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E-Database of Social Studies, April, 1998
The National Student Research Center is dedicated to promoting student research and the use of the scientific method in all subject areas across the curriculum, especially science and math.
For more information contact:
The National Student Research Center
E-Journal of Student Research: Social Studies
Volume 6, Number 2, April, 1998
The National Student Research Center is dedicated to promoting student research and the use of the scientific method in all subject areas across the curriculum, especially science and math.
For more information contact:
- John I. Swang, Ph.D.
- Founder/Director
- National Student Research Center
- 2024 Livingston Street
- Mandeville, Louisiana 70448
- U.S.A.
- E-Mail: nsrcmms@communique.net
- http://youth.net/nsrc/nsrc.html
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- What Do Students Know And Feel About Drug Abuse?
- What Do Students Know And Feel About Extraterrestrial Life?
- What Do Students Know And Feel About Deforestation?
- What Do Students Know And Feel About Cloning And Genetic Engineering?
- What Students Know And Feel About Global Warming
- What Do Students Know And Feel About Nuclear Weapons?
- What Do Students Know And Feel About Over-population?
TITLE: What Do Students Know And Feel About Drug Abuse? STUDENT RESEARCHER: Christine O'Rourke and Chris Chugden SCHOOL: Mandeville Middle School Mandeville, Louisiana GRADE: 6 TEACHER: John I. Swang, Ph.D. I. STATEMENT OF PURPOSE AND HYPOTHESIS: We would like to do a survey research project on what students know and feel about drug abuse. Our hypothesis states that the majority of students will think that stronger drug abuse laws should be passed. II. METHODOLOGY: First, we identified our topic. Next, we wrote a statement of purpose. Then we conducted a review of literature about: cocaine, marijuana, alcohol, Alcoholics Anonymous, drug abuse, heroin, morphine, narcotics, hallucination, crack, cocaine, and tranquilizers. Then we developed a hypothesis. We then wrote a methodology and developed a questionnaire to test our hypothesis. Our questionnaire contained twelve questions. There are six multiple choice and six Likert questions. Then we sent the questionnaire to 26 randomly chosen six grade students at Mandeville Middle School in Mandeville, Louisiana. Then we sent the questionnaire out over the Internet to students around the world. After the completed questionnaires were returned, we scored and tallied the replies. Then we conducted an analysis of data, and wrote a summary and conclusion where we accepted or rejected our hypothesis. Finally, we applied our findings to the world outside our classroom. III. ANALYSIS OF DATA: A majority of 84% of the surveyed students did not know that marijuana was used by 41.7% of Americans. A large majority of 96% did not know that 6% of Americans used cocaine. A majority 71% did not know that pain medicines are also known as narcotics. A majority of 92% knew that drinking and smoking have a negative effect on pregnancy. A majority of 80% did not know that Alcoholics Anonymous was started in 1935. A majority of 76% did not know that cigarettes are smoked by 64% of Americans. A small majority of 56% think that the government is doing all it can to prevent the use of illegal drugs. A large majority of 96% knew that tobacco is addictive even though the presidents of the tobacco companies insist that it is not. A majority of 79% think that tobacco should be classified as an illegal drug. A majority of 68% did not think that marijuana should be classified as a legal drug. A majority of 62% did not think that marijuana should be used to relieve the pain and nausea of some medical treatments. A majority of 70% did not think that drug abuse is a big problem in their community. A majority of 64% did not know that nicotine and alcohol are the most abused drugs in the world. A majority of 64% did not know that there are 20,000,000 alcoholics and problem drinkers in the U.S.A.. We found that a majority of 61% of the responses to the factual questions on our questionnaire were incorrect. IV. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION: From this research, we have found that students do not know as much about drug abuse as we had originally thought. We also found that a small majority of 56% agreed that the government was doing all it could to prevent drug abuse. Therefore, we reject our hypothesis which states that the majority of students will think that stronger drug abuse laws should be passed. Another thing that we found in this research was that the large majority of the students knew that tobacco is addictive and a large majority of the students thought tobacco should be classified as an illegal drug. V. APPLICATION: Our findings can be applied to the world outside our classroom by telling D.A.R.E. officers that they should teach students more about drug abuse and what it can do to them. We recommend this because so many students answered the factual questions on our questionnaire incorrectly. Hopefully we can develop new and better programs in the public and private schools that teach kids more about drug