02/13/2024
By Zakkiyya Witherspoon

The School of Education invites you to attend a doctoral dissertation defense by Christine Zatalava "Increasing Student Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Science and Engineering Practices Content Knowledge and Science Attitudes for Fifth Grade Students Participating in Science Fair.”

Candidate: Christine Zatalava
Degree: Doctoral- Leadership in Schooling (STEM)
Defense Date: Monday, Feb. 26, 2024
Time: 10 a.m.
Location: Remote via Zoom
Thesis/Dissertation Title: "Increasing Student Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Science and Engineering Practices Content Knowledge and Science Attitudes for Fifth Grade Students Participating in Science Fair."

Dissertation Committee

  • Dissertation Chair: Phitsamay Uy, Ed.D., Associate Professor of College of Education, University of Massachusetts Lowell
  • Dissertation member: James Nehring, Ed.D., Professor of College of Education, University of Massachusetts Lowell
  • Dissertation Mentor: William Goldsworth, Ed.D., CE Adjunct Faculty of College of Education, University of Massachusetts Lowell

Abstract
The need for scientifically literate citizens is an urgent priority, exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020. Despite the importance of scientific literacy, elementary schools across the nation have not made science instruction a priority in their school day. After the pandemic, education systems scrambled to address the learning loss that occurred from leaving our traditional school environment for remote learning. One Maryland elementary school chose to remediate children reading below grade level, as evidenced by their Acadience Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) scores, by instituting Response to Intervention (RtI) literacy services in lieu of daily science instruction. This mixed-methods study examined how an eight week after-school intervention impacted fifth graders’ Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) science and engineering practices content knowledge and their science attitudes. Elementary science and gifted and talented teachers, along with middle school science teachers and other STEM professionals completed a science experiment and assisted students in completing a science fair project during this intervention. Manuscript 1 highlights the needs assessment data collected from a suburban Title 1 elementary school and connects these data to the literature. Manuscript 2 focuses on the methodology and findings of the after-school intervention. Overall, fifth grade students who participated in the intervention saw a 6.7 % increase in content knowledge. The special education subgroup students saw a 13.3% increase, while general education students increased 6.7%. Students who presented their science fair project at the annual school science fair additionally saw increases in their science identify and became more confident group work. Finally, manuscript 3 highlights three recommendations linked to the intervention findings to advance scientific literacy.