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survey development stem careers spatial attitudes geospatial technologies rasch rating scale modeling

Development of Instruments to Assess Students’ Spatial Learning Attitudes (SLA) and Interest in Science, Technology and Geospatial Technology (STEM-GEO)

Alec Bodzin , Thomas Hammond , Qiong Fu , William Farina

Two new instruments were created to assess secondary students’ (ages 14-18) spatial learning attitudes and their interest in science and technol.

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Two new instruments were created to assess secondary students’ (ages 14-18) spatial learning attitudes and their interest in science and technology, related careers ideas and perceptions about geospatial technologies. These instruments were designed to evaluate the outcomes of a geospatial learning curriculum project. During a two-year period, we explored the use of these instruments during the prototype testing and pilot testing of a series of socio-environmental science investigations. The instruments were implemented with 664 ninth grade urban students from a population traditionally underrepresented in STEM-related fields. Both classical and Rasch analyses were conducted each year to optimize the instruments. The resulting 24-item Student Interest in Science, Technology and Geospatial Technology (STEM-GEO) measure and 9-item Spatial Learning Attitudes (SLA) measure had high internal consistency reliabilities (Cronbach’s Alpha) as well as acceptable Rasch reliabilities. Content validity and construct validity evidence were also summarized and discussed.

Keywords: Survey development, STEM careers, spatial attitudes, geospatial technologies, Rasch rating scale modeling.

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