Scaffolded Technology Tools to Promote

Teaching and Learning in Science

Inquiry is a central component of effective science teaching and learning (Lunetta, in press; Roth, 1995). New constructivist and social constructivist approaches to science instruction feature inquiry as essential for student learning. These approaches assume that students need opportunities to find solutions to real problems by asking and refining questions, designing and conducting investigations, gathering and analyzing information and data, making interpretations, drawing conclusions, and reporting findings. Congruent with recommendations by AAAS (1993), the National Research Council (1996) argues that “there needs to be a de-emphasis on didactic instruction focusing on memorizing decontextualized scientific facts, and there needs to be new emphasis placed on inquiry-based learning focusing on having students develop a deep understanding of science embedded in the everyday world.”

Constructivist conceptions of teaching and learning assign primary importance to the way in which learners attempt to make sense of what they are learning rather than to the way they receive information. This current view of learning pictures students as actively constructing their knowledge by working with and using ideas (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989; Newman, Griffin, & Cole, 1989; Resnick, 1987). Drawing analogies from everyday learning, researchers argue that knowledge is contextualized and that learners solve real (complex and ambiguous) problems in situations where they use cognitive strategies, tools, and other individuals as resources. Integrated and usable knowledge is possible when learners develop multiple representations of ideas and, through their work in school and beyond, are engaged in activities that require them to use this knowledge. Cognitive tools that can extend and amplify learners' cognitive processes, such as computers and accompanying software programs, can help learners solve complex and ambiguous problems by providing access to information and data and opportunities to collaborate, investigate, and create artifacts (Salomon, Perkins, & Globerson, 1991). Moreover, learning occurs in a social context; learners interact with and internalize modes of knowing and thinking represented and practiced in a community and draw on group members' expertise. Recent reform efforts from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Research Council are consistent with these views, recommending that science be taught in a way that is authentic and engages students in inquiry and collaboration around real life problems to help students build rich understanding of science.

In our work in science classrooms, we help create learning environments that are consistent with constructivist ideas about teaching and learning (Blumenfeld et al., 1991). Project-based instruction is one of several attempts by researchers in several fields to instantiate constructivist theory in classrooms (Bransford & the Cognition and Technology Group, 1990; Brown, 1992; Linn, 1986). We have articulated features of project-based learning associated with the premises of constructivist theory to help focus collaborative discussion with teachers by grounding the theory in the language of classroom practice (Table 1). The features of PBS (Krajcik et al., 1994) include: a) a driving question, encompassing worthwhile content that is meaningful and is anchored in a real-world problem/question; b) investigations that allow students to ask and refine questions, debate ideas, make predictions, design plans and/or experiments, gather information, collect and analyze data, draw conclusions, and communicate their ideas and findings to others; c) artifacts that allow students to learn concepts, apply information, and represent knowledge in a variety of ways as they address the question/problem; d) collaboration among students, teachers, and others in the community; and e) technology that supports students in data gathering, data analysis, communicating and document preparation (Salomon, Perkins, & Globerson, 1991).

Table 1: Framework of Project-based Science and the Challenges Teachers Faced

The changes we have advocate are consistent with the calls form National organizations to use a new science pedagogy; the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1993) and the NRC (National Research Council, 1996) argue that K-12 science education needs to move beyond didactic instruction, where students engage in activities and learn about science, to a more constructivist, inquiry-based pedagogy, where students actually engage in authentic, long-term, science investigations. However, if we are going to ask students to carry out serious science investigations, we need to provide them with tools that can scaffold and support them in their investigations. Teachers need tools to support them in their work.

Fortunately, computers and communications technologies have progressed to the point where they can indeed be crafted to meet the unique needs of learners. Toward that end, the Highly-Interactive Research Group at the University of Michigan in collaboration with the science teachers have been developing a suite of tools, ScienceWare, that support students as they investigate driving questions such as “Is Traver Creek, behind our school, safe?” Constructed by following Learner-Centered Design guidelines (Soloway, Guzdial, Hay, 1994), ScienceWare has tools that support all phases of the investigation: data gathering (RiverBank); data visualization (Viz-It); modeling (Model-It); project planning for students(PlanIt-Out); publishing findings on the Internet (Web-It); and, project planning for teachers (PIViT). In this chapter we explore how technology can be designed and used to promote learning for both students and teachers.

