Modern Blanket Toss: Findings and Observations

2014 FINDINGS
Analysis and Results
For each construct, we calculated a scale score for each respondent. The scale score is the average of the response to items included in the scale.
- For “Content Knowledge,” respondents rated their own knowledge from 1 (low level of knowledge) to 10 (high level of knowledge) so the scale score also has a
range of 1 to 10.
- For the “Communication Skills” items, respondents chose “not comfortable at all” (equal to 1), “somewhat comfortable” (equal to 2), “moderately
comfortable” (equal to 3), or “very comfortable” (equal to 4). The scale score is an average between 1 and 4.
- All other items asked respondents to “strongly disagree” (equal to 1), “disagree” (equal to 2), “agree” (equal to 3), or “strongly agree” (equal to 4), so those scales also
range from 1 to 4 with 4 as a more positive score.
- We used an independent
samples t-test to test
whether the mean scale
scores were significantly
different (P < 0.05)
between pre and post
surveys.
All constructs showed
a significantly positive
shift. Students learned
content knowledge,
leadership skills,
communication skills
and science practices.
Their attitudes
towards science and
STEM careers
improved. Results are
shown in Table 2.
Table 2 Paired t-test for Student Pre/Post Survey Constructs
Scale Survey n Mean
Content Knowledge
Science Practice
Leadership Skills
Communication Skills
Attitudes Towards Science
Attitudes Towards STEM Careers
Standard
Deviation
Pre 16 3.82 1.45
Mean
Difference
t df P-Value
Post 16 7.27 1.46 3.45 7.55 15 0
Pre 16 2.68 0.45
Post 16 2.98 0.49 0.3 3.68 15 0.002
Pre 16 3.1 0.45
Post 16 3.33 0.45 0.23 2.7 15 0.016
Pre 16 2.77 0.72
Post 16 3.1 0.63 0.33 2.8 15 0.013
Pre 16 2.94 0.48
Post 16 3.27 0.47 0.33 2.95 15 0.01
Pre 16 3.34 0.4
Post 16 3.55 0.42 0.21 2.27 15 0.039
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