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International Journal of Environmental Science Education International Journal of Environmental Science Education Vol. 7, No. 2, April 2012, 167-195 Vol. 3, No. 3, July 2008, xx-xx Investigating student attitudes and achievements in an environmental place-based inquiry in secondary classrooms Brian T. Gautreau Ian C. Binns Received 16 July 011; Accepted 23 February 2012 Student attitudes toward science and content achievements were examined in three second- ary Biology I classrooms using an environmentally place-based curriculum as well as a tra- ditional curriculum. Student attitudes were measured using Likert-scale science attitude surveys administered at the beginning of the school year and once again following comple- tion of weeklong ecology curricula. Content achievements were assessed on a pre- and post-test as well as an end-of-unit test. The quantitative results show some attitude measures are correlated with ability-group tracking, and that little change in science atti- tudes occurred during the course of the study for the three groups. Results also indicate that overall test scores on an end-of-unit test were not significantly different between the in- quiry-based and traditional curricula. Qualitative analysis of the pre- and post-tests show growth in ecology knowledge for all three classrooms, with the Inquiry-Based Academic Class achieving the greatest gains. The results warrant an exploration of curricula that use place-based inquiry as a teaching tool and learning goal by educators interested in student content achievements and keeping science attitudes from decreasing while fostering critical thinking skills. Key words: environmental