 YES or sing
how each of the nine energy sources works. Extra points to class
will be added if energy transformations are included.

I C 31 C reate/Linqutic: Make a crossword puzzle that 5 YES
includes all nine of our energy sources plus 3 additional
terms. Each term must have a clue.

I C 32 Create/Poster: Choose two of our energy sources. In a 6 YES
colorful poster, trace the path that energy takes from the
original source to an electrical current. Do this for both
of the energy sources. (They may be side by side on the
poster.) Accuracy and aesthetics count.

I C 33 Current Event: Do a current event that relates to this 5 MUST
content and fully elaborate on why. This may be an PRESENT
additional current event or may be part of your regular ,
current event. Same current event rules apply.

 

109

 

 

OBJECTIVE SET I (PINK): Activity Choices

 

C 34

Interpersonal: Play someone's game that they have
written for Level B of this Objective. Write a paragraph
evaluation.

NO

 

C 35

Interpersonal: Talk to someone about the lab that you
did for Level B. Complete and "l-LERN" form.

NO

 

C 36

Interpersonal: Talk to someone about the lab that they
did for Level B. Complete an ”l-LERN" form.

YES

 

C 37

Watch someone's PowerPoint: pay attention. OD what
you learned or submit brief written response.

YES or
written
response

 

Audio or Transcripts: Visit http://www.|oe.org. For
info on Fusion. see the show from February 24. 2006.
For info on Hydrogen technology. see May 14. 2004.
Other informatio may earn credit. Be able to discuss.

YES

 

 

 

 

 

YOUR CHOICE: Option must be preapproved by Ms.
LaSovage and must be ditTerent than existing options.

 

 

 

 

 

POINT RANGE FOR THIS CLUSTER: Minimum: _40_ Maximum: _50_

TOTAL:

 

Obj

Levell Asn
mt #

Description

Points
Possible

Oral
Defense
Required?

Points
Earned/
Teacher
Sig.

 

Lab: Conduct an investigation measuring the inﬂuence
on color or angle of light on the efficiency of solar cells.
Write a lab report according to class guidelines.

IS

 

Lab: Make an electrical current using the "baby food
galvanometer" generator design provided by Ms.
LaSovage or research another design. Experiment with
different variables such as number of coils or magnets to
see how each affects the amount of current produced.
Write a lab report according to class guidelines.

15

 

Lab: Construct a pie-plate turbine and experiment to see
how the height or amount of water affects the spin.
Relate this to choosing a location to have hydroelectric
power plants. Write a lab report according to class
guidelines.

 

Create: Create a children's book illustrating how each of
the 9 energy sources works. Include energy forms and
transfers. Make it colorful. Must read it to at least one
child after approval by Ms. LaSovage.

 

 

 

 

 

Create: Create a good game that is fun to play and
teaches at least 2 the objectives in Ojcctive Set I. Play
this game with at least two groups of people. One of
these groups may be from outside of class, but one must
be from your classmates.

 

 

 

 

 

110

OBJECTIVE SET I (PINK): Activity Choices

l B 6 Solar Research: Research the different types of solar 15
cells. Make a poster-sized table comparing their cost.
efficiency and at least one other feature. Write a short
paragraph explaining which type would be best for a
homeowner to use OR present this information in a
powerpoint presentation.

I B 7 Wind Research: Research what kind of wind turbines 15
or other wind power is available to homeowners who
want to generate their own electricity. Compare their
cost. efficiency. energy output. wind requirements and at
least one other feature. Summarize your ﬁndings. Then.
make a poster-sized advertisement for the one you think
would be best investment for a homeowner who has a
lifestyle like yours.

 

 

 

I B 8 Current Event (Nuclear) Research: There is a small 15
town in Alaska that wants to build a nuclear power
facility. Find out what town and what their
circumstances are and make a report to the class. Also.

state whether you think it is a good idea for that town.
Hint: This was in the newspaper in the last year or two.

 

I B 9 Solar Options: President George W. Bush made a visit 15 or more
to Auburn Hills on Monday. February 20th to tour a
plant that makes solar shingles. Find out more about the
plant and their products and clientele. Write a summary
of your ﬁndings and make a brief presentation to the
class. ALTERNATE: Extra points if you contact
someone at the plant and interview them or if you visit
the actual plant. Ask about interview requirements.

 

I B 10 Critical Thinking Worksheet: Interpreting 15
Observations Chapter 11 p. 80. Complete and submit
answer in typed paper form.

I B I 1 Money: Complete a cost analysis of wind power versus 15
a nonrenewable power source. How much would
electricity have to cost to make wind power a better
option economically?

l B l2 TBD OPTION: Must be preapproved

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

POINT RANGE FOR THIS CLUSTER: Minimum: 30 Maximum: 45 TOTAL: :3

 

 

Obj Levell Asn Description Points Oral Points
mt # Possible Defense Ea rned/
Required? Teacher
si .
I A l Nuclear Research: Most of F rance's energy comes from 20 YES

nuclear power. Find out how much. Then, compare
France and the US. in terms of energy demand. what
sources they get most of their energy from. and how
nuclear power plants in France are different than some of
our nuclear plants. Include pie charts and other data in
your presentation or paper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

111

OBJECTIVE SET I (PINK): Activity Choices

 

A

2

Solar Options: Do a little research and contact the
person at Oakland University who can talk to you about
OU's experiment involving solar roofing shingles on
some of their campus buildings. Interview them. For
credit. must provide at least 6 questions you asked and
the answers given. This may be a transcript or an audio
tape. Extra points if you visit the actual site.

20

YES

 

Solar Activity: Research designs and then construct a
working box oven and use it to cook a pizza or cookie.
Pizza or cookie MUST BE COOKED in order to earn all
points possible. Must do cooking during class or have
video verification if done out of class. Note: It is winter!
-Outdoor cooking is possible but may take more than one
attempt!

20

YES

 

What's best for SE Michigan?: Not all energy sources
equally viable for different states. Choose two states that
interest you and do research to determine which of the
nine energy sources might make sense and which would
not. Examples of some things you will need to research
are weather. geology. natural resources. population.
energy demand and topography. You may also wish to
consider whether the cost of the energy source is worth
it. Present your findings in the form of a letter to your
mayor. a paper. or a powerpoint presentation.

YES

 

Bioi’uels: President Bush mentioned switchgrass in
this year's State of the Union Address. Research
"switch grass" as an altemate fuel. Construct an
informative poster. essay or powerpoint presentation that
describes what it is. the life cycle. how it can be used as
an alternative energy source. and why the carbon dioxide
emissions from this plant are not as much a problem as
those from coal burning. Decide what role. if any. you
think switchgrass should play in our power production.
Support your opinion.

20

YES

 

Fuel Cells: Research more fully how fuel cells work and
how close they are to mass production. Summarize your
findings and your opinionWrite a position paper to
summarize your findings and support your opionion on
whether you think fuel cell powered vehicles will be a
viable option for drivers in Southeast Michigan. Use at
least 3 valid sources. Presentation options: Paper-
typed. ds. 12 pt Times New Roman, approx. 3 pages. or
Powerpoint--neat. no errors. minimum 8 good slides.

YES

 

 

 

 

 

Lab: Complete the Lab on p. 298-299 of your book.
Write a formal lab report according to class assignments.
In addition. be prepared to present your findings to the
class.

 

20

 

YES

 

 

POINT RANGE FOR THIS CLUSTER: Minimum: 20 Maximum:

————

112

_AQ_

TOTAL:

 

OBJECTIVE SET II (BLUE): Activity Choices

Objective Set II:

Consequences of our Energy Use

> Consider the pros and cons of common energy sources.
> Evaluate long term consequences of current energy technologies.

 

NOTICE: For Level C of this set of objectives, you must choose at least one activity from eaﬂr subgroup:
nuclear, acid rain. global warming, and ecosystems. The remainder of the points may be from any group or

subgroup.

 

 

Obj

Levell Asn
mt #

Description

Points
Possible

Oral Defense

Required?

Points
Earned

 

C 1

Journal Entries: Complete on day assigned and get
stamped same day; submit as a group at the end of the
week or section. 1 pt each

Variable

NO

 

lI-nuclear

Article Set: "Dead nuclear reactor heads south to
ﬁnal resting place ", "Reactor Crawls South" and
"Bush may alter rules on radioactive wate" Answer
worksheet questions and be prepared to OD.

YES

 

II-nuclear

Article: "Data on Nuclear Waste site may be false"
Be prepared to OD a summary and your opinion as to
why there is disagreement.

YES

 

Il-nuclear

Poetry: Read the Section 12.3 on toxic waste. in
particular the part about Chernobyl. Then visit the
website httpL-"fxut \\ .chcrnoh) l-
intcrnationul.org‘liictshtinl . You may also wish to
visit http:.-"lnc.org from March 12, 2006 "Chernobyl
Remembered." Write a poem from the perspective of
someone who lives near a current or proposed nuclear
waste site.

YES or
Present to
class

 

II-nuclear

Literature: Read the short story By the Waters of
Babylon by Stephen Vincent Benet. Suppose the
protagonist of the story had found a letter on the desk
written by the man whose office it was. What would
that letter say? Write it.

10

TBD

 

ll-nuclear

Internet/Audio: Go to the website.

