Effect of Song on Fifth Grade Students' Environmental Education Knowledge and Retention

Abstract

This study reports the effect of song on fifth grade students’ environmental education knowledge and retention. Participants in this study were twenty-nine fifth grade students at a school in north Minnesota. Participants were randomly assigned to two groups, fifteen students in the control group and fourteen students in the experimental group. Both groups were taught a one-hour lesson on endangered primates of Cameroon, after which students took a posttest, one month after, twelve students in the control group and thirteen students in the experimental group took a delayed posttest. During the lesson, students in the experimental group were taught a song that contained the objectives of the lesson. In the closed-ended questions of the quiz, posttest results, measuring knowledge, revealed a significant difference between the control and experimental group, with the treatment group scoring higher. There was no significant difference between both groups during the delayed posttest results, measuring knowledge retention. In the open-ended questions of the quiz for both the posttest and delayed posttest, when asked what participants learned or recalled from the lesson, both groups listed causes, consequences and solutions to the problems of endangered primates; names of endangered primates and lesson activities (song and game). Participants of the control group listed more causes, consequences and solutions the government of Cameroon and other conservation organizations are applying to the problem of endangered primates of Cameroon. Participants in the experimental group listed more names of endangered primates as what they learned or recalled from the lesson. In the delayed posttest, participants in the experimental group listed more lesson activities as what they learned or recalled from the lesson.