Abstract:

The first aim of this project is to determine if teachers in northwest Florida perceive the hands-on activities are aligned with state education standards, if the teachers perceive that the activities increased student environmental and scientific literacy, and if these programs familiarized the teachers with programming by the Pensacola MESS Hall. Teachers who do not give consent to be surveyed may still have their classes engage in the hands-on activities. Teachers who consent to participate are expected to complete two surveys, one pre-survey and one post-survey, each about five minutes in length, before the start of the classroom workshop and at the end of these activities. The data will be collected through surveys on tablets owned and maintained by the Pensacola MESS Hall. These tablets are password protected, as is the online survey tool utilized by the Pensacola MESS Hall. Classroom workshops should last no longer than five hours of cumulative spread out over five visits to the teacher’s classroom. To protect individual identity, each participant will choose a numerical identifier, and any identifying information will be removed before sharing these results or datasets with any internal members of the project team and/or other stakeholders. Students will be asked to complete pre- and post-assessments of their scientific and environmental literacy, design thinking, and their feelings of empowerment in addressing and providing potential solutions to local problems. Data will be collected only from those students who assent and whose parents consent to their participation in the study.