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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Identifying Famous Books and Their Authors
2. Student Knowledge of Great American Plays
3. Student Knowledge of Famous Quotes
4. Favorite Types of Books In The Sixth Grade
5. Student Knowledge of Louisa May Alcott
TITLE: Identifying Famous Books And Their Authors
STUDENT RESEARCHER: Liz Bayne
SCHOOL: Mandeville Middle School
Mandeville, Louisiana
GRADE: 6
TEACHER: John I. Swang, Ph.D.
I. STATEMENT OF PURPOSE AND HYPOTHESIS:
I would like to know if sixth grade boys or girls can identify
famous books and their authors better. My hypothesis states that
girls will be able to correctly match famous books to their
authors' more often than boys.
II. METHODOLOGY:
First, I wrote my statement of purpose. Then I wrote my review of
literature. Next, I wrote my hypothesis. Then I developed my
questionnaire. I did a random sample and sent out my
questionnaire to nine girls and nine boys in the sixth grade. I
recorded my results and wrote my analysis of data. Then I
developed my summary and conclusion and wrote my application.
III. ANALYSIS OF DATA:
After scoring the 15 questionnaires that were returned, I found
out that 40% of the boys and 70% of the girls knew that Charles
Dickens wrote A CHRISTMAS CAROL. Twenty percent of the boys and
none of the girls knew that THE SCARLET LETTER was written by
Nathaniel Hawthorne. Twenty percent of the girls and boys knew
that the author of ANNE OF GREEN GABLES was L.M. Montgomery.
Forty percent of the boys and 10% of the girls knew that Jane
Austen wrote PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. Twenty percent of the boys and
40% of the girls knew that THE HOBBIT was written by J. R. R.
Tolkien. Forty percent of the boys and 10% of the girls knew that
HANS BRINKER was written by Mary Mapes Dodge. WUTHERING HIEGHTS
was written by Emily Bronte. Forty percent of the boys and 10% of
the girls knew this. Sixty percent of the boys and 30% of the
girls knew that Jack London wrote THE CALL OF THE WILD. Twenty
percent of the girls and 40% of the boys knew that WHERE THE RED
FERN GROWS was written by Wilson Rawls. Twenty percent of the boys
and 10% of the girls knew that WAR AND PEACE was written by Leo
Tolstoy. Eighty percent of the boys and 60% of the girls knew
that Mark Twain wrote THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN. Twenty
percent of both the boys and girls knew that the author of THE
ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
IV. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION:
The boys matched 36% of the books with the correct author and the
girls matched 25% of the books with the correct author. The boys
scored a little better than the girls. Therefore, I reject my
hypothesis which stated that girls would be able to match famous
books and their authors better than boys.
V. APPLICATION:
I could apply this data to the world by telling my teacher to
challenge the girls harder on this subject than they already do.
TITLE: Student Knowledge of Great American Plays
STUDENT RESEARCHER: Katie Clay-Wakefield
SCHOOL: Mandeville Middle School
Mandeville, Louisiana
GRADE: 6
TEACHER: John I. Swang, Ph.D.
I. STATEMENT OF PURPOSE AND HYPOTHESIS:
I would like to find out if sixth grade students know who wrote
some of our country's most famous contemporary plays. My
hypothesis states that the majority of the students will correctly
identify 45% of the writers I give them.
II. METHODOLOGY:
First, I wrote my statement of purpose. Second, I did a review of
literature. Third , I developed a questionnaire. Fourth, I wrote
my methodology. Sixth, I drew a random sample population of 18
students. Seventh, I administered and scored my questionnaires.
Eighth, I conducted an analysis of data. Ninth, I wrote a summary
and conclusion. Tenth, I wrote my application. Last, I wrote an
abstract.
III. ANALYSIS OF DATA:
Fourteen of the 18 surveys distributed were returned. Half of the
students surveyed knew that Barbara Robinson wrote THE BEST
CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER and that Elloit/Webber wrote CATS. A
majority of the students did not know that Stone/Edwards wrote
1776, Howard Ashman wrote LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, Dale Wasserman
wrote MAN OF LA MANCHA, Rodger/Hammerstein wrote SOUTH PACIFIC,
Ernest Thompson wrote ON GOLDEN POND, William Shakespear wrote MID
SUMMER'S NIGHT DREAM, Peter Shaffer wrote AMEDEUS,
Laurents/Bernstein wrote WEST SIDE STORY, Ragni/MacDermot wrote
HAIR, and Jerry Herran wrote HELLO, DOLLY! Only twenty-nine
percent of the responses to my survey correctly identified a
play's author.
IV. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION:
Only twenty-nine percent of the responses were correct.
Therefore, I reject my hypothesis which stated that the majority
of the students will correctly identify 45% of the writers of the
plays I give them.
V. APPLICATION:
I can tell my teachers that they need to teach more about American
Plays and their authors to the students during the Cultural Arts
portion of our curriculum.
TITLE: Student Knowledge of Famous Quotes
STUDENT RESEARCHER: Lauren Eppling
SCHOOL: Mandeville Middle School
Mandeville, Louisiana
GRADE: 6
TEACHER: John I. Swang, Ph.D.
I. STATEMENT OF PURPOSE AND HYPOTHESIS:
I want to know if sixth grade students know the authors of famous
quotes. My hypothesis states that 50% of the students I give my
questionnaires to will know all the authors quotes.