Inﬁll/“w“ rhrccmilcislandorg/dmsriloudsﬂ’S‘lb.mp3 or
hltp,.-"."m\\\ .threcmilcisland org/resource”item"detaul.php‘,‘i
tcmg id 00000261 Listen to the interview with the
anonymous source. Write a paragraph summary of the
event and a pargraph reaction to what you hear. Be
prepared to OD

YES

 

lI-nuclear

Tactile/Internet: Complete the half-life cutting
activity. You may complete Part I or Part 1. 2 and 3.
Written answers to questions will have the potential
for more points.

variable- 3
to 5

YES

 

ll-acid
rain

Alternate Textbook: Read pages 297-305 in the
Chemistry in the Community Textbook. Write a 1/2
page summary. including relating acid rain to our
high demand of electricity.

YES

 

II-acid
rain

 

 

 

Create/Poster: Research the relationship between
the burning of coal and acid rain. Make a poster
showing the chemicals. Include on your poster at
least three ways how this can be prevented or reduced

 

 

 

YES

 

 

113

 

OBJECTIVE SET II (BLUE): Activity Choices

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

II-acid C 10 Mapping Activity: Complete the "Find the Rain's 8 YES
rain Fingerprint" Activity and corresponding questions.
II-acid C II OPTION:
rain
"-3th C 12 Internet/Video: Visit this website: 5 YES
warming http:l/wwwepagov/globalwarming/kids/versionZ.ht
ml Watch the video twice. Take notes if needed; be
prepared to OD.
II-giobal C 13 Powerpoint: Research the data supporting the 10 PRESENT
warming connection between human activities and global Power point
warming and how scientists have gathered data that
have led them to believe that global warming is
impacted by human activities. Create a power point
presentation with a minimum of 6 slides to present
your findings.
II-global C 14 Article: "Experts say: Act now on global warming" 5 YES
warming Read. then write a page summary including a)
summary b) values analysis c) your response. Be
prepared to OD.
II-gIobal C 15 Article: "Old bubbles back global warming theory" 5 YES or
warming Read. summarize. and be prepared to OD or read and Complete
complete a Proposition/Support Worksheet. Proposition/
Support
II-global C 16 Looking at Evidence: Complete Textbook 5 YES
wgrmm Investigation 7.1: Investigating Ice Bubbles
II-giobal C 17 OPTION:
warming
ll- eco- C 18 Textbook: Read and complete the Case Study "The 5 YES
systems Snail Darter and the Dam." on p. 264 - 265 of your
book. Answer the questions. Also. write an answer
to how this relates to our study of energy. Be
prepared to OD.
II- eco- C 19 Research: Research one of the following: Hetch 6 YES or
systems Hetchy or Glen Canyon. Summarize why there was powerpoint
conﬂict when this dam was built. Include at least 3 or class
points from both sides of the argument, and cite the presentation
dominant values for each side. OD or present in your
choice of formats.
II- eco- C 20 Current Events: Research what locations in the 5 YES or
systems United States (or abroad) are having arguments about Present to
the building or removal of a dam. Choose one and class
summarize.
II- eco- C 2] Art and Persuasion: Create a persuasive pamphlet 5 NO, if high
systems or flyer about an endangered species that might be quality
harmed by the building of a darn. Must be a real
species and a real dam, although may be current or
historical. Cite resources.
II- eco- C 22 OPTION:
systems

 

 

 

 

114

 

 

 

 

OBJECTIVE SET II (BLUE): Activity Choices

II C 23 Interpersonal: Talk to someone about the lab that 5 NO
you did for Level B. Complete and "I-LERN" form.

 

II C 24 Interpersonal: Talk to someone about the lab that 5 YES
they did for Level B. Complete an "I-LERN" form.

 

II C 25 Watch someone's PowerPoint; pay attention. OD 3 YES or
what you learned or submit brief written response. written

response

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TOTAL:
POINT RANGE FOR THIS CLUSTER: Minimum: 45 Maximum: 60

 

Obj Leveli Asn Description Points 0'11 Defense Points
mt # Possible Required? Earned
[I B | Internet or Library Research: Look up these three key 10
events in nuclear power history: Chernobyl. Ural
Mountains. Three Mile Island. Make a table to compare
and contrast them in terms of date. location, cause. short
andJoan-tenneﬂsmuininublicitv

I] B 2 Internet/Creative Writing: Go to the following two 15
websites and listen to the interviews.
http://www.npr.org/tentplates/story/story.php?storyld=450
2656 and
http://nprorg/templates/story/story.php?storyld=l 1 15530
Write a creative piece from the perspective of someone
who was born in Chernobyl on the day it happened or
from the perspective Of someone who gave birth in
Chernobyl on the day it happened. It can be a diary entry.
a memory. or a poem. Be prepared to share.

 

 

 

 

l] B 3 lntemet: Visit this site about a girl who bikes through IO
Chernobyl. http://wwwkiddofspced.com/chemobyl-
revisited/chapter7html Write a 3/4 - 1 page response to
what you have seen. DO you think she is smart or stupid
to do what she does?

I] B 4 Worksheet: Critical Thinking-Agree or Disagree; 10
Ch ter 11 p. 81
[I B 5 GO to http://wwwloeorg and read or listen to "Recycling 10
Nuclear Waste " from March 12. 2006. Write two letters
to the editor of a newspaper. One letter should be in
support Of recycling nuclear waste. One letter should be
against. Use good writing and supportive evidence.

 

 

 

[I B 6 Speech: Who is responsible for nuclear waste? Write a I: 10
2 minute speech that answers this question. Be prepared
to present.

[I B 7 Textbook: Points of View Yucca Mountain Waste p. 10
328-329. Make a statement sheet for each side which
lists the main points for the pro and against arguments.
Then determine which side you are on. Must be high
quality.

[I B 8 Lab: Conduct a lab demonstrating the effects of carbon 10
dioxide on global warming.
I] B 9 YOUR CHOICE: Option must be preapproved by Ms.
LaSovage and must be different than existing options.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

POINT RANGE FOR THIS CLUSTER: Minimum: 20 Maximum: 35 E]

115

OBJECTIVE SET II (BLUE): Activity Choices

 

Obj

Levell Asn
mt #

Description

Points

Possible

Oral
Defense
Required?

Points
Earned

 

Laws and Regulations: Research the current
standards of emission for coal-burning power plants
in Michigan and in the United States. Are they all the
same? Are there loopholes? have there been recent
changes? Present your ﬁndings in a powerpoint
presentation to give to the class.

20

 

Essay: Research and answer this question. "Is
nuclear power a good choice?" Defend your opinion
in researched essay. Must cite at least 3 references, at
least one NOT from the lntemet. Typed, d.s. 12 pt.
Times New Roman

20

 

Essay: China is a developing country. but quite close
to being developed. Although their per person use of
energy is lower than the U.S.. they have a lot of
people and the potential to cause a lot of pollution by
their increased use of coal. In a researched essay.
answer this: "Should developing and developed
countries be held to different standards?" Must cite ati
least 3 references, at least one NOT from the lntemet.
Typed, d.s. 12 pt. Times New Roman

20

 

Politics: What is the Kyoto Protocal? Research its
history and current status. Then answer: Do you
think the US. should have voted in favor of the treaty
the first time around or not? Do you think the US.
should ratify it now or not? Explain your position.
Must cite at least 3 references, at least one NOT from
the lntemet. Typed, d.s. 12 pt. Times New Roman

20

 

Current Legislation: Read through the material and
do additional research on the Congressional bill
proposed jointly by Senators John McCain and John
Kerry. Write a letter to your Senator expressing your
opinion on this piece of legislation. ‘Details for
letters available. Must have ﬁnal draft approved
by Ms. LaSovage and must send letter to your
senator or representative for full credit.

20

 

 

 

 

 

Historical Event: Hoover Dam is a large and
historically-significant manmade dam. Hoover Dam
First. write a 1 page summary of the details and
history of Hoover Dam. Then. choose one of these
two questions to answer in a 1-2 page typed essay:
A) Do you think Hoover Dam should have been
built? Why or why not? B) Which is more
important to the well-being of America-«providing
electricity or protecting the environment?

 

20

 

 

 

116

 

OBJECTIVE SET II (BLUE): Activity Choices

 

A

7

Health: Research and find out about the "children of
Chernobyl" or find out general information about
acute and chronic radiation poisoning. Summarize in
1-2 pages. Include references. Then write a 1 page
response what you think the safe limit for radiation is
for your neighborhood Cite references.

 

20

 

Historical Figure: Do a little bit of research to find
out who Edward Abbey was. Then read the
interview he gave in 1982 at
http://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/archives/abbc
y-interview.html Answer one of these two question
in a well-written. typed essay A) Do you think
Edward Abbey was ahead of his time in his thoughts
about the environment? Why or why not? B) What
public ﬁgure of today’s time do you think is most like
Edward Abbey. Why?

20

 

 

Go to
http://www.cartermuseum.org/edu__guides/porter
/teaching_guide/making_statement/making_a_st
atement.htm or link to the Making A Statement
and The Place No One Knew page. Really take
your time going through the pages. OPTlON A:
Complete the "Defending the Enviroment"
(photography) activity. OPTION B: Essay:
Should a this Dam have been built? For option
B you MUST have two additional sources, and
at least one of these must be a non-intemet

21

 

 

 

POINT RANGE FOR THIS CLUSTER: Minimum: 20 Maximum:

 

 

 

117

 

_ﬂ—

TOTAL:

 

OBJECTIVE SET III (GREEN): Activity Choices

Objective Set III:

Energy Conservation and Personal Energy Choices
> Evaluate personal energy use.

