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Evaluating a Student Science Project Program at
Gladstone High School
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Dale Ingram Gladstone High School 18800 Portland
Avenue Gladstone, OR 97027 503-655-2544 ext
488 ingramd_at_gladstone.k12.or.us
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In association with the LIGO Hanford
Observatory PO Box 159 Richland, WA
99352 509-372-8106 outreach_at_ligo-wa.caltech.edu
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The relationship between GHS and LHO began in
1999. Gladstone received a two-year appointment
with LIGO through the Scientist-Student Teacher
program of the Pacific Northwest National
Laboratory in Richland.
With LIGOs help, Gladstone developed a program
that involves students in projects related
to LIGO science.
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LIGO and Gladstone decided to continue their
association when the SST program expired in
2001. LIGO offers Gladstone project ideas,
ongoing mentoring and technical expertise and a
highly relevant context for involving students in
independent work.
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• In which courses do students
• build independent projects?
• Physics (long term, part time)
• Science Independent Study (long term, full time)
• Introduction to Technology (short term, full
  time)

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• What are the types of student projects?
• Data analysis using LHO and Internet data
• Programming for specific data analysis tasks
• Instrument building and data collection
• Data acquisition systems, A-to-D electronics

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• Our goals for students
• Understand science methods
• through authentic independent work
• Apply science content to the solution of science
  engineering problems
• Improve skills in problem-solving, collaboration,
  
• technical writing, speaking and work management
• Appreciate the role of science in society

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In the fall of 2003 Gladstone decided to examine
the programs impact on students in an attempt to
improve the quality of our coursework. We will
share the survey results with LIGO.
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Our method Administer a five-question survey to
as many present and past participants as
possible. Surveys for graduates were transmitted
through email.
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Our survey makes five statements that represent
idealized positive responses from students in
relation to the goals. Students are asked to
rank their personal agreement with each statement
on a 1 10 scale.
Questions 3 5 were modified for the Intro to
Tech surveys but the intent of the questions
remained the same.
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I) Personal Interest My individual project
was interesting. I enjoyed working on the
project and I felt motivated to put in a lot of
time and to do a good job. 
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Response Guide

• I didn't find the project to be very
• interesting. I think my time would have been
  better spent doing regular schoolwork.
• 5) I enjoyed the project. It was boring and
  frustrating at times but overall it was a nice
  change from traditional work.
• 10) I really enjoyed the project. It gave me a
  chance to think and learn for myself. I enjoyed
  managing the work myself. I looked forward to
  spending time on the project.

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II) Useful Skills I learned or improved one
or more useful skills in my project. The
project was valuable because I gained some
practical benefit from it. 
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• I don't recall any practical value
• from my project or any particular skill that
• I gained or improved. I probably would
• have benefited just as much from regular
• coursework instead.
• 5) I remember that I learned some skills while
  doing the project that were meaningful at the
  time but these have not been of significant
  lasting value. The project was helpful because
  it let me learn more about working
  independently, but the other benefits were not
  that significant.
• 10) Some of the skills I learned and practiced
  on my project have become very important to me.
  The project environment helped me develop
  skills/knowledge more deeply than
• would have happened in a regular class
  environment.

Response Guide
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III) Understanding of Science  "I think the
project gave me good insight into what science
is really like. I came away from the experience
with an understanding of what constitutes
'good' science -- initiative, creativity,
perseverance, collaboration, problem-solving,
clear communication and attention to detail."  
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• I don't recall that the project
• changed my perspective of science
• or my ideas on how science is done.
• 5) I realized from the project that 'real'
  science is not
• like the ideas you get from science textbooks.
  I realized that its hard to prove what's 'right'
  in science.
• 10) I learned a lot about how science is done
  because I had the chance to do science myself.
  There wasn't a book or a teacher there who knew
  the answer and expected me to learn it -- I had
  to develop my own knowledge through the process
  of working on the project.

Response Guide
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IV) Post High-School Work  "I think that my
experiences in my high school science courses,
including the course in which I worked on my
project, will be valuable to me in my years
following high school."
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Response Guide

• My post-high school plans do not include
• science. My science experiences in high
• school are not very relevant to my future plans.
• 4) I probably won't do much with science after
  high school but I feel that my high school
  science experiences, including the project, have
  been valuable and worthwhile.
• 7) My post-high school experiences will include
  at least some science or engineering, but my high
  school science classes have not been of
  particular benefit to me.
• 10) I feel that my high school science courses
  and my independent project have been reasonably
  good preparation for my future schooling work.

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V)__Science in Society  "My independent project
helped me understand the roles of science and
scientists more clearly. Learning about LIGO
helped make professional science less mysterious
to me. I feel that I can interpret science in
our society more clearly because of my
experiences in the project.
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1) For me there wasn't really a connection
between my project and 'real-world' science. I
don't feel that I understand science in our
society any better from my project
experiences. 5) Becoming more familiar with LIGO
helped me view science in our society with more
confidence, but its not an issue that I think
about very much. 10) The independent project and
my exposure to LIGO helped me understand science
in our society more clearly. I'm not so
intimidated by the highly technical aspects of
modern science -- I understand that at its core,
science is still very much about people, ideas
and communication.
Response Guide
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• Potential Quality
• Control Issues
• Control (?)
• Problematic questions
• Limited or skewed response
• Complicated questions and structure
• Possible reluctance to assign low values

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Results
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Data from the Participants
Physics 21 returned 40 sent 100
eligible Ind. Study 15 returned 30 sent, 55
eligible Intro to Tech 8 returned 11 sent, 15
eligible Total Responses 44
60 70 responses are a possibility as we
continue locate participants
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• Conclusions
• The survey indicates generally
• positive outcomes in relation to our goals.
• A surprisingly high percent of graduate
• respondents have pursued technical endeavors.
• The responses from the Intro to Tech students
  were
• comparable to those of more advanced students,
• possibly suggesting that the project approach is
  effective
• for a variety of levels of ability and
  experience.

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• Future Directions
• Continue to incorporate the project
• approach into our science and technology
  coursework
• More strongly emphasize the general skills
  (speaking, writing, collaboration) that all
  students will need
• Seek more specific information from graduates
• about the quality and appropriateness of their
  high school science work

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Acknowledgements Gladstone High Schools project
Program has benefited from the financial support
of the Gladstone Education Foundation, the Moe
Foundation and the Clackamas County Technical
Education Consortium
LIGO is operated by Caltech and MIT and is
supported by the National Science Foundation
(Cooperative Agreement PHY-0107417)