AbstractPhysics Reform in New York StateA High School Teacher’s StudyThe ProgramI. ImprovementsII. Practice-Practice-PracticeAccessibilityStudent IssuesConclusionReferencesPost Use Review of School Island: An online test and remedial tool for New York State Regents physicsShelley Marie Bochicchio, Dept of Physics, SUNY-Buffalo State College, 1300 Elmwood Ave, Buffalo, NY 14222AbstractDue to the growing need for educational reform in physics there have been a number of web-based curriculum tools being added to a teachers repertoire. School Island, created by CASTLE software is one of these tools. The system is designed to be an assessment tool for teachers and a review and study mechanism for students. As a physics teacher I am giving a user review, which answers the question of how beneficial the system is for improving academic comprehension and performance.Physics Reform in New York StateOver the last few years physics teachers in New York State have been struggling with curriculum reform. Since the year 2000 there has been concern over distinct changes in the Regents physics examinations. Following the June 2003 exam there was an uproar from Physics educators all across New York State. They were upset about the declining pass rate and lack of mastery level scores being met on the Regents exam. This had been a trend since the June 2000 exam. Due to the overwhelming concern a study was conducted comparing the Regents physics examinations from June 2000 through June 2003. The group conducting the study found that there were startling changes in the following areas: reading level, conceptual level, format and time for completion. After a careful study was conducted the group made some recommendations and it was madeclear that reform was necessary (Zawicki, Jabot, Falconer, MacIasaac, Henry, & Fischer, 2003).What is School Island? School Island is a New York State Regents web-based review and tutorial system that allows teachers to create topic/vocabulary-based exercises based on group and/or individual student need. The system can be used for nightly homework or testing/quizzes. Parent/teacher monitored review exercises can be created for any studentin need. Students may use the system independently as a study and review resource. Thesurplus of Regents questions can be reached via topic or vocabulary along with a bank of flash cards. School Island can be used anywhere Internet access is available. Through a school subscription student may access the system within their school or anywhere outside where the Internet can be accessed. If a school subscription is not available, a personal subscription can be purchased.A High School Teacher’s StudyA group of Regents Physics students were introduced to School Island half way into the school year. After using paper-based work sheets for their completion of assignments they were introduced to web-based physics work. The students were given six weekly quizzes that were to be averaged for a grade along with a number of topic review questions that were not required. All questions were multiple-choice in nature.Students were given a survey discussing their thoughts concerning the use of School Island rather than paper-based assignments to complete physics work. I summarized the responses below.The ProgramI. ImprovementsWhen CASTLE software created School Island they made a couple of improvements over other web-based educational systems on the market. The first being the reports that a teacher receives. Teachers can receive individualized reports on each student or receivea report on all of the students in a class. This is not simply a grade report; it actually breaks down all of the skills necessary to gain a conceptual understanding of the material given as seen in Figure 1. These reports indicate where a student is struggling and may need extra help.{INSERT FIGURE 1 HERE}Through the weekly quizzes I was serving two purposes: to provide feedback and evaluation for my students and myself (Beichner, Martin, & Titus, p. 1). School Island provides the students with instant feedback and evaluation, which is the second big improvement that was made. While working on questions the students are told immediately if their answer is correct or incorrect. If the question is not correct they will receive a hint as to the correct answer. All students receive a second try; if the question isstill incorrect they will receive a complete explanation of the answer. The hints that are given along with the explanations of each question helped to clean up some of their misconceptions that they had.II. Practice-Practice-PracticeOne of the areas my students struggle with is multiple-choice questions (see Figure 2). On a unit test students are much more successful on the written portion as opposed to the multiple-choice even though they are more straightforward. The systems Regents Physics questions are 99% multiple-choice which is great for drill-and-practice. The students that put the most effort into the system saw an increase in their multiple-choice scores on their unit tests.One problem with this is that because the system is mainly multiple-choice in nature the process that students use to solve a problem is never considered in their final evaluation (Pascarella, 2004). As constructivists we are trying to drive home the importance of process. The final answer does not tell us if the student has gained a conceptual understanding of a topic.{INSERT FIGURE 2 HERE}Accessibility Web-based systems claim to have a number of advantages. One of these advantages is that they can be used anywhere Internet access is available. Through a school subscription (approximately $5.00 per student) students may access the system within their school or anywhere outside where Internet can be accessed. If a school subscriptionis not available, a personal subscription can be purchased.I believe that in this day in age most school districts have computers available for their students to use, therefore school use is not a problem. The problem is the at home use, we must realize that not every student has a personal home computer. Most of my students used School Island at home on their personal computers although a few of themhad to complete their assignments at school because they did not have a computer at home. Due to this problem I could not assign nightly homework because every student would not have a chance to complete the
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