ASSESSMENT STRAGIES FOR SUSTAINABILITY EDUCATION MODULES

In order to evaluate the effectiveness of informal environmental engineering education for students ranging from grades K -12, assessment techniques will be researched and developed.Environmental engineering modules implemented in informal settings, such as in after school programs or museum-based settings, with a specific focus on sustainability, will be used as a basis for this research.Literature reviews will be conducted in order to determine what a good assessment tool consists of for a classroom based science setting, which will be used to develop assessment strategies for informal science education.The effectiveness of both quantitative and qualitative assessment techniques will be explored, including two-tiered questions, personal meaning maps and video footage.In order to gather data to quantify and substantiate the effectiveness of developed assessment strategies, a full day event will take place at the end of the year, during which students will participate in various sustainability themed modules.The sustainability modules will be developed with specific intended learning outcomes, which will be based on an extension of student knowledge gained in a classroom setting.Fundamental environmental engineering concepts will be used as the basis for the establishment of these modules.Assessment tools will be used at both the beginning and conclusion of the event in order to evaluate the effectiveness of interactive sustainability modules, as well as to evaluate the success of the developed assessment methods.A statistical analysis will be performed on the data collected to assess whether students were able to grasp the intended learning outcomes.