II. METHODOLOGY:
First, I wrote my statement of purpose and reviewed the
literature. I formed my hypothesis and gathered information for
my questionnaire. Then I randomly selected eighteen students to
give my questionnaires to. I tallied the results on my data
collection sheet. Next, I wrote my analysis of data. Finally, I
wrote my summary and conclusions and applied my results to the
real world.
III. ANALYSIS OF DATA:
Of the eighteen questionnaires distributed, twelve were returned.
Seventy-five percent of the students knew Hamlet said "To be or
not to be, that is the question." Seventy-five percent knew
Martin Luther King said, "I have a dream." and 83% knew that "One
small step for man, one giant step for mankind." was said by Neil
Armstrong. All the students knew George Bush said, "Read my lips,
no new taxes." Fifty-eight percent knew that "Ask not what your
country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." was
said by John F. Kennedy. "This could be the beginning of a very
beautiful relationship." by Humphry Bogart was known by 50% of the
students. Forty-five percent knew Walt Disney said, "Laughter is
our most important export." Thirty-three percent of the students
knew that Thomas Edison said, "Genius is 2% inspiration and 98%
perspiration." They also knew that Chief Joseph said, "I will
fight no more forever." and that Andy Warhol said, "Do lots of
things really well, otherwise you won't get to stay famous."
After scoring the questionnaires I found that 3 of the thirteen
students correctly answered all of the questions.
IV. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS:
Only 25% of the students got all of the answers right. Therefore,
I reject my hypothesis which states that 50% of the students will
get all of the answers correct. However, students were very
knowledgeable about famous quotes.
V. APPLICATION:
I will apply my results to the real world by telling my teachers
they need to teach more about famous quotes and their authors
because their studentys demonstrate a high interest in them.
TITLE: Favorite Types Of Books In The Sixth Grade
STUDENT RESEARCHER: Keith Hennegan
SCHOOL: Mandeville Middle School
Mandeville, Louisiana
GRADE: 6
TEACHER: John I. Swang, Ph.D.
I. STATEMENT OF PURPOSE AND HYPOTHESIS:
I want to know which type of book is preferred by sixth grade boys
and girls. My first hypothesis states that boys will chose comic
books as their favorite type of literature. My second hypothesis
states that the girls will chose romance novels as their favorite
type of literature.
II. METHODOLOGY:
First, I wrote a statement of purpose, review of literature, and
developed my hypothesis. I then wrote my methodology. Next, I
designed a questionnaire and distributed them to eighteen randomly
chosen sixth grade students (9 boys, 9 girls). Once I received
them back, I tallied up the results. After I tallied up the
survey results, I wrote an analysis of data which stated the
results of my survey. Finally, I wrote my summary and conclusion
and wrote my application.
III. ANALYSIS OF DATA:
Of the 18 questionnaires distributed, I only received 16 back.
The majority of the boys (7) who received my survey preferred
history, sports, and adventure books. The girls who replied (9)
preferred romance, humor, and mystery books. The final question
was ranking adventure books, biographies, comic books, fantasy
books, history books, humorous books, mystery books, romance
novels, science fiction books, and sports novels in order from
most to least favorite. Among the boys, comic books had the best
average ranking of four, while mystery had the best average
ranking of two among the girls.
IV. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION:
Comic books had the best ranking for the boys. Therefore, I
accept my first hypothesis which states that comic books would
fare the best among the boys. However, I reject my second
hypothesis which states that romance novels would do the best
among the girls because mystery books had the best ranking.
V. APPLICATION:
I can apply this information to the real world by requesting my
principal to sell many comic books and mystery books at the annual
book fair. The school could make more money.
TITLE: Student Knowledge of Louisa May Alcott
STUDENT RESEARCHER: Audrey Bohlmann
SCHOOL: Mandeville Middle School
Mandeville, Louisiana
GRADE: 6
TEACHER: Ellen Marino, M.Ed.
I. STATEMENT OF PURPOSE AND HYPOTHESIS:
I want to find out how much the students at M.M.S. know about the
life of Louisa May Alcott. I think that the students will know
very little about the life of Louisa May Alcott.
II. METHODOLOGY:
First, I wrote a statement of purpose, review of literature, and
developed a hypothesis. I developed a questionnaire and drew a
random sample. I administered and scored my questionnaire. Then
I did my analysis of data and wrote a summary and conclusion.
Then I applied my findings to the real world.
III. ANALYSIS OF DATA:
I sent out eighteen questionnaires and seventeen were returned.
Six out of fifteen students knew that Louisa May Alcott was born
in the early 1800's. Half of the students knew that Louisa moved
many times. Ten out of seventeen knew that Louisa did not write
"Little House on the Prairie". Fifty-eight percent of the
students knew that Louisa wrote "Little Woman" and 41% knew that
was her most famous book. Fourteen out of seventeen knew that
Louisa volunteered to be a nurse. Every student agreed that
Louisa did many things in her life. Seventy-six percent of the
students agreed that Louisa wrote many books. Seventy-one percent
knew that Louisa had sisters. Everyone knew that Louisa died of
natural causes.
IV. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION:
Only four of the questions were answered correctly by the majority
of students. I can say that most of the students I surveyed
didn't know a lot about the life of Louisa May Alcott. Therefore,
I accepted my hypothesis which stated that the students at M.M.S.
would know very little about the life of Louisa May Alcott.
V. APPLICATION:
Now that I have done this research I know more about the life of
Louisa May Alcott. I can use this information to write reports.
I can also suggest to other students to read more biographies to
learn more about other people.
© 1993 John I. Swang, Ph.D.