Evaluation of Seeds of Science/Roots of Reading Project: 'Shoreline Science' and 'Terrarium Investigations.' CSE Technical Report 676

This project was initiated in order to evaluate two literacy and science integrated instruction units, "Shoreline Science" and "Terrarium Investigations," designed by the Lawrence Hall of Science "Seeds of Science/Roots of Reading" Project ("Seeds/Roots"). We examined how the integrated units affect student interest, motivation, and learning, as well as evaluating the units' quality, usability, and utility using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Through analyses of student performance and teacher interviews, we found "Shoreline Science" and "Terrarium Investigations" beneficial to both students and teachers. Teachers were highly motivated to use the materials, and "Shoreline Science" and "Terrarium Investigations" students learned significantly more than the control group students in all science and literacy measures on which the differences were expected. The following are appended: (1) Terrarium Investigations Results on Four Groups; (2) Teacher Interview Protocol; (3) Shoreline Science Teacher Profiles; (4) Shoreline Science Coding Summary; (5) Terrarium Investigations Teacher Profiles; and (6) Terrarium Investigations Coding Summary. (Contains 16 footnotes and 23 tables.)