Development, Implementation, and Evaluation of a Web-Based Tool, Today’s Science for Tomorrow’s Scientists

This paper discusses the development and implementation of Today's Science for Tomorrow's Scientist (TSTS), a Web site with tutorials presenting current science research to students in middle school and high school classrooms. TSTS was beta tested and then fully implemented in middle and high schools in the Madison, WI area. The information presented in TSTS correlates with the National Science Education Standards, which aids teachers in meaningfully incorporating the material into their curricula. Students' attitudes toward science, their understanding of the research environment, and their content knowledge were evaluated using survey data collected pre- and posttreatment. The data show that both middle school and high school students improve by a significant amount from content presurvey to content postsurvey after viewing TSTS Web tutorials.