abuse. This is only one step towards a better and drug free nation. TITLE: What Do Students Know And Feel About Extraterrestrial Life? STUDENT RESEARCHER: Barrett Ainsworth & Amber French SCHOOL: Mandeville Middle School Mandeville, Louisiana GRADE: 6 TEACHER: John I. Swang, Ph.D. I. STATEMENT OF PURPOSE AND HYPOTHESIS: We would like to do a survey research project on what students know and feel about extraterrestrial life. Our hypothesis states that the majority of responses to the factual questions on our questionnaire about extraterrestrial life will be answered correctly. II. METHODOLOGY: First, we chose our topic. Next, we developed our statement of purpose. Then we wrote a review of literature about galaxies, celestial bodies, extraterrestrial life, outer space, space stations, MIR, Skylab, space exploration, Mars exploration, moon exploration, and planets orbiting distant stars. Then we developed a hypothesis. Then we wrote a methodology to test our hypothesis. Next, we developed a questionnaire about extraterrestrial life. Then we drew a random sample of 26 sixth grade students at Mandeville Middle School in Mandeville, LA and gave our questionnaire to them. We also sent our questionnaire out over the NSRC's electronic school district on the Internet to a non-random sample of students from all over the world. Next, when the completed questionnaires were returned, we scored them. Then we analyzed our data with simple statistics, charts, and graphs. Next, we wrote our summary and conclusion where we accepted/rejected our hypothesis. Finally, we applied our findings to the world outside the classroom. III. ANALYSIS OF DATA: From our survey, we have found that a majority of 82% of the students knew that extraterrestrial life is all life forms that do not live on Earth. A majority of 82% of the students surveyed did know that exobiology is the search for extraterrestrial life. A majority of 73% did not that Skylab was sent in space in 1973. A majority of 73% did not know that humans first started exploring space in the 1960's. A majority of 55% did not know that SETI stands for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. A majority of 82% did not the first flight into space was made by Yuri Gagarin in 1961. A majority of 73% did not know that the estimated cost of the International Space Station is 29.4 billion dollars. A majority of 73% did not know that the International Space Station will accommodate 7 people. A majority of 54% knew that there will not be 32 launches of the space shuttle to assemble the International Space Station. A majority of 91% did not know that MIR is the only space station being used currently. A majority of 73% knew that scientists have found possible signs of extraterrestrial life on Mars. A majority of 55% did not know that scientists have found planets orbiting other stars in outer space which might support life. A majority of 73% thought that there are life forms in the universe other than those on Earth. A majority of 82% thought that space exploration is very important. A majority of 54% thought that the government should spend more money to search for extraterrestrial life. A majority of 72% thought that we should colonize the moon and other planets. A majority of 54% did not think that extraterrestrial beings have visited Earth. A majority of 91% said that they would not like to be a space colonist and live on another planet. A majority of 68% of the responses to the factual questions on our questionnaire were answered incorrectly. IV. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION: From our data, we can conclude that a majority of the students surveyed knew little about space exploration and extraterrestrial life. From the information we have gathered, we have found that a majority of 73% agreed that the government should spend more money to search for extraterrestrial life. We also found that 68% of the responses to the factual questions were incorrect. Therefore, we reject our hypothesis which states that the majority of responses to the factual questions on our questionnaire about extraterrestrial life will be answered correctly. V. APPLICATION: We can apply our findings to the world outside the classroom by letting others know, such as governmental and school officials, what students know and feel about extraterrestrial life. TITLE: What Do Students Know And Feel About Deforestation? STUDENT RESEARCHERS: Whitney Stoppel and Barrett Ainsworth SCHOOL: Mandeville Middle School Mandeville, Louisiana GRADE: 6 TEACHER: John I. Swang, Ph.D. I. STATEMENT OF PURPOSE AND HYPOTHESIS: We would like to do a survey research project on what students know and feel about deforestation? Our hypothesis states that the majority of responses to the factual questions about deforestation on our questionnaire will be correct. II. METHODOLOGY: First, we chose our topic. Next, we developed our statement of purpose. Then we wrote review of literature about rain forests, deforestation, endangered species, human recreation, habitats, oxygen, greenhouse gases, and logging. Then we developed a hypothesis. Next, we wrote a methodology to test our hypothesis. Then we developed a questionnaire about deforestation. Then