Collection, analysis and interpretation of data bearing on the effectiveness of a two-stage model for curriculum innovation of marine and aquatic education in Ohio schools.

A six-year long program of curriculum materials development and dissemination was initiated in 1977 with funding from the Office of Sea Grant in support of the project Oceanic Education Activities for Great Lakes Schools (OEAGLS). Through this program and the subsequent project, Marine and Great Lakes Education: An Infusion Program for Ohio Schools (The Infusion Program), a systematic approach was developed for implementing marine and aquatic education into Ohio middle school classes. The final year of the Infusion Program will be completed in summer, 1983. The Ohio Sea Grant Education program is one of the few state-wide curriculum development and dissemination programs systematically designed from development through dissemination and teacher training. As such it is one of the reported in the literature that fit the optimum model described above. A study by Fortner and Mayer (1983) conducted at the beginning of the Infusion Program provided a baseline of student attitudes and knowledge. Having such a baseline on a state-wide basis is also unique. The Ohio Sea Grant program has an unusual opportunity to provide information on the impact of a program having an optimum design for effectiveness.

The study proposed here will use a variety of data sources to examine questions related to the effectiveness of the overall model and its two components: the OEAGLS curriculum development effort and the Infusion Program. The following questions will be examined:

1. Effectiveness of components: a. Does a four-week unit comprised of OEAGLS materials improve knowledge and attitudes toward Lake Erie and the world's oceans? b. Do extended workshops increase the probability of sustained use of OEAGLS materials preferentially as compared to one-day workshops? c. Do workshops increase the probability of sustained use of OEAGLS materials over volunteer orders and distribution of activities through the Lake Erie program of the Center of Science and Industry (COSI)?
2. Overall effectiveness of the model: a. Have student attitudes and knowledge regarding Lake Erie and the oceans improved over the interval in which OEAGLS materials were being actively disseminated through the Infusion Program? b. Have student perceptions of their sources of knowledge regarding marine and aquatic education changed during this interval?

Accomplishments:
1986: A monograph has been prepared describing the Ohio Sea Grant Education Program. The portion of that monograph dealing with the OEAGLS development process and the Infusion Program will be modified and adapted to a concise description of the development and dissemination model. The data from this study will be incorporated into this document which will then be distributed to each of the Sea Grant Education programs. In addition it will be entered into the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), a national information retrieval and dissemination system in education, where it will become immediately available to educational researchers throughout the country. Articles will also be written and submitted to educational research journals. In this manner the results will be available nationally.

Benefits:
1986: 1. Assist curriculum innovation efforts countrywide in developing more effective programs. 2. Assist Ohio Sea Grant in making decisions regarding cost- effective information dissemination procedures.

Locally the study will influence the methods of dissemination used by Ohio Sea Grant for its materials. For the first time detailed information will be available on the effectiveness of long versus short workshops and the effectiveness of volunteer distribution versus formal dissemination efforts such as workshops. Workshops are relatively expensive to conduct. If short ones are as effective as long ones for sustained use of materials then they can be used in preference to the longer format. With this type of data, a cost-benefit analysis will be performed to determine the most cost-effective means of disseminating curriculum materials and information to Ohio schools.