An assessment of the applied biology/chemistry curriculum in selected Oklahoma schools

Scope and method of study. The scope of the study consisted of students enrolled in either a traditional biology course or an ABC biology course at four Oklahoma high schools. Three of the locations were in metropolitan areas and the other was in an area classified as rural. Almost two hundred students in each curriculum group participated in the research effort. The study assessed the Applied Biology/Chemistry (ABC) curriculum taught using the cooperative learning method as compared to the traditional biology curriculum taught using more typical instruction by means of analyzing student scores on a standardized biology test and science attitude survey.; Findings and conclusions. The analysis of data revealed that nine of thirteen sections of ABC biology and traditional biology exhibited a significant increase at the {dollar}alpha{dollar} =.05 level of significance in post-test score versus the pre-test score on the standardized biology test. In addition, the composite comparison for each school and for the entire group demonstrated an {dollar}alpha{dollar} =.05 significant increase in score for the ABC biology students. The same was true for the traditional students except one school failed to post an {dollar}alpha{dollar} =.05 significant increase. Therefore, it was concluded that the use of the ABC curriculum or the traditional biology curriculum was an effective means of increasing biology knowledge. The analysis of data indicated that the ABC curriculum was superior to the traditional curriculum at the first metropolitan school at the {dollar}alpha{dollar} =.05 level of significance. In contrast, at the same significance level, the traditional curriculum was superior to the ABC curriculum at the other two metropolitan schools. At the rural school, there was no {dollar}alpha{dollar} =.05 significant difference between the curricula. Finally, there was no {dollar}alpha{dollar} =.05 significant difference between curricula for the entire group. Since neither curriculum demonstrated consistent superiority, it was concluded that the curricula were equivalent in their ability to increase biology knowledge. On the science attitude survey, the ABC biology group had only one section to record an {dollar}alpha{dollar} =.05 significant increase on post-test score versus pre-test score. There were no significant changes at the {dollar}alpha{dollar} =.05 in score for any school or for the entire group. For this reason, it was concluded that the use of the ABC curriculum had no effect on the attitude of students toward science. The traditional biology group had two sections at one school record an {dollar}alpha{dollar} =.05 significant decrease on post-test score versus pre-test score on the science attitude survey. There were no significant changes at the {dollar}alpha{dollar} =.05 in score for any school or for the entire group. For this reason, it was concluded that the use of the traditional curriculum had no effect on the attitude of students toward science. In direct comparison of difference scores on the science attitude survey, an {dollar}alpha{dollar} =.05 level of significant difference was found at the first metropolitan school. At that school, the ABC students had significantly higher difference scores than the traditional students. However, no other significant differences were found at the {dollar}alpha{dollar} =.05 level of significance. Therefore, it was concluded that the use of either curriculum produced similar effects on the attitudes of students toward science.