Mercado-Feliciano, Samirah

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    Expository programs: a model to improve the teaching and learning of high school chemistry
    (2007) Mercado-Feliciano, Samirah; López-Garriga, Juan; College of Arts and Sciencies - Sciences; Patron, Francis; Bellido, Carmen; Department of Chemistry; Ríos-Velázquez, Carlos
    The National Science Board Report of 2006 indicates that the number of university students in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) areas has decreased in the last three years. One reason for this problem is that high school students show low academic progress in science and mathematics nationwide. In Puerto Rico, the number of students in public schools tends to decrease as they reach high school, thus aggravating the problem. A possible contribution to solve the reduction of students in the areas of STEM is the development of strong links between the universities and K-12 educational science initiatives. The expository science programs in Puerto Rico are interdisciplinary initiatives that link K-12 students, teachers, university students, and college professors with the goal of improving STEM education and reducing the educational gap between pre-college and higher education. Therefore, this research focused on studying and defining the effect and influence of the Expository Programs in high school chemistry. The research’s hypothesis is that this link between universities and K-12 schools helps to improve the teaching and learning of chemistry. Questionnaires, surveys, and interviews were administered to obtain the data used to answer the study questions. To reinforce the obtained data, a chemistry test was administered to program and non-program participant students with the objective of detecting misconceptions in chemistry. Overall, data suggested that the Expository Programs enhance the teaching of chemistry and stimulate high school students in the following ways: (1) increase, their curiosity for Chemistry, (2) developed their critical thinking skills, (3) developed their technological abilities, (4) reduces the number of chemistry misconceptions, and (5) increased university enrollment in chemistry-related programs.