Action Research

I chose to conduct my action research on exam scores. For my agriculture science class, the first exam I gave them the scores were not as high as I had hoped.

I decided that I would set out to find a way to raise exam scores, or at least observe what I thought raised them. For my research, I proposed that I would give my class an oral review, a written review, and a game review for 3 different exams. I then would average their scores, and see which review produced the best score.

After I conducted the experiment, I saw that the game review produced the best results. I thought the written review would produce the best results, because I basically gave them the test answers right in front of them. The students that did poorly that day must not have bothered to study the written review.

I can see how the game exam review would have produced the best results. The kids were all really excited and into the game. The adrenaline was flowing. I saw an experiment on the discovery channel one time testing memory of mice. They ran the experiment with two mice. First, they dropped  one mouse into a circular tank of water that head a clear pillar in it that the mouse could stand on to get out of the water, but he had to find it first. Then, they injected the second mouse with adrenaline and dropped him in. He found the pillar in roughly the same amount of time.

For the second trial, the first mouse found the pillar in about the same amount of time as the first trial. The second mouse swam directly to the pillar on his second trial, because he was able to remember where it was due to the adrenaline that was pumping through him on the first trial. This same phenomenon is true with humans. We remember experiences vividly when we are energized from adrenaline, even it is a little amount from a ag science jeopardy game.

That is, at least, how I related their success to what was going on. In the end, the game review worked the best, and the written review fell short to even the oral review. I am glad that I did this experiment though. It is a good way to show how you can use data to modify instruction.