Effect of an Online, Inquiry- & Mentor-Based Laboratory on Science Attitudes of Students in a Concurrent Enrollment Biology Course: The PlantingScience Experience

The goal of this project was to determine the impact of supplementing a concurrent enrollment (CE; also called dual enrollment) nonmajors biology course with online mentoring from professional scientists via the PlantingScience (PS) program (http://plantingscience.org). Student attitudes and motivation toward science were measured using the Test of Science-Related Attitudes (TOSRA) questionnaire as well as open-ended questions. Students in both the experimental group (CE biology course supplemented with PS) and the control group (CE biology course with no PS supplement) were surveyed during two academic years (2015-2017). The impact of PlantingScience on students' attitudes toward science is discussed.