In this chapter, we describe Model-It, a ScienceWare tool that has been used for over three years by hundreds of students at the high school and middle school levels, both in suburban and urban settings. We also describe PIViT (Project Integration Visualization Tool) ScienceWare tool that hundreds of teachers have used to modify and develop project plans.

Model-It: Supporting Students in Model Building

Scientists build models; they construct abstractions from observed phenomena (i.e., data). Modeling is at the heart of the scientific enterprise. It is through modeling that scientist generate explanation of pehomena. The problem is that modeling as it is currently practiced is very hard for students to do – it requires a great deal of prior knowledge and mathematical ability. Models, especially computer-based models, are typically based on mathematical equations, so that in order to build a model it is first necessary to derive the equations that represent its behavior. If we expect high schoolers or middle schoolers to first learn differential equations, for example, before they build models, we will have locked them out of the central enterprise of science. However, by redefining the modeling task and providing appropriate support, modeling can be made accessible to high school science students. For example, the recent Project 2061 curriculum reforms suggest a high-level, qualitative approach to modeling:

In modeling phenomena, students should encounter a variety of common kinds of relationships depicted in graphs (direct proportions, inverses, accelerating and saturating curves, and maximums and minimums) and therefore develop the habit of entertaining these possibilities when considering how two quantities might be related. None of these terms need be used at first, however. `It is biggest here and less on either side' or `It keeps getting bigger, but not as quickly as before' are perfectly acceptable—especially when phenomena that behave like this can be described (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1993).

The challenge, then, in making modeling accessible to hight school and middle school students is to create a modeling environment which requires minimal prior knowledge from other domains, which incorporates advanced interface design, and which not only enables rapid generation of simple models, but facilitates the learner's transition toward more expert-like modeling practices. Our intent, then, with Model-It, is to support learners first building qualitative models, and then moving to more quantitative models as they develop the necessary expertises.

A description of Model-It

Figure 1 depicts the World View, one of the two main representation provided by Model-It. In this example, the World View's background is a photo of the Traver Creek, the stream behind a high school in which the 9th grade science class is exploring the quality of the river. The icons at the bottom of the window are objects that can be inserted into the World View, e.g., there is “weather,” and there is a “people” icon representing humans fertilizing the park that borders on the stream. When it rains, the fertilizer from the park gets washed into the stream, changing its levels of nitrates, dissolved oxygen, water quality, etc.

To construct a model, students must create objects -- “things” in the model that you can picture or observers (like houses, streams, people), factors -- variables related to the objects you create, and most importantly, the relationships between objects' factors. In the Relationship Editor window (Figure 2), students build a relationship by building up an English sentence, piecing that sentence together by selecting words from drop-down menus. For example, in Figure 2 we see a student building a relationship between the nitrates (a factor) in the stream (an object) and the stream's water quality: “As Stream: Nitrates increase the Stream: Water Quality increases, by more and more.” Notice that the graph on the graph on the right-hand side is linked to the text expression. Model-It is programmed so that the graph changes in response to the text expression. The graph is meant to help the student transition to quantitative modeling. Model-It uses differential equations to effect the student's qualitative, textually-expressed relationships.

Figure 3 shows a student running their model. Meters and graphs provide rich visualizations of the dynamics of the model. As well, an independent factor's meter (in this case the Weather Rainfall factor) can be used to change the simulation during run-time.

Design Principles Underlying Model-It

In designing software for education, we mindfully design for learners. In the Highly Interactive Computing (HI-C) group at the University of Michigan, we have formulated a rationale for learner-centered design (LCD) (Soloway, Guzdial, & Hay, 1994; Jackson, Stratford, Krajcik, & Soloway, 1995; Soloway, Jackson, Klein, Quintana, Reed, Spitulnik, Stratford, Studer, Jul, Eng, & Scala, to appear). Learners are also users, so the principles of user-centered design certainly apply (Norman & Draper, 1986). [1] However, user-centered design guidelines are not sufficient to address certain unique needs of learners, such as intellectual growth, diversity of learning styles, and motivational needs. For example, learners should have software available to them that represents information in a familiar way, but that also helps introduce them to more professional or symbolic representations.

