Middle school students' prior experiences and attitudes toward science: a quantitative study by gender, race, grade level, socioeconomic status, and giftedness

This dissertation focuses on the prior science experiences of middle school students and its correlation with their attitudes toward the study of science. Through the use of electronic survey, data was collected on 617 middle school students ranging from grades 6-8 in one school in a small city in the Southeastern United States. This data included questions about prior science experiences, current attitudes toward science, and perceived levels of teacher support; gender, race, grade level, socioeconomic status, and gifted status data was also collected and later used for analysis to look for variation. Using data gathered during this survey, I have analyzed the findings and have related them back to the literature collected during the research process. This dissertation also involves the development of a survey instrument.