> Describe ways to conserve energy.
> Identify and explain reasons to promote energy conservation.

 

Obj

Level

Asn
mt #

Description

Points
Possible

Oral
Defense
Required?

Points
Earned]
Teacher

Six-

 

Journal Entries: Complete on day assigned and
get stamped same day; submit as a group at the
end of the week or section. 1 pt each

Variable

NO

 

Textbook: Read p. 287 - 294. Answer #1-5. Use
complete sentences that indicate the question and
the answer. Do not do this if you have already
chosen it in a previous objective set.

YES

 

Video: Green Fingers List 7 things that were
suggested to conserve resources. Put a star by one
that you think you could do.

NO

 

Ownership: Bring in your energy bill.
Acceptable: DTE. Consumers Energy

MINI

 

Create: Using your energy bill. make a list of 10
questions that could be used on a test in this class.
Must have your energy bill to do this.

NO

 

Worksheet: Complete the "My Energy Bill
Worksheet." Be prepared to OD.

YES

 

Mini—lab: "What feels colder?" Be prepared to
OD.

YES

 

Worksheet (you make): Draw pictures showing
the movement of heat in during hot and cold
conditions for igloos, mud/adobe houses and space
shuttles. You may use arrows for heat ﬂow.
Accuracy counts. ‘Some research required. Be
creamed to OD

YES

 

Article: "How high can heating bills go? Brace
yourself” Read article and complete a
Proposition/Support Worksheet.

NO

 

10

Article: "It's Easy Being Green" Read article
and complete brief worksheet. OD

YES

 

11

Current Terms and Technology: Find out
what an "energy vampire" or "ampvamp" is.
You might start by looking at
http://www.loe.org and listening to the
program from March 12, 2006. Be ready to
summarize, relate to your life, and OD.
Also, try lookin at April 26th.

YES

 

 

 

 

12

Current Event: Do an extra current event
dealing with this objective, or add points to this
week's current event by finding an article on this

 

topic.

 

 

MUST
PRESENT

 

 

118

 

OBJECTIVE SET III (GREEN): Activity Choices

 

III C 13 Tactile/Interpersonal: Read p.389 and make 10 YES, and
your own Wind Tester. Go home and test 8 parent
windows or exterior doors with your wind tester. signature

Tell your parent what you found out and share the
information from p. 389. Bring back
documentation in the form of a statement and

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

signature.
III C 14 Interpersonal: Play the game that someone 5 NO
made. Write a 1/2 page evaluation.
III C 15 Interpersonal: Talk to someone about the lab 5 NO
that you did. Complete and "I-LERN" form.
III C 16 Interpersonal: Talk to someone about the lab 5 YES
that they did. Complete an "l-LERN" form.
III C 17 Watch someone's PowerPoint; pay attention. 5 YES or
()0 what you Ieamed or submit brief written written
TOTAL:
POINT RANGE FOR THIS CLUSTER: Minimum: 25 Maximum: 40
Obj Levell Asn Description Points Oral Points
mt it Possible Defense Ea rned/
Required? Teacher
Sig.

 

III B 1 Lab: Heat bulbs or Light bulbs? Complete the 15
Energy Efficiency of Light Bulbs lab. Write a lab
report according to class guidelines.

 

III B 2 Lab: InsulationuKeep my pop hot! Complete 15
the insulation lab. Write a lab report according to
class guidelines.

 

III B 3 Create/Take Action: Make 6 energy 10
conservation stickers. Put them in your house.
Get veriﬁcation. (More details upon request)

 

III B 4 Design: Read the two articles "Natural Instinct" 15
and "Case Study: A Super-Eﬂicient Structure. "
Then. design an energy efficient home or office
building. Include at least 10 components will
help reach your goal and explain the rationale for
each. Be prepared to OD or create a powerpoint
to present to the class. Additional resources are
available upon request.

 

III B 5 Cartoon: Make two different cartoons of your 10
own covering one or more of the concepts we are
Ieaming about. You may wish to look at the
FoxTrot Cartoon as a sample.

 

II I B 6 Game: Create a game that teaches about energy 15
conservation. Play the game with your classmates
and get feedback. NOTE: Must have prior
approval to select this option if you have created a
game for a previous objective.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

119

 

OBJECTIVE SET III (GREEN): Activity Choices

 

7

Articles/Research: California Blackouts and
Detroit Blackouts. Complete a data table to
compare and contrast the problem. the causes. and
the short and long term effects of each.

 

Worksheet: Critical T hinking--Interpreting
Data: Chapter II p. 82

 

Personal Energy Evaluation: Document all
items you use that require energy for 24 hours.
Use the Consumer’s Energy booklet to determine
how much money you have spend on energy in
that 24 hour period. Yes. if someone else washes
your clothes for you it still countsll

 

 

 

 

YOUR CHOICE: Option must be preapproved
by Ms. LaSovage and must be different than

 

existing options.

 

variable

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TOTAL:
POINT RANGE FOR THIS CLUSTER: Minimum: 40 Maximum: 60
Obj Level Asn Description Points Oral Points
mt # Possible Defense Earned!
Required? Teacher
Sij.
III A l TV/Video: Make a short publicity video that 20 MUST
teaches how to conserve energy and why it is SHOW
important. Should be showable quality and VIDEO
accurate. Suggested 2-4 minutes.
III A 2 Personal Energy Evaluation Level 2— 20 YES
EVERYTHING you use energy for 48 hours,
directly and indirectly; Write a page response
evaluating whether you think you are you a good
steward of energy. Include a plan for change or a
justification why you are not willing to change.
Must have supporting evidence either way.
III A 3 Field Investigation: Go to ABC warehouse, 20 YES

 

 

 

Home Depot. Sears or some other appliance store.
Select one appliance (dishwasher. refrigerator,
etc.) to study. Evaluate at least three models for
energy efficiency. cost. lifespan. Write a
summary and pick which one you would buy. It
is okay to talk to a salesperson. but you must
gather data to support your choice. For hints, see
Consumers Energy Teacher handbook 7.59 or
See also Consumers Energy Student Handbook p.
28

 

 

 

 

 

120

 

 

OBJECTIVE SET III (GREEN): Activity Choices

 

A

4

Interview or Investigation: Do research about
"on demand" water heaters. Present your findings
in a paper or PowerPoint presentation, including
what it is, how it works and why it should save
energy. Accuracy counts. OR Interview a
plumber about "on demand" water heaters. For
credit. you must submit at least 6 questions you
asked and the answers given. This may be a
transcript or an audio tape.

20

YES

 

At Home Investigation: Complete a Home
Energy Audit. Finish the worksheet. Have parent
veriﬁcation. Present findings to class in your
choice of format.

20

YES

 

 

 

 

 

OPTION:

 

 

 

 

POINT RANGE FOR THIS CLUSTER: Minimum: 20 Maximum:

121

_6_Q__

TOTAL:

 

REQUIRED COMPONENTS FOR THE LAYERED UNIT (Yellow Sheet)
Name: Date: Hour.

INTRO TO LAYERED CURRICULUII RELAX—WE WILL LEARN THROUGH THIS PROCESS TOGETHER!

We will do this unit in three "chunks" based on the objectives for the unit. Within each objective
will be three levels of activities: C, B, and A.

Generally speaking
C LEVEL activities are basic knowledge accumulation and experiences
B LEVEL activities require you to use knowledge or gather information from multiple sources
A LEVEL activities require you to evaluate, choose, decide or act

You will have the control to decide which activities you do. At the end of each Level is a required
range of points. You must earn the minimum number of points to go on to the next level. If you
have reached the maximum level of points you will select your next activity from the next higher
level. Ms. LaSovage has some pointers for people who might be nervous about selecting what
activities are best for them. Most activities are fully described, but if you have a question, ask Ms.
LaSovage.

OD stands for ORAL DEFENSE. An oral defense is a one-on-one interview with Ms. LaSovage.
Usually it will consist of one to four questions regarding the assignment you have completed. In
order to earn credit for OD assignments, you must answer these competently. Oral defenses can be
done any time within three days of doing an assignment.

These items are required for all students. They will be completed as a class, with the exception
of the labs, which may be completed at any point during the unit. There may be other
required assignments as we go along.

POIIIIS Points Completion Date
Possible Earned

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

R1 Energy Unit Pre-Test /
R2 Pre-Unit Survey /
R3 True Colors Activity /
R4 Multiple Intelligences Survey /
R5 Energy Unit Post-Test /
R6 Post-Unit Survey /
R7 Energy Unit Test /
R8 AT LEAST ONE LAB /
R9 Student Self-Evaluation /

 

122

Dally Planner for Layered Unit

Name:
Date

 

 

Hour

(Yellow Sheet)

Use this calendar to help you plan your time. Although you have freedom of what you are working on, you must
be constructively working at all times during the class hour. If you feel overwhelmed or have difficulty choosing
what activities to do, you might want to follow the daily suggestions. These will be posted in class. Note:
Activities with an asterisk (‘), such as lectures and certain group activities will only be offered on that day.
Activities with two asterisks (“) are required activitites.

 

DIR:

My Hat/er Todq

Include Objective, Level and
Number, as well as additional
info if appropriate. For example.