The central claim of LCD is that software can incorporate learning supports—scaffolding—to address the learner's needs. Scaffolding is important because it enables the learner to achieve goals or accomplish processes that would not normally be possible and that are normally out of reach (Vygotsky, 1978; Wood, Bruner, & Ross, 1975). Below we discuss some of the scaffolding providing in Model-It.

• In Figure 1, the photo-realistic portrayal of the particular student's stream under study is meant to provide a authentic, concrete, personalized grounding for the student; it reminds him/her of their actions (e.g., water quality monitoring) at the stream, as well as providing an anchor for the student's thinking. In fact, a student can paste their own picture(s) (of a stream, of a meadow for a predator-prey model, or of the atmosphere for a climate model etc.) into Model-It to represent their main theme or the various objects.

• The Relationship Editor, Figure 2, hides complexity from the student; initially the student doesn't need to know that differential equations are needed to represent relationships; in fact, once the student gains expertise they can enter a data table that represents the specific relationship instead of using text to construct the relationship.

• Multiple linked representations are used to help the student better understand the complexities of their running, dynamic models (Figure 3).

• Students can run simulations of the models they build (Figure 3). Meters and graphs provide immediate, visual feedback of the current state of the simulation. Students can directly manipulate current factor values even while the model is running, and immediately see the impact. The student both provides and experiences interactive feedback with the model. “What if?” questions are generated and answered nearly simultaneously; hypotheses can be tested and predictions verified within moments. This interactivity may provide opportunities for students to refine and revise their mental models, by comparing the interactive feedback they initiate and receive with the feedback they expected to receive.



Footnotes

[1]All of the interface components of Model-It are implemented through the graphical user interface (GUI) of the Macintosh. We use GUI components like windows, lists, pop-up menus, buttons, sliders, and editable text boxes. Sliders can be used to set initial values and change values while the model runs; new factors are automatically entered into lists and pop-up menus, object pictures can be cut and pasted, etc. In addition, the positioning of pop-up menus is carefully chosen, particularly in the Relationship Maker window, in which the menus are part of the sentence at the top of the screen that defines which factor affects which other, and the sentence going down the right of the screen that defines which qualitative relationship to use (e.g., Figure 3). Instead of having to remember and/or type in the names of factors repeatedly, students can quickly pop up menus to find what they're looking for. Instead of having to laboriously type in data points, they can quickly define a relationship's graph by clicking on the graph itself (Figure 5).

Model-It is a modeling environment, not just a simulation environment. Model-It allows students to build and test their own models using objects, factors and relationships they define. It doesn't restrict students to just one type of simulation, or even just one answer to a given question.” This distinction between modeling and simulating is critical: the constructivist pedagogy underlying our effort strongly suggests that having learners build and then run their own models is cognitively more effective than running someone else's model. Or in the words of one of a 9th grade students who has used Model-It: “[Model-It] makes you think more about a real-life situation, where there's no real answer; you set it up and everything.”

Assessing the Impact of Model-It

Model-It has been used for the past four years at Community Hight School in Ann Arbor, MI in their Foundations of Science three year integrated science curriculum; approximately 400 students used Model-It for one to two week sessions, from once to three times during the school year. A range of systems have been explored using Model-It, e.g., stream ecosystems, predator-prey systems, climate systems, air pollution systems, and weather systems. Moreover, Model-It has been crafted and re-crafted over the three years based on student and teacher feedback, refined instructional goals, and technology changes. While there are still issues that need to be addressed (e.g., students still have trouble understanding and using feedback relationships), all our studies indicate that indeed, a large majority of students are learning the science content underlying systems under study, and they are learning a key science process: how to build a dynamic model of complex phenomena.