we drew a random sample of 26 sixth grade students at Mandeville Middle School and gave our questionnaire to them. We also sent our questionnaire out over the NSRC's electronic school district on the Internet to a non-random sample of students from all over the world. Next, when the completed questionnaires were returned, we scored them. Then we analyzed our data with simple statistics, charts, and graphs. Next, we wrote our summary and conclusion where we accepted/rejected our hypothesis. Finally, we applied our findings to the world outside the classroom. III. ANALYSIS OF DATA: From our survey, we have found that a majority of 69% of the students knew that deforestation is taking place at a current rate of 150,000 square kilometers per year. A majority of 58% of the students surveyed did not know that fuel, lumber, and habitats are the forest's top three resources. A majority of 82% knew that tropical and temperate are the two types of Rain Forests. A majority of 80% knew that some environmental consequences of deforestation are erosion, floods and droughts, and loss of biodiversity. A majority of 58% did not know that the Rain Forest will disappear in 10 to 15 years if the current rate of deforestation continues. A majority of 85% knew that the Rain Forests provide us with new medicines. A majority of 65% knew that more than an acre of trees are being cut down every second. A majority of 69% knew that 48% of the Earth's plant species live in and around forest areas. A majority of 65% thought that we should tell peasants in South America to stop cutting down the trees in the Rain Forest, even though they need the cleared land to grow food and the timber for fuel and housing. A majority of 92% thought that we should conserve our forests. A majority of 92% thought that we should make new and stronger laws to stop deforestation. A majority of 88% thought that trees have just as much of a right to live as people. A majority of 67% of the responses to the factual questions on our questionnaire were answered correctly. IV. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION: From our data, we can conclude that a majority of the students surveyed knew much about deforestation. From the information we have gathered, we have found that 67% of the responses to the factual questions were correct. Therefore we accept our hypothesis which stated that the majority of responses to the factual questions about deforestation on our questionnaire will be correct. V. APPLICATION: We can apply our findings to the world outside the classroom by letting others know, such as governmental officials, about what students think we should be doing about deforestation. In general, students feel that more should be done to stop deforestation. TITLE: What Do Students Know And Feel About Cloning And Genetic Engineering? STUDENT RESEARCHER: Matt Kubicek and Jane Bordelon SCHOOL: Mandeville Middle School Mandeville, Louisiana GRADE: 6 TEACHER: John I. Swang, Ph.D. I. STATEMENT OF PURPOSE AND HYPOTHESIS: We would like to do a survey research project on what students know and feel about cloning and generic engineering. Our hypothesis states that the majority of students will that think cloning humans is a good idea. II. METHODOLOGY: First, we chose our topic. Next, we wrote our statement of purpose. Then we composed our review of literature about cloning, genetic engineering, genes, DNA, chromosomes, and related ethical issues. Next, we developed our hypothesis and wrote our methodology. After that we developed our questionnaire. We then sent out our questionnaire about cloning over the Internet and to 26 randomly chosen students at Mandeville Middle School in Mandeville, Louisiana. After the questionnaire were returned and scored, we recorded our findings on our data collection sheet. Then we wrote our analysis of data using statistics, charts, and graphs. Next, we wrote our summary and conclusion. Finally, we applied our findings to the world outside our classroom. III. ANALYSIS OF DATA: A majority of 67% of the students we surveyed knew that a sheep was the first mammal to be cloned. A majority of 73% of the students did not know that Ian Wilmut cloned the first mammal. A majority of 70% did not know a frog was the first animal to be cloned. A majority of 68% did not know that the Scottish scientist used 300 embryos to clone Dolly. A majority of 60% did not know that Gene the cow was cloned in Wisconsin. A majority of 84% did not feel that human beings should be cloned. A majority of 57% thought that animals should be cloned in order to provide higher quality and more plentiful food, medicines, and donor organs for human transplants. A majority of 60% did not think that married couples who are unable to have children should be able to clone themselves in order to have children. A majority of 77% thought that we should clone endangered species. A majority of 61% did not feel that geniuses should be cloned to advance science and technology. A majority of 95% did not feel that great world leader should be cloned to make the world a better place. A majority of 96% did not feel that superstar athletes should be cloned to improve professional sports. A majority of 81% knew that a clone is a genetically identical duplicate of an organism. A majority of 71% did not know that a gene is a unit of inheritance that determines the inheritance of a trait or group of traits that one has. A majority of 67% did not know that DNA is a strand of genes. A majority of 67% did not know that a chromosome is a part of DNA and has a tiny, thread-like structure. A majority of 59% of the responses to the factual questions on our questionnaire were incorrect. IV. