Contents

Preface

                        Acknowledgements

                        Notes to Students and Teachers

                        Additional RIP Resources

                        Addressing Benchmarks for Science Literacy and the National Standards

 

UNIT 1:          Introduction to this Book

 

Chapter 1:         The Science Education Movement

Chapter 2:         Research Investigation Process: RIP

Chapter 3:         Developing a Research Investigation Program for Your Students

 

UNIT 2:          Research Investigation Process: Introduction Section

 

Chapter 4:         Making Observations

Chapter 5:         Formulating and Posing Research Questions

Chapter 6:         Gathering Background Information

Chapter 7:         Constructing a Hypothesis

 

UNIT 3:          Research Investigation Process: Method Section

 

Chapter 8:         Subjects

                         8-1:      Choosing the Subjects

                         8-2:      Random Sampling

                         8-3:      Other Sampling Techniques Using Random Selection

                         8-4:      Sample Size

 

Chapter 9:         Levels of Measurement

 

Chapter 10:       Validity and Ethics in Research Investigations

                        10-1:     Techniques to Insure Validity of the Research

                                                Investigation Study

                        10-2:     Ethics and Treatment of Subjects in a Research

                                                Investigation Study

 

Chapter 11:       Creation of a Research Study Design

                                                 11-1:    Comparing Groups: Experiments and Ex Post Facto

                                                                        Studies

                                                 11-2:    Research Study Design

                                                 11-3:    Measurement of Characteristics: Gathering Data

                                                                        about Beliefs, Attitudes, Opinions and Facts

 

Chapter 12:       Materials

 

Chapter 13:       Procedure: Steps in Conducting the Study

 

Chapter 14:       Statistical Hypotheses

                                                 14-1:     General Considerations

                                                 14-2:     Making Decisions: Null and Alternative

                                                             Hypotheses

                                                 14-3:     Directional and Non-Directional Hypotheses

                                                             and One- and Two-Tailed Tests

                                                 14-4:     Significant and Statistically Significant

 

UNIT 4:          Research Investigation Process: Results Section

 

                         Chapter 15:       Data Collection

                                                 15-1:     Quantitative and Qualitative Data

                                                 15-2:     Collecting, Organizing, and Presenting Data

                                                             with Tables

                                                 15-3:     Presenting Data with Graphs

 

                         Chapter 16:       Data Analysis

                                                  16-1:    Critical Ratio in Statistical Decision Making

                                                 16-2:     Correlation Coefficient (r): Testing for Relationships

                                                 16-3:     Chi-Square (c2) Test for Goodness of Fit

                                                 16-4:     Chi-Square (c2) Test for Independence

                                                 16-5:     t-Test: Comparing Two Independent Groups

                                                 16-6:     t-Test: Comparing Two Dependent Groups

 

UNIT 5:          Research Investigation Process: Discussion and Conclusion Section        

Chapter 17:        Discussing the Results and Making Conclusions

 

UNIT 6:          Research Investigation Process: Next Step Section

 

Chapter 18:       Next Step

                        18-1:     The Next Step: Developing an Action Plan                                 

                        18-2:     Guidelines for Constructing a Poster for Scientific

                                    Conferences and Research Competitions

 

Chapter 19:        Pulling It Together

                        19-1:     The Research Proposal and Assessment

                        19-2:     Sample Research Proposal

 

Glossary

 

Index

 

About the Author