Teaching with CHRONOS Data and Tools A Framework for Design Cathy Manduca Science Education Resource Center Carleton College June 13, 2006

Teaching with CHRONOS Data and Research What do we hope to accomplish?

NSDL Workshop Report  What do we mean by data?  Why is using data important?  How do we do it?  What do we know about how well this works?  What are the implications for digital libraries and data providers ?

Possible Goals  teach quantitative skills, technical methods and scientific concepts  prepare students to address real world complex problems  develop students' ability to use scientific methods  help students to critically evaluate the robustness of data or evidence and their consequent interpretations or conclusions  increase verbal, written and graphical communication skills  train students in the values and ethics of working with data

A spectrum of approaches  Students engaged in collecting data  Students engaged in generating questions  Testing theory or models with data or vice versa

Kinds of activities  Open-ended activities that encourage students to ask questions of the data in order to discover patterns and relationships as a basis for understanding scientific processes or concepts  Activities that address a real, often complex problem to foster an understanding of scientific concepts and their application to the world around us  Activities that use analytic mathematical models, computer models or simulations to help students discover functions that describe data and the behavior of complex systems under varying conditions  Guided interpretation of data, testing of hypotheses, and making predictions  Activities that replicate or simulate documented scientific investigations to lead students to an understanding of fundamental scientific observations or principles

Wisdom from Learning Science (How People Learn, NRC,1999)  Learning is additive, it builds on current understanding  Understanding is actively constructed -This requires an engaged learner -Different people construct/learn most easily in different ways  Learning to learn-metacognition is an important aspect of becoming an expert and is context specific

More Wisdom from Learning Science  To develop competence students must:  Have a deep foundation of factual knowledge  Understand ideas in the context of conceptual framework  Organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application

Using Data Can..  Engage students in learning  By providing real world context  Creating student ownership of questions  Enhance learning experience  Better retention by constructing knowledge  Transferable or useable understanding  Understanding of process of scientific inquiry  Subtlety  Teach some critical skills...

A design strategy  Establish goals-desired results  Determine measure of success and acceptable evidence  Consider wisdom from research and experience  Consider assets and constraints  Develop activity based on wisdom to meet goals while exploiting assets and meeting constraints  Evaluate results and tune system  Wiggins and McTigue, 2000, Understanding By Design  Tewksbury and McDonald, 2005, Course Design Tutorial (serc.carleton.edu/  Tewksbury and McDonald, 2005, Course Design Tutorial (serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/coursedesign/tutorial/index.html)

What are your goals?  What do you want to accomplish?  What should students be able to do?  What is your measure of success?

Thinking Like an Assessor  What is worthy and requiring of understanding?  What would be sufficient and revealing evidence of understanding?  What performance tasks must anchor the unit?  How will I be able to distinguish between those who really understand and those who don’t?  Against what criteria will I distinguish work?  What misunderstandings are likely? How will I check for those?  From Wiggins and McTigue

From Goals to Outcomes: Designing the activity 1. Students must be engaged to learn- How does the activity engage them? 2. Students must construct new knowledge incrementally as a results of experience-What experiences will they have in this activity? 3. Students must refine and connect their knowledge to be able to use it further- How will the activity promote reflection on and application of the new knowledge? Edelson, 2001, Learning for Use A Framework for the Design of Technology-Supported Inquiry Activities: Journal of Research in Science Teaching, vol 38, no 3, p

Inquiry is Hard  Inquiry and research are complex learned skills  What do your students know that will help them  Ask questions?  Find and interpret data?  Draw conclusions?  Communicate results?  How will you scaffold their learning? How will you support students with different levels of experience?

Critical Aspects  Motivate/engage students  Learning through experience and communication  Reflect upon (talk, write or think) and use learning

In sum  Using data is a powerful and flexible tool for learning  It can be used to increase motivation for learning and is a foundation for activities that construct knowledge  Using data must be incorporated in well designed activities that provide for knowledge construction and reflection.  Developing inquiry and analysis skills are significant tasks that must be accounted for in planning