My Aunts! Workfor Today
Write down what you did-
either how much you finished
or what you did instead of

mailman" Youmay what youwrote inyour plan.

inchidemorethanoneitemin

plan.

My HIV/or tonight

What do you need to do
tonight to make sure you
are on target to finish by

the deadlines?

Teachers
Initials

 

Monday 2/27

”Learning Styles Internet
Activity ”Intro to Layered
Unit

 

Tuesday 208

‘Lecture 1: Wind. Hydro &Tidal
‘Small group Demo-germators
Suggested: C13, C18, C39,
Cll-12

 

Wednesday 3/01

‘Lecture 2: Fossil Fuels, Fission,
Suggested: C13,

Geothamal
C23

 

Thursday 3/2

‘Lecture 3: Biofuels, Solu', &
Fuel Cell Suggested: C23

 

Friday 33

‘Video: Alt‘tive Energies—Fuels
for the Finure
SW

 

 

 

 

romrcnncx: I Howmn;poin8haveywaccummawd?
Hownmypointsshouldyouhavetobeintoday'stargetmge? to

 

Monday 3/6

Suggestetk

 

Tuesday 3”

‘Smallgroupdemo-ethmol
fmmyenst Suggested:

 

Wednesday 3/08

Suggested:

 

Thursday 3/9

Suggested:

 

Friday 3/10

 

Suggested:

 

 

 

 

mt

How many points have you accumulated?

How many points should you have to be in today's target range? to

 

 

123

 

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124

APPENDIX C

125

FUSION - Like the Sun

You will probably want to take a look at your book as you do this
activity. In particular. look at Figure 11-13 on page 286.

 

 

 

 

 

Define the term “fusion”
This deﬁnition should make
sense with the definition of
Define the verb to “fuse” /fusion!!!!1 If it does not, you
If need to ﬁnd another deﬁnition!

 

 

Some people have had surgery on their spines to “fuse” their vertebrae together. What
does that mean?

 

Try it with your hands.

1. Make two small balls with clay.

2. Smash the balls together, hard enough to stick but not so hard that they aren’t
round anymore.

3. Want to do more? Make two more small balls with clay. Repeat the smashing.

This is FUSION. Get it?

This is what happens in the sun. A Hydrogen atom (which has one proton in its nucleus)
fuses with another Hydrogen atom (which has one proton in its nucleus) to form Helium
(which has 2 protons in its nucleus).

1+1=2

This is NQT a chemical reaction. It is a NUCLEAR reaction and large amounts of energy
are released when it occurs. (That is why the sun is so hot!)

Fusion can also happen with other elements fuse together.
Try to do this with the clay:

Helium (2 protons) + Helium (2 protons) -) Beryllium (4 protons)

Currently. we have not been able to reproduce fusion on Earth for more than a few
seconds at a time. It takes millions of degrees to get it to happen. In the future, some
people want to try fusion as an alternate energy source. but as of today it is not yet doable.
” If you are interested in Ieaming more about what scientists have been able to do with
fusion on Earth, visit ht_tg:/Iwww.loe.org. Then click on “Archives,” then “2006 Archives”
and then select the radio program from February 24, 2006. Ask me for more details.

126

 

 

FISSION — Like a power plant

You will probably want to take a look at your book as you do this
activity. in particular, look at Figure 11-8 on page 283.

Deﬁne the term “ﬁssion"

 

Deﬁne the word “division”

 

After this activity, you may see how these almost rhyming words are similar!
Try it with your hands.

1. Get a tray and some marbles and a flexible sour cream or margarine lid.

2. Put the lid down in the tray such that you can still read the label on the lid.

This will be slightly tricky—Put all the marbles except one into a close pile in the center
of the lid. Try to keep them still.

4. Now, drop or toss the leftover marble into the pile with a little force (but not so much
that it jumps out of the tray.)

What happened?
6. Want to do more? Repeat the process or try throwing two marbles into the pile.
This is F lSSlON. Get it?
This is what happens in a nuclear reactor in a nuclear power plant. A Uranium atom
(which has 92 protons and 142 neutrons in its nucleus) is hit with a really fast neutron.

This splits the Uranium into smaller particles which may either be atoms or pieces of
atoms. Some of these particles will hit other Uranium atoms or be hit and split again.

61
/ 122<: 60+]
235
50
\ 113<: 82+]

This is NOT a chemical reaction. It is a NUCLEAR reaction and large amounts of energy
are released when it occurs. (That is why this kind of reaction was used in the nuclear
bombs dropped by the US. on Japan during World War II.)

and so on

Did the ﬁssion activity remind you of any game? For some people, it reminds them of pool,
or billiards. Perhaps that will help you remember the difference between ﬁssion and fusion.
(Fission has the letter ‘i' in it and so does billiards.)

 

127

 

Current Event Assignment and Requirements NAME:
CONSERVA WON/ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE PRESENTA non GROUP_
LaSovage

 

Overview

Science happens all day, every day, whether by humankind or by mother nature—or by their
interaction! A lot of what makes the news is directly related to the topics that we will be studying
in this course. In order to make you more scientiﬁcally literate and up to date on current issues,
you will be doing several current event presentations this semester. This will include ﬁnding a
current article on a topic related to our course content, writing a summary of the article to submit
to me, and preparing a brief yet informative presentation to share your new science information
with the rest of the class.

Current events will be graded for both the written summary and the oral presentation.
Presentations may include visual aids but these are not required. Part of your grade will be
based on the quality of your presentation—the more effective, the better your grade.

Current Events Objectives:

Students will be able to

Discem the main ideas from scientiﬁc articles.

Recognize class topics in the outside world.

Appreciate that science happens daily.

Practice presentation skills.

Become more aware of new ideas in science through their own investigation and by
listening to their peers.

Article Requirements:

Article must be written or published within the last 30 days

Article must relate to content we are covering in this course * see below

Minimum article length: ‘/-.~ page of a magazine or 6 inches of columns in newspaper

If your source from the lntemet. it must be from a valid source and the source mt be

approved before the due date or you may not earn credit for your article. (Note: The following

sites are ﬂapproved: freep.com, CNN.com, npr.org, loe.org and MSNBC.)

a Article must be turned in at presentation or emailed ahead of time to Ms. LaSovage at:

lasovageai@southfield.k12.mi.us

I Entire article must be turned in—if it says “See Toys page 6H" then SEE TOYS PAGE 6H!

I ALTERNATIVE: News segments from broadcast news may be submitted in lieu of articles on
VHS tape provided the segment is more than 30 seconds long. (These must still be written
up.) Tape must be in by due date.

I Articles may not be repeated—if someone else has your article and goes ﬁrst you will have until

Friday to report on another article. It is your responsibility to follow through.

Topics

The chapters we will cover in this course this semester are:
CHAPTERS 13. 5. 11. 12, 6 and 7

Sample topics that are related are:

Population growth (human or nonhuman) and associated problems, water and water
quality, energy sources, waste and waste management (trash), air pollution, climate

Your article must be relatable to one or more of our topics or subtopics and you must explain how
it is related (not just list the chapter). See chapters for details or ask me.

128

Current Event Assignment and Requirements NAME:
CONSERVA WON/ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE PRESENTA no~ GROUP_
LaSovage

Requirements for Written Summary

Must submit article with summary (or email in advance).

Summary should be written for an audience of your peers or parents

Summary should remain true to the article—facts, not imagination

Should contain the following 5 components:

I A concise summary of the information in the article

I A description of how and why the Ideas In this article will affect you or are presently
related to your life

I Your clearly stated opinion or reaction to the article content

I An expanded explanation of how this article relates to course content—not just the
number of the chapter—expand on it!

I An analysis of the values involved in the issues of the article should be included. (For
values background information, see p. 20—21 of your textbook.)

I Finally, NO PLAGIARISMII Copying the words and phrasing of another writer is a

violation of the code of conduct and the law and will earn you a zero.

 

Requirements for Presentation

I Student has an appropriately serious attitude,

I Maintains good volume,

I Maintains good eye contact,

I Effectively informs class of article content and why it relates to this class, and

I Effectively informs class of values and how the article content affects the presenter

NOTE: YOU MAY N91 SUBMIT THE SAME ARTICLE AS SOMEONE ELSE, SO IT IS TO
YOUR ADVANTAGE TO HAVE AN ALTERNATE ARTICLE OR VOLUNTEER TO PRESENT
FIRST! FIRST COME FIRST SERVEDI! If two students have the same article, the second
student will have until Friday to present a new article.

1 f) if I": 1‘ \. n f) 71:.) 3;: (.f' '0 ‘—“ ? .173 F5. 33.! f; \. m T: ‘7 if: \3‘ c_ ,2. RR") .
«391»; L L11 JJ‘LL [1953/41 fl is LLHEELEU 3] hr LY LB 1] T D) “110 (>7 U I am In group

Your articles will be due every other week on Wednesday. The class will be in two
groups so that we will hear current events every week.

MY DATES ARE:
1. 8.

 

 

 

10.
11.

 

 

 

 

12.
13.
14.

 

 

 

 

N¢¢¥WN

 

 

129

INTERPERSONAL LEARNING EDUCATIONAL RESPONSE NOTE
(“I-LERN”)

Name:

Date: Hour: __

 

 

Circle ans:

I am talking to someone about a project he/she did.
I am talking to someone about a project I did.
I am talking to someone who did the same project I did.

