Purpose

The purpose of this study is to determine if using a teacher-led mini-lesson to remediate sixth-grade geology topics improves high school students' base knowledge. It will focus on reducing the science achievement gap associated with a learning loss seen in students’ knowledge of geology topics covered six years prior.

Research Question

Does using mini-lessons based on geology curriculum benchmarks from middle school Earth Science decrease the achievement gap seen in high school Earth Science geology students?

Hypothesis

High school students who receive remedial mini-lessons on Earth Science geology topics previously covered in middle school will have a decrease in the achievement gap.

Rationale

My school enrolls students from more than 50 different middle schools. However, there is a persistent achievement gap in my school's Earth/Space Science elective course. Compounding the issue is that there is up to a six-year gap in time since the students last took the course. This results in a lack of continuity and loss of prior knowledge, necessitating remediation of topics. From this, I hope to find a novel approach to topics covered in elementary and middle school sciences that helps students quickly relearn topics on geology that are important to further and deepen their understanding of high school geology topics, such as those listed in my standards and benchmarks created for my course.