Improving Upper Basic Science Students' Retention in Ecology through Outdoor Activities in Kwande Metropolis, Benue State, Nigeria

The poor achievement of students in Ecology propelled this study on improving upper basic science students’ retention in Ecology through outdoor activities in Kwande Metropolis, Benue State, Nigeria. Two research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. A quasi experimental design of non-equivalent pre-test, post and retention test was adopted. A sample of 217 students from six selected government grant aided secondary schools out of a population of 16105 Upper Basic Science students participated in the study. The instrument for data collection in the study was Ecology Retention Test (ERT). The ERT was validated by three experts. The reliability coefficient of ERT yielded 0.84 using Kuder-Richardson formula 20 (KR-20). Three intact classes were randomly assigned to experimental and control group. The experimental group was taught Ecology using outdoor activities while the control group was taught using lecture method. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the null hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. The study revealed that there is a significant difference in the mean retention scores of students taught Ecology using outdoor activities compared to their counterparts who were taught using lecture method; furthermore, no significant difference was found in the mean retention scores between male and female students taught Ecology using outdoor activities. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that outdoor activities should be adopted by teachers while teaching Ecology since it enhance students retention regardless of their gender.VillageMath Educational Review is an International/Multidisciplinary Journal of the Network for Grassroots Science and Mathematics Education (The VillageMath Network). A publication of VillageMath Educational Services (CAC RC: 4097888)