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION: Our summary and conclusion states that out of all the students we surveyed, 84% thought that we should definitely not clone humans. The students thought it was a good idea to clone animals in order to provide higher and more plentiful food, medicine, and donor organs for human transplants. Therefore, we reject our hypothesis which stated that the majority of the students would think that cloning humans is a good idea. A majority of 59% of the responses to the factual questions on our questionnaire were incorrect which indicates that students don't know a great deal about cloning and genetic engineering. V. APPLICATION: We can apply our findings to the world outside our classroom by telling teachers to teach their students about cloning because it is a big issue and students need to know more about it. We can also write to the legislative part of the government and tell them to make sure that they know what will happen if they do clone humans. We can let them know what we found out in our survey about how students feel about cloning and genetic engineering. TITLE: What Students Know And Feel About Global Warming STUDENT RESEARCHER: Rick Dupont and Brant Linde SCHOOL: Mandeville Middle School Mandeville, Louisiana GRADE: 6 TEACHER: John I. Swang, Ph.D. I. STATEMENT OF PURPOSE AND HYPOTHESIS: We want to do this project about global warming because it is an important global issue and we care about our planet. Our hypothesis states that the majority of the factual questions on our global warming questionnaire will be answered correctly. II. METHODOLOGY: First, we chose our topic. Next, we wrote our statement of purpose. Then we did a review of literature on greenhouse gases, global warming, the causes of global warming, the consequences of global warming, the sources of greenhouse gases, and the recent international conference on global warming. Next, we wrote our hypothesis. Then we developed a methodology to test our hypothesis. Then we developed a questionnaire on global warming and randomly gave it out to 26 students at Mandeville Middle School in Mandeville, LA. We also sent it out of the Internet to students around the world. When we got all the surveys back we scored them, analyzed our data, and wrote our summary and conclusion. Then we accepted or rejected our hypothesis. Finally, we applied our findings to the world. III. ANALYSIS OF DATA: A majority of 77% of the students surveyed didn't know that global warming is an increase of temperature due to the burning of fossil fuels. A majority of 68% didn't know that global warming is the same thing as the greenhouse effect. A majority of 96% didn't know that the last international conference on global warming was in Japan. A majority of 91% knew that the agreement at the last conference on global warming was to cut the percent of greenhouse gases produced in each country. A small majority of 52% didn't believe that global warming was one of the most important issues to deal with. A majority 82% didn't know that the main cause of global warming is the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. A majority of 57% didn't know that the results of global warming are a rise in sea level, altered climates throughout the world, the melting of polar caps, and global flooding of low level coastal levels. A majority of 95% didn't know that the amount of carbon dioxide increases in the atmosphere .4 percent per year. A majority of 71% didn't know that global temperature started rising in 1860. A majority of 82% knew that Global Warming and the depletion of the ozone layer are related. IV. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION: A majority of 63% of the responses to the factual questions on our survey were answered incorrectly. Therefore we reject our hypothesis which stated that the majority of the factual questions will be answered correctly. This tells us that students do not know a great deal about nor do they have a understanding of global warming. V. APPLICATION: We can apply our findings by informing teachers that global warming needs to be taught more in the classroom. TITLE: What Do Students Know And Feel About Nuclear Weapons? STUDENT RESEARCHER: Adam Osborn and Lalita Mondkar SCHOOL: Mandeville Middle School Mandeville, Louisiana GRADE: 6 TEACHER: John I. Swang, Ph.D. I. STATEMENT OF PURPOSE AND HYPOTHESIS: We want to do a survey research project on what students know and feel about nuclear weapons. Our hypothesis states that the majority of the students surveyed will want the government to destroy nuclear weapons. II. METHODOLOGY: First, we chose a topic. Then we wrote our statement of purpose. Then we wrote a review of the literature