Reports the results of evaluation of specified student and course objectives by teacher ratings and test results. Includes a discussion of the evaluation of the materials as a result of formative evaluation. (AL)

Students whose Physical Science Study Committee (PSSC) physics course was supplemented with the PSSC films did not achieve significantly higher scores on the PSSC Achievement Test or the Test on Understanding Science than students who did not see the films, when intelligence and science background were used as covariates. (AL)

The outcomes of 1333 students enrolled in Chemical Educational Materials Study (CHEMS), Chemical Bond Approach (CBA), and a traditional chemistry course were compared on the basis of grade and ability level. For the total group, students taking CHEMS and CBA performed significantly better on the American Chemical Society Cooperative Examination in…

This study was an attempt to determine the relationship between students' performance on an achievement test for a given unit in the Introductory Physical Science (IPS) curriculum program and the time spent teaching the unit. The sample consisted of 974 eighth- and ninth-grade students and five IPS teachers. The SCAT Test and the Standord…

An attribute-treatment interaction study was conducted with two groups of teachers exhibiting contrasting natural teaching styles, teaching a Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS) based biology course in a natural school setting. Annotated transcripts of lessons were analyzed to provide data for the validation and description of the…

Investigated was the effect of different types of laboratory reports on measured outcomes of the Chemical Education Materials Study (CHEMS) Chemistry. Compared were procedures using essay laboratory reports, mimeographed laboratory sheets prepared by the investigator and completed by the students, the laboratory manual for the course completed by…

This investigation was an attempt to determine the suitability of a highly structured course in science, Introductory Physical Science (IPS), for all eighth-grade students in a suburban school. The major measure for the evaluation of the course was to study the degree of teacher commitment to the objectives of the course and determine if this…

Reported is a study to compare science achievement of 318 ninth-grade students who came from different socioeconomic areas but all enrolled in an Earth Science Curriculum Project (ESCP) program. The students were divided into three socioeconomic groups: upper, middle, and lower. All were given a pretest in science achievement, a posttest, an…

Reported is a study to: (1) investigate the effects of two junior high science curricula on the acquisition of selected process skills of science, and (2) determine the effects of sex and race on the acquisition of science processes by students. Comparisons were made between performances of students enrolled in Intermediate Science Curriculum…

Investigates the relationship between science interest and process achievement for seventh, eighth and ninth graders. Results reveal that: (1) science interests are significant predictors of process achievement for only ninth-graders; and (2) science interest scores decrease significantly from pre to posttest across grade levels. (HM)

The purpose of this study was twofold: first, to answer the question of which abilities, from a selected set of 12 abilities from the structure-of-intellect model of Guilford, were related to achievement in Physical Science Study Committee (PSSC) physics, and, second, to determine how the physics achievement prediction properties of these…

This investigation was conducted to determine the validity of the use of Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI) as a tool in formative curriculum evaluation. The instructional materials were selected from 1968 grade seven materials produced by the Intermediate Science Curriculum Study (ISCS). The comparison of student performance within these…

The first science education digest for 1985 focused on data obtained by use of meta-analysis techniques on research studies of science instruction. Instruction seldom takes place without instructional materials, so this second digest is a companion one containing a discussion of science education research on instructional materials. Data are shown…

Findings from a five-year study of the use of Level I of the Intermediate Science Curriculum Study in a suburban Philadelphia school district are reported and discussed. (PB)