In one detailed study, Stratford (1996) analyzed the final models from 50 students and analyzed the video-taped conversations and interviews with eight pairs of those students as they built models of stream ecology. Fully 75% of the models analyzed were scientifically meaningful. Students created models that were coherent, accurate and reasonably behaved models. Their models made sense and were non-trivial. These models indicated that the students knew what they were doing and were able to express what they knew about stream ecosystem phenomena in the form of a dynamic model. Figure 4 shows the a model created by two ninth grade students. Moreover, six of the eight student groups who where video-taped as they built their models were engaged in thoughtful elements of scientific reasoning, including analysis, reasoning, synthesis, and explaining. The results from Stratford's work have implications for both classrooms and for software design. The creation of dynamic models provides students with a meaningful way to engage in important elements scientific reasoning and to represent what they know in a dynamic manner.

We have also began to use Model-It at the 7th grade level in two neighborhood schools in Detroit, MI. Our initial observations are that even at the seventh grade level students can engage in the process of building worthwhile models. Although the content of the models are not as rich as those at the 9th grade level, the level of sophistication is consistent curriculum objectives and with what we would expect from students at the seventh grade level.

In the next section we describe one of the tools we have created for teachers to use.

PIViT (Project Integration Visualization Tool).

The Project Integration Visualization Tool (PIViT), developed as a flexible design tool, helps teachers visualize and plan complex, integrated curricula such as those associated with Project-Based Science. Instructional planning is never an easy task, and truly innovative and project-based instruction is especially challenging. Creative teachers must do more than plan individual investigations, artifacts, and teacher activities; they must also interrelate these instructional components in such a way that they complement each other and build toward assessment goals. The various tools available in PIViT support teachers' needs in planning.

Teachers can create projects by adapting topic-based units and instructional materials, or they can use published project materials. What is essential is that projects are consistent with existing curriculum frameworks so that in exploring the driving question students develop understandings stipulated by district and state guidelines. Using PIViT teachers have adapted existing topic based units and created original projects around driving questions such as, “Will it rain?” (weather), “Are there poisons in our lives?” (chemistry), “How do I stay on my skateboard?” (physics), “Is it alive?” (biology) and “What happens to all our lunch garbage” (ecology).

PIViT provides easy-to-use graphical mapping tools that support teachers as they move from brainstorming ideas to constructing feasible, integrated project designs. The project design window provides a space where all of the instructional components are drawn and relationships shown. The graphical windows support sub-mapping, highlighting, and color coding. PIViT also has a calendar feature whereby elements in a project design can be dynamically linked into a daily-planning tool.

A Description of PIViT

The main feature of PIViT is he Project Design Window that supports teachers in creating “project maps,” graphical representations of the design of a project that highlight the connectedness among the individual components including concepts, driving questions, curricular objectives, investigations, teacher activities, and artifacts. For example, Figure 5 presents a project design map for a project that investigates acid rain. As seen in Figure 5, each design component, e.g., driving question, teacher activity, student investigation has its own shape. Figure 5 also illustrates that the various components are linked together. As seen in Figure 5, this project is structured around the driving question: “Do we have acid rain in our community?” Linked to this driving question are five related sub-questions. Tied to each sub-question are key concepts, related state curricular objectives, student activities, and artifacts. For instance, linked to the sub-question “What is the acidity of our rain water?” is the key concept “acid”. Also tied to this sub-question is the student investigation “Collecting, analyzing and interpreting acid rain data.”

In addition to project design window, PIViT provides three other design spaces:

• Figure 6 shows a concept maps for the concept “acid rain.” The concept mapping window supports teachers creating concepts maps of the content students will explore in the project. Creating concept maps helps teachers to identify the content that will be explored by students in performing the project. Nodes from the concept map can be easily placed in the project design by selecting “Insert into Project Design” from the menu. As seen in Figure 5, teachers can anchor a project design around a few key concepts, while the concept map can contain an elaboration of the subject area.

• Figure 7 shows the calendar function of PIViT. PIViT supports teachers in sequencing and temporalizing their non-linear project designs. Teachers can insert PIViT components (e.g., teacher activities, student investigations) from the design window into the calendar window (Figure 7). PIViT enables teachers to schedule activities and, when the need arises, bump future activities ahead a specified number of days. Finally, teachers can enter daily notes into the calendar.

