Carolan, Paula2018-05-072018-05-072018-05-07http://hdl.handle.net/11603/10726The purpose of this study was to determine whether hands-on activity in a middle school science setting would increase engagement which would then increase the test scores of one group of students versus another group that was not taught using hands-on activities. The study was a pretest/posttest design, with a teacher’s observation checklist to measure student time spent on task. A measurement tool was created by the researcher to record on-task engagement during each lesson. There was no difference in engagement of eighth grade Environmental Science students when hands-on activities were provided over textbook activities with the exception that the hands-on group had more meaningful discussion the topic with their peers. In the future, additional research could expand on the current study by including a larger sample sizes and a longer observational period.26 pagesen-USThis work may be protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. To obtain information or permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the Goucher Special Collections & Archives at 410-337-6347 or email archives@goucher.edu.Public Domain Mark 1.0ScienceStudent EngagementEducation -- Research papers (Graduate).Text