Complete:

My name is

 

The person I am talking to is

 

We are talking about

 

Complete at least M of the following:
I asked this question:

I answered this question with this answer (include the Q and the A):

I learned:

130

  

’: Light bulbs...or Heat bulbs?

The purpose of this investigation is to compare
the efﬁciency of different light bulbs by
measuring their relative heat output over time.

Safety Concerns:

Light bulbs are made of glass and are fragile. If broken, they can cut you or others.
Be careful when handling bulbs and never force a bulb.

We are using electricity today. Do NOT stick your ﬁnger or ANY other object in the
light socket except the light bulbs. Do not conduct this investigation near water. Do
not touch bare or exposed wires. You risk danger of shock or electrocution.

Be aware of your surroundings. If the plastic jar is jostled, it can fall off causing a
potential hazard.

After the experiment, make sure the temperature is back in the “safe zone” of the
thermometer before removing the plastic cover. Do not touch the light bulbs until
they are cool. Make sure the light is unplugged before removing bulb.

The wood base for the lights may be rough. Handle carefully to avoid getting
splinters.

Basis/Key Questions behind the lab:

The bulbs are equally bright. (They have the same number of lumens, which is what we
use to measure this.) One of the bulbs uses less energy to make that same brightness. If
one light uses only 14 watts to make 900 lumens and another uses 60 watts to make 900
lumens, what happens to the other 46 watts? Where is the extra energy going? The extra
energy is given off as heat. How do we know that? We can measure and compare the
change in heat caused by each light bulb in a controlled experiment. How does this relate
to our use of energy? How does this relate to conservation? How much money can be
saved if a household switched from incandescent lights to ﬂuorescent lights? What are
other beneﬁts of such a switch? What are the concerns?

These two websites have infomiation comparing bulb efﬁciencies and economic savings:

http://www.mge.com/home/lighting/efﬁciency.htm
http://www.mge.com/home/lighting/cost.htm

Vocabulary: lumen, watt, power, efﬁciency, light, heat, incandescent bulb, ﬂuorescent
bulb, halogen bulb

Set Up:

1.
2.

Clear off a table so you have a clean, safe workspace.

Get three wooden bases, and three plastic containers. Try to get containers that are
identical. (Can you say why this is important?) You will also need three plastic
suction cup thermometers. These may or may not already be in the plastic jars. (over)

131

Light bulbs...or Heat bulbs? (Continued)

. Put the thermometers inside the plastic jars so they are in the same place in each
container. There may be a red circle to show you where to put them. (Can you state
why it is important for the thermometers to be in the same positions?) If they do not
stick, you may moisten the suction cup slightly with water from the sink. Do not lick
them!

. Now set up the apparatus as shown in the picture below, but with three set ups. Each
of the three set ups should have a different kind of lightbulb. The bulbs we will use
are an edison 1M 60 halogen bulb (900 lumens, 60 watts), a Commercial Electricm
Ultra Mini Spiral Lamp (900 lumens, 14 watts (60 watt equivalent)) and a Philips
DuraMax Long Life Sparkling Clear (900 lumens, 60 watts)

. Turn on each set up to make sure that it works. If not, try changing outlets or check
to see that the bulb is screwed in properly. Immediately turn it off again.

. Before you begin the actual testing, make a data table to receive your data. Refer to
the purpose of this lab and to your teacher for help in this. You will need a timer or
stopwatch during the data collection.

. Conduct the lab and gather data. When ﬁnished, wait until the temperature returns to
the “safe zone” before handling the bulbs and putting them away.

. Get a “Simple Lab Write Up” from the crate. Write a report according to the
guidelines and turn it in. A graph is required for this lab.

 

Figure 5: “Light Bulbs or Heat Bulbs?” Lab Set-Up

132

Proposition/Support Outline Name:
for Informational TGXl Date: Hour: __

 

 

 

Title of Reading:

 

 

Proposition:
(thesis)

 

 

 

support: 1. Facts (true. qualitative statements relevant to the thesis)

 

2. Statistics (true, researched. quantitative statements relevant to thesis—look for numbers)

 

3. Examples (real-world occurrences. happenings, scenarios relevant to the thesis)

 

4. Expert Authority (what experts and accredited research institutions tell us. based on
research)

 

5. Logic and Reasoning (cause and effects, bringing the information together- why the
supporting information really does support the thesis)

 

 

 

(adapted from Beuhl, I995)

133

dtow to wake a gnaw/reel

Please return this sheet when you are ﬁnished!

1. Get a sheet of paper and make a square.
(Remember making “cootie-catchers” or
“fortune tellers”? Start out like that.)

HINT:

(Smaller paper
sometimes works
better than a
whole sheet)

 

 

 

Fold up one comer and line up
the side. Geometrically, this
makes an even V2 square. Fold
and tear or cut the extra pieces.
Note: This must be done using
a right triangle or you will not

' i
end up With a square. /

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Lightly fold your square diagonally

cut.

 

 

4. Now, with a pen or marker, make a dot on
one corner of each triangle and one dot in
the middle. These are your guide points.

5. Using a pushpin, put a hole in each of your

dots.

6. Now, fold in each of the blades so that they all meet at the
center hole. Stick the pin through all ﬁve holes and then t.
pierce it gently through both sides of a small piece of straw ’

that has been cut from your longer straw.

7. Now stick the pin through the remaining straw. Adjust so it works! L.

134

both ways. Crease it just enough to
be able to see the line you are going to

3. Cut along your lines, but DO NOT
CUT ALL THE WAY TO THE MIDDLE!

 

Fold corner

in but do NOT

crease
‘\ f I?

( I:¥:
o
#8!
l
1
l
l
.1
l
l
)

 

 

 

 

FORMS OF ENERGY

All forms of energy fall under two categorles

/\

POTENTIAL

Potential energy ls stored energy
and

the energy of position (gravitational)

CHEMICAL ENERGY
Chemical energy Is the energy stored in
the bonds of atoms and molecules.
Biomass. petroleum. natural gas. propane
and cod are examples of stored chemical
energy.

NUCLEAR ENERGY
Nuclear energy Is the energy stored In
the nucleus of an atom - the energy that
holds the nucleus together. The nucleus
of a uranium atom Is an example ol

nuclear energy.

STORED MECHANICAL ENERGY
Stored mechanical energy ls energy stored
In objects by the application of a force.
Compressed springs and stretched rubber
bends are exanples of stored mechanical
energy.

GRAVITATIONAL ENERGY
Gravitational energylstheenergyolplace
or position. Water in a reservoir behind a
hydropower dam Is an example of
gavltallonal potential energy. When the
_ water ls released to sph the turbines. it
becomes motion energy.

KINETIC

Kinetic energy ls motion -
the motion at waves. electrons.
atoms. molecules and substances

i

RADIANT ENERGY

Radiant energy Is electromagnetic energy
that travels In transverse waves. Radant
energy Includes visible light. x-rays, gamma
raysandradlowaves. Solarenergylsan
example of radant energy.

THERMAL ENERGY

Thermal energy (or heat) is the Internd
energy In substances - the vibration aid
movement of atoms and molecules within
substances. Geothermal energy is an
example of thermal energy.

MOTION
The movement of objects or substances
from one place to mother ls motion. Wind
and hydropower are examples of motion.

SOUND

Somdlsthemovementotenergythrough-

substances h longitudhal (compression!
raretactlon) waves.

ELECTRICAL ENERGY
Electrical energy Is the movement of
electrons. Ughtnlng and electricity are
examples of electrical energy.

135

 

FORMS AND SOURCES

 

Most of the energy we use in the U.S. Is provided by the following sources of energy.
Write the form of energy—how the energy Is stored or delivered—In each of the sources:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NQNRENEWAELE RENEWABLE
Petroleum Wind

Coal Solar

Natural Gas Biomass
Propane Hydropower
Uranium Geothermal

 

 

What percentage of the nation's energy is provided by each form of energy?
Motion

 

Chemical

 

Radiant

 

! Thermal

 

Nuclear

 

U. S. ENERGY CONSUMPTION BY SOURCE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BIOMASS 2.9% % PETROLEUM 37.2%
renewable nonrenewable
Heathg, electrlcly, truisportllon “inundation. mum ~
HYDROPOWER 2.7% NATURAL GAS 23.7%

“I renewable nonrenewable

I my WWW
GEOTHERMAL 0.3% COAL 22.8%
renewable a nonrenewable
Mtg-MW Mount-Mach!”
WIND 0.1% 35 URANIUM 8.3%
renewable u nonrenewable
__ Bloc-Hr Mew

SOLAR r. omen 0.1% PROPANE 1.9%
renewable nonrenewable
mmm mammal.

 

 

 

   

 

136

APPENDIX D

137

 

 

 

ENERGY UNIT PRE-TEST Name:

 

 

Date: Hour: _

1) List the forms that energy can be found in in the universe.

2) Trace the path of energy from coal to your lightswitch. Use diagram, labels and
details and include every step.

3) Make a table with three columns: Source of energy/electricity, Pros, and Cons.
Fill it in with as many energy /electricity sources as you can think of. . .(Energy
that people use for things like lighting etc.

4) Who is responsible for nuclear waste and why?

5) What is the difference between a renewable and nonrenewable resource? Give
and explain an example of each that relates to energy.

6) What form of energy/electricity has the least negative impact on the environment

and why (c.s.) Use reasons.

7) List as many ways to conserve energy as you can.

