Impact of an Authentic Environment on Learning of Math and Science

The paper provides details of a teacher professional development workshop on an authentic learning environment incorporating lessons based on hands-on activities on a flight simulator. The workshop design was based on best practices for teacher Professional Development (PD). The attitudes of teachers towards the use of technology were measured during the PD and are shared in this paper. Subsequently, a summer camp using the same learning environment was conducted for middle school students to learn selected math and science concepts. The results of the impact on the student participants of the summer camp are also presented in this paper. The participants learned the use of spreadsheets to analyze and plot data collected during the hands-on activities with the flight simulator. A within-subject quasi-experimental design (pre-post) was used to measure changes in attitudes towards Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). The changes in content knowledge of the selected math and science concepts were also measured. Analysis of the pre-post responses to a 65-item STEM-attitudes survey provided interesting insight into the differences between males and females in their attitudes. Analysis of the pretest and posttest results of the math and science concepts instrument indicated the effectiveness of the intervention on math concepts.