Impact of Socioscientific Issues on Middle School Students' Character and Values for Global Citizenship

2021 ◽  
pp. 56-91
Author(s):  
Wardell A. Powell ◽  
Mark H. Newton ◽  
Dana L. Zeidler
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Middle School Students ◽  
Socioscientific Issues ◽  
Wilcoxon Test ◽  
School Students ◽  
Instructional Unit ◽  
Global Citizens ◽  
Animal Cloning ◽  
Public Middle School ◽  
Ecological Worldview

This chapter demonstrates the impact of an animal cloning socioscientific issues instructional unit on a group of middle school students' abilities to use their ecological worldview, social and moral compassion, and sense of socioscientific accountability to determine the permissibility of animal cloning. Seventy-seven 7th grade students at a public middle school in the Southeastern region of the United States participated in this investigation. Results from a non-parametric two-tailed Wilcoxon test indicated the students' social and moral compassion (Z = -2.505, p = .012) and socioscientific accountability scores (Z = -2.381, p = .017). In contrast, the results did not demonstrate a statistically significant difference between students' pre and post ecological worldview (Z = -1.185, p = .236). Qualitative analyses of the data revealed several interesting trends and themes discussed in the chapter. The findings from this investigation support the use of SSI as key pedagogical strategies in promoting character and values for global citizens among middle school students.

scholarly journals Korean Middle School Students' Perceptions as Global Citizens of Socioscientific Issues

2012 ◽  
Vol 32 (7) ◽  
pp. 1124-1138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiyoung Jang ◽  
Jiyeong Mun ◽  
Hyo-Suk Ryu ◽  
Kyunghee Choi ◽  
Krajcik Joseph ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Middle School Students ◽  
Socioscientific Issues ◽  
School Students ◽  
Global Citizens

LBGTQ+ Books Within Middle School Libraries and How Librarians Promote These LGBTQ+ Books to Students

2022 ◽  
pp. 387-404
Author(s):  
Kristal Elaine Vallie ◽  
Susan Szabo
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Middle School Students ◽  
Quantitative Data ◽  
School Library ◽  
School Libraries ◽  
School Librarians ◽  
Online Database ◽  
School Students ◽  
Public Middle School ◽  
Texas School District

This mixed methods study allowed the researchers to explore the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ+) materials available in public middle school libraries and to interview six middle school librarians about their perceptions on “caring about and caring for” in order to provide middle school students with LGBTQ+ books. The study took place in one Texas school district. The quantitative data came from the middle school libraries' online database to determine how many LGBTQ+-themed young-adult books were found in each of the 12 school libraries. The findings revealed that the middle-school libraries offered very few LGBTQ+-themed books for students to checkout. The qualitative data came from interviewing six middle school librarians. Their stories revealed two critical themes toward LGBTQ+ books within their school library: (1) librarians' perceptions and reactions to students' needs and (2) librarians' perceptions and reactions regarding silence within the district.

A middle school instructional unit for size and scale contextualized in nanotechnology

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cesar Delgado ◽  
Shawn Y. Stevens ◽  
Namsoo Shin ◽  
Joseph Krajcik
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
High School Students ◽  
Middle School Students ◽  
Secondary Students ◽  
School Students ◽  
Post Intervention ◽  
Instructional Unit ◽  
Nanoscale Science And Engineering ◽  
Custom Made ◽  
Nanoscale Science

AbstractSize and scale is a “big idea” in nanoscale science and engineering and is poorly understood by secondary students. This paper describes the design process, implementation, and evaluation of a 12-h instructional unit for size and scale, in a summer science camp for middle school students from a low SES public school district. Instructional activities were designed following a construct-centered design approach and included the use of microscopes, custom-made computer simulations, and 2-D and 3-D scale models. The unit followed a project-based instructional approach and was contextualized with the driving question, “How can nanotechnology keep me from getting sick?” Pre- and post-intervention interviews revealed that students significantly increased their qualitative and quantitative knowledge of the size of objects including atom, viruses, and cells, with an effect size of 0.8 for an overall metric. The campers closed the gap with private middle school students and on some measures surpassed high school students from the same district. The principle of “broad spectrum” curriculum and instruction – activities that target specific advanced understandings but simultaneously scaffold or support the learning of more fundamental, prerequisite ideas – was inductively generated from an analysis of the learning activities.

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