138

 

 

ENERGY UNIT POST-TEST Name:

 

 

 

Date: Hour: __

 

1) List the forms that energy can be found in in the universe.

2) Trace the path of energy from coal to your lightswitch. Use diagram, labels and
details and include every step.

3) Make a table with three columns: Source of energy/electricity, Pros, and Cons.
Fill it in with as many energy /electricity sources as you can think of. . .(Energy
that people use for things like lighting etc.

4) Who is responsible for nuclear waste and why?

5) What is the difference between a renewable and nonrenewable resource? Give
and explain an example of each that relates to energy.

6) What form of energy/electricity has the least negative impact on the environment

and why (c.s.) Use reasons.

7) List as many ways to conserve energy as you can.

139

APPENDIX 0.3

Student Answers to Pretest and Post-Test Question 4, by Category of Response

 

 

 

PreTest Answers to Question 4
Answer
Not answered equates
13% nuclear waste
,,/’ with general
Other answers . " waste
27% -\ \ 13%
\.
\‘ Answer
* Answer equates
relates nuclear \.\ nuclear waste
waste indirectly //‘ ”' With other
to electricity Answer relates pollution
consumption nuclear waste 47 ’6
0% to power plants
0%
L_. _ ___ LL--_L______ ,J

 

 

Figure 6: Summary of Pre-Test Answers to Question 4

 

 

 

Post-Test Answers to Question 4
Answer
Not answered _ equates
6% \ nuclear waste
‘ with general
waste
Other answers 32%
25% \‘\\,
Answer
equates
* Answer __ nuclear waste
relates nuclear with other
waste -. . pollution
indirectly to "// Answer relates 6%
GWCIW nuclear waste
consumption to power
25% plants
6%

 

 

Figure 7: Summary of Post-Test Answers to Question 4

140

Pro-Unit Survey "m‘

 

Date: Hour:

Foreachstatementonthissurvey, aelectthe numberthatbestrepresentsyourthoughts. A"1"
means ”strongly gigagrea" or “not at all” and "5" means ”strongly agree” or ”yea. always."

Please answer HONESTLY. I want to know what you think and know.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BMW (..) will
disagree agree
Learning/How to Learn
I I learn best when “on my own" instead of being "taught" by someone 1 2 3 4 5
else.
2 Students should be able to choose how they learn 1 2 3 4 5
3 it is easier to learn when you are given a lot of choices. 1 2 3 4 5
4 I am good at setting my own goals and completing them on time. 1 2 3 4 5
5 i can do well in a science class. 1 2 3 4 5
Energy
6 i know a lot about energy 1 2 3 4 5
7 The study of energy relates to my life. 1 2 3 4 5
8 Learning about energy is important 1 2 3 4 5
9 Learning about energy can be interesting 1 2 3 4 5
Energy Conservation
10 lusealotmoreenergythanlreallyneed. 1 2 3 4 5
I l i would be willing to make changes to conserve energy 1 2 3 4 5
l2 People should conserve energy/Conserving energy is important. 1 2 3 4 5
l3 Therearelotsofwaystosave energy 1 2 3 4 5
l4 Conserving energy takes a lot of effort 1 2 3 4 5
Energy (II)
I5 Fossil fuels are an irreplaceable and essential piece of our country’s 1 2 3 4 5
economy
I6 We will nevcrninout ofenergy 1 2 3 4 5
I7 ltisbcsttouseamixtureofenergysources 1 2 3 4 5
I8 I am [partly] responsible for nuclear waste 1 2 3 4 5
Leaning and Application
l9 i will probably remember what I learn in the energy unit. 1 2 3 4 5
20 I will probably use what I Ieam in the energy unit in my real life. 1 2 3 4 5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

14]

 

 

 

 

 

Post-Unit Survey "m‘

 

Date: Hour.

For each statement on this survey, select the number that best represents your thoughts. A ”1" means

”strongly disagree" or “not at all” and ”5" means "strongly agree” or “yes. always." Please

answer HONESTLY. I want to know what you think and know. For the last few questions, please write
in your answer with as much detail as you like.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

strongly <_, strongly
disagree agree
Learning/How to Learn
l I learn best when ”on my own” instead of being ”taught" by someone else. 1 2 3 4 5
2 Students shouldbcabletochoosehowtheylearn 1 2 3 4 5
3 it is easier to learn when you are given a lot of choices. 1 2 3 4 5
4 I am good at setting my own goals and completing them on time. 1 2 3 4 5
5 i can do well in a science class. 1 2 3 4 5
Burn
6 I know a lot about energy 1 2 3 4 5
7 The study of energy relates to my life. 1 2 3 4 5
8 Learning about energy is important 1 2 3 4 5
9 Learning about energy can be interesting 1 2 3 4 5
Energy Conservation
l0 lusealotmoreenergythanlreallyneed. 1 2 3 4 5
l l i would be willing to make changes to conserve energy 1 2 3 4 5
l2 People should conserve energy/Conserving energy is important. 1 2 3 4 5
l3 Therearelotsofwaystosaveenergy 1 2 3 4 5
l4 Conserving energy takes a lot ofeﬁ'ort 1 2 3 4 5
Euro (ll)
‘ 5 Fossil fuels are an irreplaceable and essential piece of our country’s 1 2 3 ‘ 5
economy
l6 We will never run out ofenergy 1 2 3 4 5
l7 ltisbesttouseamixtureofenergysources 1 2 3 4 5
l8 1 am [partly] responsible for nuclear waste 1 2 3 4 5
Learning and Application
I9 I will probably remember what I Ieamed in the energy unit. 1 2 3 4 5
20 i will probably use what i Ieamed in the energy unit in my real life. 1 2 3 4 5
Layered Cnrricalnni
2] I liked doing layered curriculum 1 2 3 4 5
22 I liked doing layered curriculum more than regular curriculum 1 2 3 4 5
23 i felt layered curriculum made me learn information better than they way 1 2 3 4 5
classes are usually taught.
24 I feel like I know more about energy than I did at the beginning of this unit. 1 2 3 4 5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PLEASE TURN PAPER OVER FOR MORE ON BACK

142

 

 

 

 

Post-Unit Survey "a“

25.

26.

27.

28.

29.

30.

3|.

 

Date: Hour

The best thing about layered curriculum was...

The worst thing about layered curriculum was

My favorite part of the energy unit was...

My least favorite part of the energy unit was...

I Ieamed the most in this unit from...

Oral defenses were...

I feel more confident about what I know about energy than I did at the
beginning of the unit.

143

1

2

APPENDIX D.6

Post Unit Self-Evaluation Questions

Students were asked to answer the following questions at the conclusion of the unit.

1. My overall motivation to do well in any aspect of this class is out of 10.
2. In this unit, I gave about % of my best effort because

3. If I were getting a grade based on how much I tried and attempted to do well in
this unit, my honest grade would be a

4. I think I deserve this grade because...

5. Other comments about layered curriculum?

144

Name: Date: Counselor:

 

Teacher name: Class: Hour:

TRUE COLORS: Describe Yourself with Word Clusters

Below are ﬁve rows of word clusters. Score the clusters by going across, left to right, in rows. Score the
word clusters in each row using a "4" for the groups MOST like you and continue with "3" for the next
most like you, "2" for the next group and " l " for the LEAST like you. In each row, you should have a l, a
2, a 3 and a 4.

$.35 9:311" "MES" {39" 1 {Sgt-f WJE".ZH».€}E?EEF"£-é‘ 116-2:: '5 71.3 "it!
Nice Learning

El Helpﬁu [II Science [:1
Friends Privacy

 

. , W ‘ "7""??? t I ._ ._
I ' QM ﬁ' 333“. ' I "As? this...“ ‘

 

Caring Curious
Action I: On-time [:1 People El Ideas [:1
Contests Honest Feelings Questions

 

, isms-15w“ A.4.... -e-.-;-'~‘.u:
. w; ,. .'_'_._:-,._~-.t-- _. :1:

n‘..1 .‘

 

Playful Helpful Kind Independent
Quick [:l anstworthy CI Understanding [:l Exploring
Adventurous Dependable Giving Doing Well

' “'EILT; ..~ ESE
Busy Follow Rules Sharing Thinking
Free [3 Useful El Getting Along [3 Solving Problems [:I
Winning Save Money Animals Challenge

      

 
 

 

Exciting Pride Nature Books
Lively E] Tradition El Easy Going [3 Math [:1
Hands-0n Do Things Right Making Sense

 

/ \ a a -.-1 a _ ,l . _ \," r .
h r .1 ‘ i» ‘1‘. Q ‘14 3}” 9‘37 .‘_ {*ﬂ— , 5‘s . .
‘ vs. ,7 , '.:V,'n , . g. .2. a .. r-e‘ as

 

TOTAL ORANGE E] TOTAL GOLD [:IM TOTAL BLUEE] TOTAL GREEN B

When you complete all ﬁve rows, add up each column of numbers to reveal your True Colors Spectrum.
Your highest score indicates your Brightest Color, and the lowest scores represents the Color least like
you.

145

APPENDIX D.8

True Colors Survey Background Information and Results

The True Colors Survey incorporates images, phrases, and a short set Of
questions, the results Of which give an estimate Of how “green,” “gold,” “orange,” or
“blue” a student is relative tO the other colors. A characteristic of gold personalities is
that they tend tO enjoy order. Green asks questions and enjoys being right. Blue is the
peacemaker or social butterﬂy. Orange is adventurous. Each student has a little Of each

Of these qualities, but some are more predominant than others.

