Date Approved
7-25-2025
Graduate Degree Type
Project
Degree Name
Education-Instruction and Curriculum: Secondary Education (M.Ed.)
Degree Program
College of Education
First Advisor
Sherie Klee
Academic Year
2024/2025
Abstract
Interest, motivation, and engagement amongst science students is declining. This decline is primarily due to a loss of interest, motivation, self-efficacy, and perceived utility value (Bathgate & Schunn, 2017; Britner, 2008; Kraft, 2017). With crucial topics such as climate change and the legitimacy of vaccines coming under scrutiny, it is vital for our society that we keep our secondary students actively engaged and motivated with the science that they are learning in the classroom (Kolenatý et al., 2024; Schlopsna & Scheersoi, 2024). The main goal of this project was to create a complete unit curriculum covering the topics of the Hydrological cycle, rivers and watersheds, and freshwater pollution. This curriculum makes use of Inquiry-Based Learning pedagogy while also closely applying the content to local freshwater sources of West Michigan, thus increasing relevance to and perceived utility value (Bathgate & Schunn, 2017) for students.
ScholarWorks Citation
Bailie, Neil T M, "Engagement, Motivation, and Interest in K-12 Science Education" (2025). Culminating Experience Projects. 607.
https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/gradprojects/607
