Population
The research for this study was conducted at Plymouth Community Intermediate School, which is is part of the Plymouth Public Schools. The district is comprised on approximately nine thousand students in grades PK to grade twelve. There is one pre-school building, eight elementary schools, two middle schools and two high schools. One of the high schools, Plymouth South High, houses an academic program, as well as, a vocational technical program.
The district is 94.7% white, 2.8% African American, 1.6% Hispanic, .07% Asian and .03% Native American. Special needs students make up 14.5% of the school population. Approximately 55% of the graduating students go on to a four-year college program. Plymouth is an economically diverse community with 14.7% of the students in the district classified as low-income.
The students who participated in this study were grade eight U.S. History students assigned to the Ranger House team at Plymouth Community Intermediate School. Two classes were chosen to participate, the period 2 and period 5 classes of Mrs. Margaret Peterson. The intervention would be done in the period 5 class, and period 2 would serve as the control group. These two classes were chosen on the availability of the researcher to schedule time during the school day.
Project Design