The researchers wanted to continue in their university's previous study of nature awareness and science achievement, specifically examining the effects of nature in the achievement of seventh-grade students. This further study offered valuable insight to the inconclusive findings of previous researchers of nature awareness and science achievement.…

Parallel machine and manual literature searches on the subject of chemical evolution and the origin of life were compared on six characteristics: (1) precision, (2) recall, (3) novelty, (4) uniqueness, (5) time cost per citation, and (6) dollar cost per citation. The manual search outperformed the machine on precision, novelty, uniqueness, and…

Two instructional methods were identified and compared to determine if any significant differences could be noted on three criterion measures. Measurements were conducted in the areas of achievement in biology, science attitudes, and critical thinking ability. Student ability was measured using pre-tests and the Scholastic Aptitude Test. Students…

An attempt was made to compare two instructional techniques. The study involved 64 students in two experimental groups and 65 as controls. Two instructional treatments (scripts and tapes) and two units of biological subject matter were utilized. One experimental group was given audio tapes, the other written scripts for the first unit. In the…

The intent of this study was to assess the content structure of college biology lectures and to determine the extent to which that structure differed in lectures by a given professor and among lectures of different professors. Content structure was based on the amount of contiguity and commonality of verbal elements between pairs of discourse…

The objective of this research was to contrast the effects of two instructional techniques (programmed vs. conventional) used in beginning college biology courses. The experimental technique involved the use of programmed textbook units within the typical course syllabus. Ninety students were involved in the study. Four programmed texts were used.…

Reported is a study of relationships between personal characteristics and achievement in and attitude toward an audio-tutorial (A-T) biology program. A sample of 119 volunteers, participants in a year-long A-T biology program, was included in the study. Data analysis was conducted in three phases: (1) the Attitude Toward the A-T Method…

Twelve sections of students and three instructors were used in this study in which inquiry was examined in the context of two teaching methods. The conventional or traditional method used traditional laboratory exercises as the main format. This was considered the control method. An extended laboratory method with the student choosing his problem…

This study involved an investigation related to student ability to carry out inquiry tasks, and to investigate the effectiveness of a technique of set induction through rule learning. Biology students from 13 high school classes were randomly selected and assigned to an experimental group, A, or to one of three control groups, B, C, or D. The…

The aims of the study were: (1) to identify components of student-centered inquiry teaching and to develop methodology to determine the extent to which these components are found in classrooms, and (2) to investigate the correlates of those components for which measures were developed. Instruments included a Biology Activity Report completed by a…

The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of teachers' pupil control ideology, dogmatism, and the type of instructional system employed on changes in student curiosity behaviors and the diversity of problems chosen by students for study during a Laboratory Exploration in Biology (LEIB). Students and teachers were selected from…

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationships between attitudes of general biology students and their instructors toward biology as a discipline and toward certain patterns of biology laboratory instruction. The sample consisted of 29 instructors of general biology in 9 Texas two-year colleges and their students. Four attitude…

Reported is a study to compare the achievement of selected 10th-grade biology students on a traditional schedule with selected 10th-grade biology students on a flexible modular schedule. Both groups studied the blue version of the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS) materials. Students were paired in the groups on the basis of their scores…

This study was conducted in order to assess the difference in concept development and principle learning between high school biology students studying the origin of life from a two-model approach (evolution and creation) and those using the single-model approach of evolution only. The pre-test, post-test control group design using a criterion…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the degree to which teacher identified noncollege bound high school biology students have developed the ability to identify and to apply selected princepts of biology. To investigate this a multiple-choice test was developed that measured the ability to identify and apply selected princepts of biology.…