A methodology for implementing and evaluating the success of the K.L.O[.]E. (Kid's Love Our Earth) Discovery Program

Abstract

Science education has taken a back seat to other subjects in the elementary classroom in recent years. Due to standardized testing in language arts and math, teachers have shifted a focus on these subjects to increase test scores. Standardized test scores have an impact on the school corporation, the individual school, the principal, and the teacher. In the current PL 221 legislation in Indiana teachers are now held directly accountable for the learning accomplished by their students. Unimproved test scores may result in loss of funding for a school or a probationary period for schools. Those schools that do improve test scores and reach their goal, have been promised additional funding.In the time of budget cuts and "teaching to the test," science is not as crucial a part of the curriculum as language arts and math. Some teachers are able to work in 20 minutes of science every other day, while some may avoid it as much as possible. Environmental education is occasionally used as a science unit or theme, but not as a subject in itself. There are teachers that do a great job of making science and environmental education a focus in their classroom. These teachers are usually able to work these subjects in by working extra hours to devise lesson plans that will work with the math and language arts curriculum. The K.L.O.E Discovery Program is an effort to make science and environmental education an easy task to accomplish in the classroom. The program works with the natural cycle of learning as developed by Bernice McCarthy (2000) to deliver a concept-based science unit. It is not meant to be the entire science curriculum, but it is a supplemental unit that provides all the activities, instruction, and equipment to engage students in a holistic science experience with little effort and preparation in an already busy workday for elementary teachers. The program was implemented in two first grade classrooms and one second grade classroom in two different school corporations. The teachers, students, and parents were then surveyed using interviews and Likert surveys. The results were analyzed and the K.L.O.E. Discovery Program, Grade One, Units One and Two, successfully taught the students the concepts of lifecycles. Plant lifecycles were addressed in the fall and animal lifecycles were addressed in the spring. Each unit followed the 4MAT Learning Cycle Model and included a corresponding field trip to the Cope Environmental Center.