Abigail Oakes

Date of Award

2015

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Natural Sciences

First Advisor

Gilchrist, Sandra

Keywords

STEM, Education, Sports, Science, Mathematics, Sailing

Area of Concentration

Natural Sciences

Abstract

In the field of informal science education, there is little quantitative data to support the idea that sports and other outdoor recreational activities serve as effective platforms for science education. This study seeks to fill this gap by exploring the quantitative effects of incorporating a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) curriculum into a youth learn-to-sail program. The two research questions were: 1) Do students exhibit learning gains for the scientific concepts taught in a science-of-sailing curriculum? and, 2) Do students exhibit higher levels of proficiency in sailing when taught using a learn-to-sail curriculum that incorporates scientific concepts? A “science of sailing” curriculum was built that taught sailing in the context of scientific concepts. The experimental group was taught to sail using this curriculum. The control group was taught to sail using a basic learn-to-sail curriculum that did not incorporate scientific concepts. Students were evaluated for their knowledge of scientific concepts and sailing competency using a multiple-choice test and Likert-type scale, respectively. This study was designed as a pilot and to serve as a model for larger-scale studies of this nature in the future.

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