Assessment of effect of field trips on students' achievement and attitudes toward field trips in college biology.

摘要

tudents' attitudes toward biology field trips were determined by a 28-item Likert scale, adapted from Orion's (1991) questionnaire, after completing two laboratory sessions using either a laboratory or field trip format. The quasi-experiment was conducted in the fall semester of 1993 and spring semester of 1994 at the University of Northern Colorado. There were 86 students in the laboratory-only (control) group and 77 students in the field trip (experimental) group from the introductory biology class, Survey of Organismal Biology (BIO 111). In addition, 59 students from two upper-division courses, Animal Behavior (ZOO 362) and Ecology (BIO 460), completed the questionnaire.;The study was limited to examining the impact of two field trips on students' learning of specific biology topics. College biology courses, such as ecology, biome biology, ornithology, etc., could be enhanced by the inclusion of field trips. The students may have the opportunity to broaden their ecosystem view and to learn from the natural world in which they live.;The results showed that students in the field trip groups had higher achievement as measured by quiz scores than those in the laboratory groups (27.31 vs. 25.73,