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Improving Student Performance Through Redesign of

Earth and Space Science Course Materials

Erin Jacobson

Instructional Science and Technology,

California State University, Monterey Bay

IST511: Writing Workshop

Dr. Evanick

December 14, 2021

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There is a need to rethink how science classes are taught, especially when working with

low achieving students. Earth and space science (ESS) students have typically negative attitudes

toward science, which impacts their future academic success. Shifting the design of the course to

give students more flexibility and an individualized experience will allow them to take

ownership of their learning and motivate them toward greater achievement.

Attitudes Predict Success

Student attitudes are an important predictor of academic accomplishment. Students who

enjoy the subject that they are studying and the activities of the course are more likely to do well.

For example, students taking electives are more likely to put forth more effort in their work,

earning them a higher grade. Earth and space science (ESS) is often populated by students who

are there to meet a graduation requirement and ESS also has a much higher D and F rate than

chemistry—the other second year science option. In their analysis of the impact of affective

factors on success, Ozel et al. found that the factor most relevant to student success is

“enjoyment” of the subject (2013). Because ESS students must pass ESS to graduate regardless

of their level of interest, it is important for teachers to provide students more targeted learning

opportunities to motivate their success (Kousa et al., 2018).

Engaging ESS students in content through strategically designed learning opportunities

will increase their likelihood of academic success. Students who enjoy their science classes are

more likely to take more science and therefore be accepted into college (Schwartz, 2020).

Educational technology allows teachers to give more individualized opportunities for students in

their classes, increasing feelings of ownership and enjoyment of learning. Teachers may also

increase student engagement and enjoyment in ESS with hands-on-labs and activities.
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Traditional classroom practices such as lecture notes and worksheets are the least enjoyable to

students; students instead prefer learning experiences in which they can have choices and see real

world applications (Kousa et al., 2018). Helping students to enjoy ESS will help to change their

attitude toward science education and help them to succeed long term by increasing critical

science knowledge and likelihood of college acceptance.

Need For Change

There needs to be a change in how science is addressed at the high school level.

American students have remained in a middle ranking, when compared to other developed

nations, for over a decade (U.S. National Science Board 2020). Though American students have

been getting instruction framed around different standards, the outcomes have not changed as the

majority of classroom education is teacher led with little student autonomy. The ways that things

have always been done are not serving students while they are in school or when they leave

school.

As technology has improved, there has been more of a push to include multimedia in

science classroom to increase student understanding of materials. This multimedia is largely

pictures and videos and allows teachers to show natural phenomena that would not otherwise fit

inside of a science classroom, such as spinning galaxies or erupting volcanoes. Technology

presents an amazing chance to show students processes that they may not otherwise see.

However, simply showing a process does not guarantee student success or understanding of

concepts, scaffolding is required to ensure student mastery of content (Chan & Linn, 2013). It is

not enough to simply show the students a phenomenon taking place, lessons must be carefully

structured to ensure students understand what they are seeing and the science behind it.
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Only about 44% of Americans are recorded as having a “great deal of confidence” in

science, however in the portion of the population without a high school diploma this value is

only 29% (U.S. National Science Board 2020). This is despite the fact that science information is

freely available from a myriad of sources. If not structured properly, it does not matter how much

information is available. There needs to be careful design to make complex concepts digestible

for an audience that does not have a lot of faith in the processes that they are studying.

Moving Forward

Instructional design concepts incorporated into online resources will provide students

with learning experiences that will support their growth, give them a sense of ownership over the

activities that they are completing, and allow for more instant feedback and personalization. The

proposed capstone project involves breaking down remedial math concepts to help students

achieve science standards. On casual observation of ESS students currently working on the same

standards, there is roughly 40% success in completing the math involved in the current unit.

Students have many reasons for struggling, but there needs to be further development and

personalization to allow them to succeed.

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References

Chang, H. Y., & Linn, M. C. (2013). Scaffolding learning from molecular visualizations.

Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 50(7), 858–886.

https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21089

Jacobson, E. (2020) Impact of Attitude on Earth and Space Science Student Success. MIST,

CSUMB.

Kousa, P., Kavonius, R., & Aksela, M. (2018). Low-achieving students’ attitudes towards

learning chemistry and chemistry teaching methods. Chemistry Education Research and

Practice, 19(2), 431–441. https://doi.org/10.1039/c7rp00226b

Ozel, M., Caglak, S., & Erdogan, M. (2013). Are affective factors a good predictor of science

achievement? examining the role of affective factors based on Pisa 2006. Learning and

Individual Differences, 24, 73–82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2012.09.006

Schwartz, S. (2020, November 20). Low-achieving and high-achieving students receive different

instruction, report finds. Education Week. Retrieved November 15, 2021, from

https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/low-achieving-and-high-achieving-students-

receive-different-instruction-report-finds/2019/08.

U.S. National Science Board. Science & Engineering Indicators. (2020) The State of U.S.

Science & Engineering. National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES).

https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsb20201/
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Wang, M. T., Fredricks, J. A., Ye, F., Hofkens, T. L., & Linn, J. S. (2016). The Math and

Science Engagement Scales: Scale development, validation, and psychometric properties.

Learning and Instruction, 43, 16–26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2016.01.008