The need for science remediation is at a crisis condition in many associate degree colleges. Through the process of open admissions, these colleges admit many nontraditional students who lack a strong science background. While many of these students choose majors that require a basic knowledge of science, many fail out of these programs because of their science deficiencies. This is especially true in nursing programs where attrition rates of around thirty to forty percent are common.

Using learning principles of Ausubel, a science remediation course was designed and implemented for potentially weak science students just entering an associate degree nursing program. The purpose of this course was to strengthen their conceptual framework in science and to increase their scientific problem solving ability.

The course ran for two weeks during the summer. Fifty-two students needed remediation based upon their previous science grades, SAT's, and NLN pre-nursing guidance test scores. However, only sixteen students could commit themselves to attend the program.

The selection of science concepts came from an analysis of past studies and a survey of physical science textbooks. The researcher viewed problem solving as a twofold process: an ability to utilize concepts and to think abstractly. The use of student structured concept maps incorporating Ausubel's principle of meaningful learning helped strengthen the conceptual framework of students. The use of inquiry labs encouraged problem solving ability.

Program evaluation involved a pre- and posttest in the science content and in abstract thinking ability. For purposes of comparisons, all fifty-two students needing remediation took the posttest. The success rate of the remedial students in the first regular science course was also compared to non-remediated students from the previous year. Finally the remedial students completed an affective evaluation instrument after the remedial course and again after the first regular science course.

Results showed that students did improve in their knowledge of the basic concepts and, to a lesser extent, in their abstract thinking ability. However, while many thought the remediation course helpful, there was no significant improvement in their overall success rate.