about nuclear weapons, radiation, fission, fusion, electrons, protons, energy, the nucleus, atoms, and the Manhattan Project. Next, we wrote our hypothesis. After that we developed our methodology to test our hypothesis. Then we developed our questionnaire and sent it out to twenty-six randomly selected sixth grade students at Mandeville Middle School in Mandeville, La. We then recorded our data on our data collection sheet. Last, we wrote our analysis of data, summary and conclusion, and application. III. ANALYSIS OF DATA: A majority of 83% of the students surveyed knew that there are enough nuclear weapons today to destroy the world. A small majority of 57% did not know that the hydrogen bomb has a more powerful explosion than the atomic bomb. A majority of 65% did not know that the only country to use nuclear weapons against civilian targets during war was the United States of America. A small majority of 52% did not know that the first successful nuclear weapon was created in 1945. A large majority of 90% did not know that the Manhattan Project, the two-billion dollar wartime effort to design and build the first nuclear weapons took place in Oak Ridge, Tennessee and Hanford, Washington. A majority of 57% knew that Switzerland is one country that does not own nuclear weapons. A majority of 58% did not think that nuclear weapons should be abolished. A large majority of 71% did not think that nuclear weapons keep the world safe. A large majority of 74% did not think that we should pursue the development of newer and more powerful nuclear weapons in the future. A large majority of 84% believe that there is a good chance of nuclear war accidentally starting today. A small majority of 54% of the responses to the factual questions on our questionnaire were answered incorrectly. IV. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION: Our data show that, while students don't know much about nuclear weapons and don't think that nuclear weapons keep the world safe, they do not want to the government to destroy them. Therefore, we reject our hypothesis which states the majority of students surveyed will want the government to destroy nuclear weapons. V. APPLICATION: We can apply our findings to the world outside the classroom by telling people who would like to destroy nuclear weapons that the majority of sixth graders at our school want to keep nuclear weapons and not destroy them. TITLE: What Do Students Know And Feel About Over-Population? STUDENT RESEARCHER: Rick Dupont SCHOOL: Mandeville Middle School Mandeville, Louisiana GRADE: 6 TEACHER: John I. Swang, Ph.D. I. STATEMENT OF PURPOSE AND HYPOTHESIS: I want to do a survey research project on what students know and feel about global over population. My hypothesis states that the majority of the factual questions will be answered correctly. II. METHODOLOGY: First, I chose my topic. Next, I wrote my statement of purpose. Then I did a review of literature on population, over- population, the causes of over-population, the consequences of over-population, sources of over-population, and the most and least populated countries. Next, I wrote my hypothesis. Then I developed a methodology to test my hypothesis. Then I developed a questionnaire on over-population and randomly gave it out to 13 randomly chosen students at Mandeville Middle School in Mandeville, LA. I also sent it out of the Internet to students around the world. When I got all the surveys back I scored them, analyzed my data, and wrote my summary and conclusion. Then I accepted or rejected my hypothesis. Finally, I applied my findings to the world. III. ANALYSIS OF DATA: A majority of 80% knew that over-population was too many people in a given area. A majority of 60% knew that the most populated country was China. A majority of 80% didn't know that the number of babies born each second throughout the world is four. A majority of 60% didn't know that the world population began to rapidly grow during the Industrial Revolution. 50% of the students knew that Vatican City and Niue were the least populated countries. 50% of the students felt that over- population was the most important global issue. A majority of 90% didn't know that there were about 27 people per kilometer in the USA. A majority of 80% knew that birth control, education, and governmental policy were some of the ways we use to combat over-population. A majority of 80% didn't know that the population of China was 1,284,000,000. A majority of 60% didn't know that the world population could fit on the island of Bali, Indonesia. 50% knew that Singapore was the most densely populated country. A majority of 80% didn't know that Malta was the least densely populated country. IV. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION: Only thirty-three percent of the factual questions were answered correctly. Therefore, I reject my hypothesis that states that the majority of the factual questions will be answered correctly. Students think that global over-population is an important problem, but do not know a great deal about it. V. APPLICATION: I can apply this to the world by telling schools that we need to teach more about over-population in schools. © 1998 John I. Swang, Ph.D.