COS 60-7 - How middle school students conceptualize and learn about competition and invasive species

Tuesday, August 8, 2017: 3:40 PM
D133-134, Oregon Convention Center
Amanda Gonczi1, Brenda Gail Bergman2 and Jacqueline E. Huntoon1, (1)Michigan Technological University, (2)School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI
Background/Question/Methods

Understanding competition between organisms is critical to ecological literacy

and to understanding the invasion of exotic species into new ecosystems. Despite the

importance of competition as a foundational ecological concept little is known about

middle school students’ understandings of competition. This study sought to determine

students’ beliefs about inter- and intraspecific competition in general and how

competition explains why some exotic species become in invasive. A second goal of the

study was to establish the extent a problem-based unit could support normative

understandings of competition through engaging students in science and engineering

practices. 143 sixth grade students’ responses on one multiple choice and two open-ended

questions were analyzed pre- and post unit implementation. Students were taught by one

of three different teachers. Patterns in student responses were captured by developing

codes through thematic qualitative data analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Frequencies in

matched-pairs codes were compared pre to post using the McNemar test to discern

changes in student thinking. This work is funded by the Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow

Foundation.

Results/Conclusions

Pre-test responses demonstrated that between 18-33% of students (depending

upon class) believed that plants either do not compete for light or do not compete for any

resources. There was significant positive conceptual change from pre-to posttest in all

three classes regarding plant competition for resources. Students had little knowledge

about invasive species on the pre-test as indicated by the high percent of students who did

not answer the related question (25%-40%). Significantly more students indicated

invasives disrupted food chains/webs or took native’s resources on the post- test

compared with the pre-test (p=.039). On the post-test, students’ understandings were

strongly influenced by the teacher. For example, while 22.2% of students in one class

specifically used the phrase “Take over” in their post-test responses to describe invasives,

only 4.3% and 3.9% of students did in the other two classes. These findings demonstrate

that problem-based learning instruction that contextualizes competition within science

and engineering practices can promote middle school students’ understanding about

competition. However, teacher beliefs and the words they use to describe invasive species

are critical and should be investigated further.