Table 11: Compiled Results of True Colors Survey

 

 

 

 

Ranked Order of Colors in Study Participants
(combined point sum)
BLUE ORANGE GOLD GREEN
238 213 182 167

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ranked Order of Colors in Study Participants
(number of students with this color preferred)

 

BLUE ORANGE GOLD GREEN

 

7 6 3 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

These True Colors results are close tO typical for a high school population.
Usually orange is the most common personality class for adolescents, with blue being
second. The variation in this selection is not large and the small sample size may have

affected the results.

146

Multiple Intelligence Inventory Survey

Name:
Date:

 

Hour:

 

I. Place a one (I) next to each item below that describes you well.

 

Section 1
I enjoy categorizing things by common
traits
Ecological issues are important to me
Hiking and camping are enjoyable to me
I enjoy working in a garden
I believe preserving our National Parks is
important
Putting things in hierarchies makes sense
Animals are important in my life
My home has a recycling system in place
I enjoy studying biology, botany, or
zoology
I spend a great deal of time outdoors

Section 2

I easily pick up on patterns

I focus in on noise and sounds

Moving to a beat is easy for me

I’ve always been interested in playing an
instrument

The cadence of poetry intrigues me

I remember things by putting them in a
rhyme

Concentration is difﬁcult while listening to
a radio or television

I enjoy many kinds of music

Musicals are more interesting than plays
Remembering song lyrics is easy for me

 

TOTAL for section 1 TOTAL for Section 2

Section 3 Section 4
I keep my things neat and orderly It is important to see my role in the “big
Step-by-step directions are a big help picture” of things

Solving problems comes easily to me

I get easily frustrated with disorganized
people

I can complete calculations quickly in my
head

Puzzles requiring reasoning are fun

I can’t begin an assignment until all my
questions are answered

Structure helps me be successful

I ﬁnd working on a computer spreadsheet
or database rewarding

Things have to make sense to me or I am

I enjoy discussing questions about life
Religion is important to me

I enjoy viewing art masterpieces
Relaxation and meditation exercises are
rewarding

I like visiting breathtaking sites in nature
I enjoy reading ancient and modern
philosophers

Learning new things is easier when I
understand their value

I wonder if there are other forms of
intelligent life in the universe

 

 

dissatisﬁed __ Studying history and ancient culture helps
__ TOTAL for Section 3 gm me Perspective
__ TOTAL for Section 4
Section 5 Section 6

I learn best interacting with others
The more the merrier
Study groups are very productive for me
I enjoy chat rooms
Participating in politics is important
Television and radio talk shows are
enjoyable
I am a “team player”
I dislike working alone
Clubs and extracurricular activities are fun

I pat attention to social issues and causes
TOTAL for Section 5

 

I enjoy making things with my hands

Sitting still for long periods of time is

diﬂicult for me

I enjoy outdoor games and sports

I value non-verbal communication such as
sign language
A ﬁt body is important for a ﬁt mind
Arts and crafts are enjoyable pastimes
Expression through dance is beautiful
I like working with tools
I live an active lifestyle

I Ieam by doing

TOTAL for Section 6

_—
_—
_“
_____——
.—_——

 

147

 

Multiple Intelligence Inventory Survey

Name:
Date:

 

Hour:

 

 

Section 7

I enjoy reading all kinds Of materials

Taking notes helps me remember and

understand

I faithfully contact friends through letters
and/or e-mail

It is easy for me to explain my ideas to

others

I keep a journal

Word puzzles like crosswords and jumbles

are fun

I write for pleasure

I enjoy playing with words like puns,

anagrams and spoonerisms

Section 8
I am keenly aware of my moral beliefs
I learn best when I have an emotional
attachment to the subject
Fairness is important to me
My attitude effects how I Ieam
Social justice issues concern me
Working alone can be just as productive as
working in a group
I need to know why I should do something
before I agree to do it
When I believe in something I will give
100% effort to it
I like to be involved in causes that help

 

 

 

Foreign languages interest me others
Debates and public speaking are activities I I am willing to protest or sign a petition to
like to participate in right a wrong
TOTAL for Section 7 TOTAL for Section 8
Section 9

I can imagine ideas in my mind
Rearranging a room is fun for me

I enjoy creating art using varied media

I remember well using graphic organizers
_ Performance art can be very gratifying

_—
_—
_—
_—

Spreadsheets are great for making charts, graphs and tables
Three dimensional puzzles bring me much enjoyment

Music videos are very stimulating
I can recall things in mental pictures
I am good at reading maps and blueprints

TOTAL for Section 9

 

148

 

Multiple Intelligence Inventory Survey Name:
Date: Hour: __

 

 

Multiple Intelligence Inventory Tally
II. Total up your score for each section of the survey.

Section Section Total M

I X IO
X 10
X10
X l0
X10
X l0
X l0
X 10
X 10

2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

 

III. Make a histogram. (Shade in the boxes below to show your score for each category.)

 

100

90
80
7O
6O
50
4O
3O
20
l O

 

 

 

 

Your
score in
each
category

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

l 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Categories representing your individual strengths and areas of interest(see below)

 

 

 

 

 

Section I — This reﬂects your Naturalist strength Section 6 — This tells your Kinesthetic strength
Section 2 — This suggests your Musical strength Section 7 — This indicates your Verbal strength
Section 3 - This indicates your Logical strength Section 8 - This tells your Intrapersonal strength
Section 4 — This illustrates your Existential Section 9 - This suggests your Visual strength
strength

Section 5 — This shows your Interpersonal
strength

My top three greatest strengths are:
l.
2.
3.

 

 

 

I49

Multiple Intelligence Inventory Survey

Multiple Intelligence Inventory Tally

Name:

 

Date: Hour: _

 

IV. Key to Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences

Circle your top three strengths.

 

Section I - This reﬂects your Naturalist strength

0 Likes to observe, care for and interact with the
natural world; plants and animals

o Is good at making and justifying differences,
and comfortable using a symbolic system.

0 Leams best by: sorting, classifying, or
distinguishing among the differences between
things.

Section 2 - This suggests your Musical strength

0 Likes to: sing, hum tunes, listen to music, play
an instrument and respond to music.

0 Is good at: picking up sounds, remembering
melodies, noticing pitches / rhythms and
keeping time.

0 Learns best by: rhythm, melody, and music

 

Section 3 - This indicates your Logical strength

0 Likes to: do experiments, ﬁgure things out,
work with numbers, ask questions and explore
patterns and relationships.

0 Is good at: math, reasoning, logic, and problem
solving.

0 Learns best by: categorizing, classifying and
working with abstract pattems/relationships.

Section 4 - This illustrates your Existential

strength

0 Likes to: consider the inﬁnite and the
inﬁnitesimal; able to see the “big picture.”

0 Is good at: considering or contemplating
“ultimate” issues, but no stipulation on ﬁnding
the ultimate truth.

0 Learns best by: asking and considering BIG
questions. Often can come up with broad
insights to a given problem.

 

Section 5 - This shows your Interpersonal

strength

0 Likes to: have lots of friends, talk to people and
join groups.

0 Is good at: understanding people, leading others,
organizing, communicating, manipulating and
mediating conﬂicts.

0 Learns best by: sharing comparing, relating,
cooperating and interviewing.

Section 6 - This tells your Kinesthetic strength

0 Likes to: move around, touch and talk and use
body language.

o Is good at: physical activities
(sports/dance/acting) and crafts.

0 Learns best by: touching, moving, interacting
with spaces and processing knowledge through
bodily sensation.

 

Section 7 - This indicates your Verbal strength

0 Likes to: read, write, and tell stories

0 Is good at: memorizing names, places, dates and
trivia.

0 Learns best by: saying, hearing and seeing
words

Section 8 - This tells your Intrapersonal strength

0 Likes to: work alone and pursue own interests.

o Is good at: understanding self, focusing inward
on feelings/dreams, following instincts,
pursuing interests/goals and being original.

0 Learns best by: working alone, individual
projects, self-paced instruction and having own
space.

 

 

Section 9 - This suggests your Visual strength

0 Likes to: draw, build design and create things,
daydream, look at pictures/slides, watch movies
and play with machines.

0 Is good at: imagining things, sensing changes,
mazes/puzzles and reading maps and charts.

0 Learns best by: visualizing, dreaming, using the
mind’s eye and working with color/pictures.

 

 

150

 

APPENDIX D.10

Multiple Intelligence Class Data

Table 12: Compiled Results of Multiple Intelligence Survey

 

Ranked Order of Intelligences In Study Participants

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(combined point sum)
Intra- . . . Inter- . . . .
personal Musrcal Exrstential personal Kinesthetic Verbal Visual Logical Naturalist
101 89 82 79 78 68 65 61 34

 

 

Ranked Order of Intelligences in Study Participants
(number of students with intelligence ranked in top two, tie scores included)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Intra- . . . lnter- . . . .
personal Musrcal Exrstentral personal Kinesthetic Verbal Visual Logical Naturalist
10 4 6 5 4 3 2 3 0

 

Naturalist was not in the top two intelligences of any of my students. This was

not surprising as my students come from an urban background and in my experience I

have not met many naturalists in the setting Of this school. That logical came in at a low

ranking was also not surprising given its typical representation in a high schOOl

population.

