The effects of technology-rich laboratories experiences on attitude and achievement in high school biology

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between\ud technology-rich laboratories and (a) student attitude toward science, and (b)\ud achievement in science. Forty high school biology students in Southern California\ud were the participants in the study. Students were divided into experimental and\ud control groups in this comparison study. The experimental group used technological\ud tools while conducting laboratory experiments. The control group used traditional\ud methods to conduct their laboratory experiments. The dependent variables, attitude\ud and achievement, were examined independently.\ud The research focused on the following questions: (a) Is there a relationship\ud between student use of technology and student attitude toward science? (b) Is there a\ud relationship between student use of technology and student achievement in science?\ud The study findings suggested a positive relationship between student use of\ud technology and student attitude towards science. The researcher did not find a\ud relationship between student achievement in science and technology use during\ud laboratory experiments.\ud Key Words: technology-rich laboratories, computer-based laboratories, science\ud education, attitudes toward science, achievement in scienc