• PIViT also allows teachers to create libraries. Libraries are mini-databases that support teachers in collecting and reusing related components. For example, teachers need not develop all the student investigations themselves. Rather, teacher can collect a variety of investigations from commercial materials or from other projects and store them in a student investigation library which they construct. They can they draw on these investigations and modify them when working on their own related projects. PIViT also contains a library of the Michigan State guidelines for science (Figure 8). Teachers then can use this library to both guide their designs and critique them; they can select a state guideline and easily copy it into the project design window (Figure 9).

Support Structures in PIViT

PIViT, like Model-It and the other tools we designed, was developed with the principles of learner-cenertered design. Below we explain several scaffolding techniques in PIViT that assist teachers in project planning.

• Each design component--driving question, investigations, artifact, teacher activity--has its own shape (see Figure 5). By clicking a dragging, teachers can create links that relate the elements. The visual modality makes it relatively easy to see the relationships among the project elements. Moreover, visually-oriented operations (e.g., dragging components around, cutting and pasting components) afford a low-cost method for changing plans and exploring their design in a “what-if” style. The graphical representations in PIViT scaffold teachers by focusing their attention on the relationships among the activities, and how those activities are integrated into a coherent conceptual whole.

• PIViT was designed to support the particular needs of planning and modifying instructional plans associated with project-based science. Although a teacher could use a program such as Inspiration (a very popular, visually-oriented, brain-storming tool for the Mac) to lay out a project design, a teacher would need to re-invent the planning language incorporated into PIViT. Moreover, while a teacher could use one Inspiration window to represent a concept map and another to represent a project plan and a third to represent a calendar, the three windows would not articulate with each other as they do in PIViT.

• Each project design component (e.g., student investigation) has an associated description template that encourages and supports teachers elaborating on the item. For example, Figure 5 shows the filled-in template for a student artifact, where the teacher articulated the procedures and evaluation criteria. Templates do not need to be filled in; however, we encourage teachers new to PBS to work through them. The prompts in the templates engender an explicitness and reflection that is beneficial, at least for less experienced teachers (Urdan et al., 1992).

Assessing the Value of PIViT

PIViT was under development for five years. We engaged in cycles of development and teacher testing. Although we found that PIViT is straightforward to learn, almost all features of the program have been revised in light of user-testing. The design of the calendar was heavily influenced by classroom teachers.

Overall, PIViT supports teachers developing understanding of project-based science as they construct their own projects, modify existing projects, or adapt curriculum materials to fit a project framework. PIViT reflects the complex and dynamic nature of teacher planning. Linear planning, such as that supported by outlining programs, does not support linking among components or reflect the iterative nature of how teachers actually plan (Clark & Yinger, 1987). Moreover, the “language” of PIViT plans can serve as a lingua franca as teachers collaborate and share project plans. In sum, then, PIViT is a key component of the Project Support Environment.

Concluding Remarks

We have developed technology that scaffolds challenging tasks for both students and teachers that helps promote sustained inquiry teaching and learning. Without Model-It students would not be able to be successfully build dynamic models of complex systems. That is, the kinds of technology of which Model-It is an example create two opportunities: (1) they give students access to areas of science to which they literally had no access before, and (2) they support an inquiry-based pedagogy in critically important ways, e.g., with one teacher and 30 students in a class, each of whom may well be doing a different investigation, it is imperative that technology take on some of the supportive scaffolding in order to complement what is provided by teacher. The prospects, then, for meeting the high standards called for by the AAAS and the NRC, have never been better; technologies such as Model-It are poised to play a key role in enhancing the all-important science education of today's youth—to better prepare them for tomorrow's world. PIViT provides teaches with a resource that helps them modified curriculum to meet new instructional objective. The use of computational technologies as we have described in this chapter has the potential to enhance the process of teaching and learning. Our hope is that the use of these technologies will promote sustained changes in science classrooms. That said, there are substantial questions that need to be addressed in attempting to construct technology that can be effective. We have only began to explore what are the opporpriate scaffolds for promoting learning. We also have much to learn on how computationanl and communication technologies can support teacher collaboration and professional development. Although we are encouraged by our successes to date, we recognize that we are still in the early stages of a substantial effort.

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