I was mildly surprised that intrapersonal intelligence was more prevalent than

interpersonal. Generally high school students utilize the interpersonal tO a great extent.

This was the ﬁrst time I had administered this particular test to a group Of students, so

there may be some unknown bias in it that skewed results. However, it is also possible

that the students in my test sample were indeed stronger in intrapersonal intelligence.

151

 

 

 

 

ENERGY TEST I30 NOT WRITE ON THIS TEST!!!

Follow all directions and write answers on a separate sheet. For the multiple
choice, select the best answer.

 

 

I ENERGY AND OUR ENERGY SOURCES

 

1. Draw how we get electrical energy from coal. Include all the energy transfers
from as far back as you can go.

0 Clearly label the key components of your diagram.

0 Clearly label all the energy forms involved in this process.
2. What are the two main components of a generator, and how do they interact?
3. Use words tO describe how geothermal energy works.

4. Name one energy source that uses a turbine and one energy source that does not
use a turbine. Indicate which is which.

 

5. Which of these do NOT involve converting chemical potential energy into heat

energy?

a. Nuclear power
b. Biomass
c. Fossil Fuels
(1. Both A and C

6. Which Of these do NOT involve kinetic/mechanical energy?
3. Fossil fuels
b. Solar cells
c. Wind
d. Nuclear ﬁssion

7. Which Of these does n_ot convert one kind Of energy tO another kind Of energy?
a. Green plants
b. Generators
0. Combustion (burning)
d. Insulators

8. What sources do not give Off C02 gas an_d do not depend on location?

a. Solar cells

b. Hydrogen fuel cells
c. Wind

d. Geothermal

152

 

 

ENERGY TEST loo NOT WRITE ON THIS TEST!!!

Follow all directions and write answers on a separate sheet. For the multiple
choice, select the best answer.

 

9. Which of these sources relies on highly heated water?
a. Geothermal
b. Solar cells
c. Hydrogen fuel cells
(I. Hydroelectric power

10. Which Of these answers contains a FALSE statement?

a. A negative Of geothermal is that it can only be used in certain places, but a
negative Of nuclear power is that it produces a lot Of air pollution.

b. A negative of wind power is that it takes up a lot of space, but a negative
Of fossil fuels is that they produce a lot Of carbon dioxide.

c. A negative Of geothermal is that the heat of hot spots can be used up, but a
negative Of solar power is that it cannot be used everywhere.

d. A negative Of tidal energy is that it can damage coastal ecosystems, and a
negative Of hydroelectric power is that building dams can damage river
ecosystems.

I 1. Acid rain is caused by
a. Sulfur compounds release from burning coal and mixing with water.
b. Heat from light bulbs creating toxic gases.
c. The large number Of nuclear power plants.
d. Only carbon dioxide.

12. One main reason for the worldwide slowdown in nuclear plant construction is

that
a. We have already run out of nuclear fuel
b. Fossil fuels produce less toxic fumes than nuclear plants
c. Nuclear energy is extremely expensive
(I. We have begun to use solar energy as our primary energy source

13. Converting solar energy into electrical energy
a. Can meet the energy needs Of most places cheaply and efficiently
b. Has much potential but also limitations
c. Is a nonrenewable energy source
d. Produces water as a byproduct

14. Which is an example Of a dirgct use of fossil fuels?
An Oil-ﬁred fumace

A nuclear reactor

A wood-burning stove

An electric generator

99 9‘!»

153

 

 

ENERGY TEST [DO NOT WRITE ON THIS TEST!!!

Follow all directions and write answers on a separate sheet. For the multiple
choice, select the best answer.

 

15. Ninety percent (90%) Of our energy needs are currently ﬁlled by

 

16. What speciﬁc event are these 5 statements referring to?

The site will be radioactive for the next 25,000 years.

People are not supposed to live near the site.

Radioactivity spread through the air tO other countries.

The disaster happened in 1986.

There is a higher incidence of cancer in that area than unexposed areas.

 

[QEP GOING! YOU’RE DOING GREAT QM

State whether these are renewable or nonrenewable sources of energy by writing
“RENEWABLE” or “NONRENEWABLE.”

17. Solar power

18. Wind power

19. Fossil fuels

20. Nuclear power
21. Biomass

22. Hydroelectricity

For the following questions, state whether the energy source can trace its energy
back to the sun. Answer YES if it can or NO if it can’t.

23. Biomass
24. Biofuel
25. Fossil Fuels

26. Wind power

154

 

 

ENERGY TEST [DO NOT WRITE ON THIS TEST!!!

Follow all directions and write answers on a separate sheet. For the multiple
choice, select the best answer.

 

 

ENERGY CONSERVATION

 

 

 

27. Which of these is the l£a_st effective insulator?
a. Styrofoam cup
b. Pink insulation found in attics
0. Glass windows

(I. A thermos

28. Which of these is a way tO conserve energy in your house?
a. Not running the water while you brush your teeth
b. Using smaller amounts of insulation
c. Lowering the thermostat when you are sleeping or gone
d. Installing windows on the north side of the house tO let in sun

29. Deﬁne “renewable resource” and “nonrenewable resource” and give an example
Of each.

30. What are two reasons tO conserve energy?

31. List 5 things you can do tO conserve energy in your house right now.

 

YOUR ENERGY ]

 

32. Are you responsible for nuclear waste? Explain fully. (2 pts)

33. If Southﬁeld, Michigan were to begin using nuclear energy or solar power, which
dO you think we should choose? Explain your Opinion and provide 3 supporting
pieces Of evidence. Use complete sentences. (4 pts)

Look at the data table and the two graphs, then answer the questions that follow.

 

 

 

 

 

Regional Average
_ . (Fuel mix purchased from
Emissrons or Waste Consumer’s Energy MI, IL, I, OH, wr. This
(in pounds per megawatt-hour) Total Production makes UP aI’Prmlilllm'y
3% of Consumers Energy
Total)
Sulfur dioxide 8.79 18.70
Carbon dioxide 22] 1.79 2094.50
Oxides of nitrogen (NOx) 3.09 7.0
High-level nuclear waste .0068 .0074

 

 

 

 

 

155

 

 

ENERGY TEST 130 NOT WRITE ON THIS TEST!!!

Follow all directions and write answers on a separate sheet. For the multiple
choice, select the best answer.

 

 

     
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Consumers Energy
Hydroelectric Wood
1.4% \ 29% Other _____.__-__ W“?
0.0% I Coal
Oil I Nuclear
0.5% E] Gas
Gas f/. Coal D Oil
26.6% 518% I Hydroelectric
N I I Wood
uc ear /
16.8% I Other ”Q
L w __ _J
L _ - . “.7
Regional Average
Hydroelectric Wood
I Coal
Other
/ 0.4% I Nuclear
CI Gas
El Oil
I Hydroelectric
Coal I w°°d
70.4% I Other _

 

 

 

 

 

34. Who uses more coal, Consumers Energy’s total production or the Regional
Average?

35. Who produces more sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide, Consumers or the
region?

36. a) Who is the biggest source of sulﬁrr dioxide and nitrogen dioxides, Consumers
or the region?

b) Use the data and your knowledge to state why is this so. Explain fully in
complete sentences. (2 pts)

156

 

 

ENERGY TEST [DO NOT WRITE ON THIS TEST!!!

Follow all directions and write answers on a separate sheet. For the multiple
choice, select the best answer.

 

 

 

 

MISCELLANEOUS

 

37. What are two drawbacks Of hydroelectric power? (2 pts)
38. What is one good thing and one bad thing about wind power? (2 pts)

39. Why is acid rain an international problem? Explain fully using complete
sentences. (2 pts)

40. What are two reasons you — I mean you personally — should try to reduce your

energy use? (2 pts)

END OF TEST ©

NOTE: The 2004-2005 version of this test included a short newspaper article and the
following questions for students to respond to using the article.

Read the article “Expert says fuel cells will benefit nation.” Then answer the
following questions.

41. In theory, how long will a fuel cell work?
42. What values would make a business buy a fuel cell? Explain.

43. If more people bought hydrogen fuel cells, what would probably happen tO the
cost of the fuel cells?

44. Why would the Governor of Michigan be interested in fuel cell technology?

157

APPENDIX D.12

Comparison of 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 Data"

* The 2004-2005 Energy Unit was taught using a traditional format. The 2005-2006
Energy Unit was taught using a layered curriculum format.

Table 14: Energy Unit Test Results Compared Over Two Years

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2004-2005 2005-2006 2005-2006*
n = 35 n = 21 n = l 7
Average 58% 54% 56%
Forms possrble In 64 72 72
rubrIc
The tests given in the 2004-2005 and 2005-2006
school years were identical with two exceptions:
l) The 2004-2005 test included one short required
Comments reading section and one extra credit reading section
2) The rubric for the written response was more
elaborate and worth more points in 2005-2006.
Extra credit is not included in this percentage.
Table 15: Post-Test Results Compared Over Two Years
2004-2005 2005-2006 2005-2006*
n = 16 n = 20 n = 16
Question I 66% 65% 48%
Question 2 50% 71% 55%
Question 3 48% 62% 53%
Question 4 68% 53% 47%
Question 5 not included 73% 67%
Question 6 39% 73% 62%
Question 7 72% 88% 97%
ITotal Average 58% 69% 62 o A,
ercent

 

 

 

 

 

"‘ includes only scores Of study subjects

158

 

 

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