classes in mid dle schools with a large His panic enroll ment. An instru ment was developed to mea sure the stu dents' atti tudes toward sci ence and sci en tists before and after the pro gram. After expo sure to the SSEP pro gram, a sig nif i cant and pos i tive increase in attitudes was found. How ever, our study sug gests that most of these stu dents have dif fi culty with per ceiv ing them selves as sci en tists, prob a bly due to a lack of expo sure to role models and neg a tive media ste reo types. They also lack infor ma tion on the rewards of a career in sci ence, includ ing oppor tu ni ties in col lege, and they think they must be a genius at math to pur sue a tech ni cal career.
Th is paper examines the relationship of bonding with nonhuman animals during an interactive, animal-in-the-wild science program (Talking Talons) and the science attitudes of 358 young children between the ages of 8 and 14 Talking Talons utilizes typically wild animals such as raptors, reptiles, and bats in a school-based educational science curriculum. Qualitative data from interviews with students in the program indicated that "bonding with animals" (BWA) and the educators (BWE) within the program were related to increased positive attitudes toward science.
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