Student attitudes toward science and content achievements were examined in three secondary Biology I classrooms using an environmentally place-based curriculum as well as a traditional curriculum. Student attitudes were measured using Likert-scale science attitude surveys administered at the beginning of the school year and once again following completion 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 attitudes 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 inquiry-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.