Being Smart with Graphs This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DRL Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. Carolyn Staudt Andrew Zucker Rachel Kay The Concord Consortium, Concord, MA NSF Grant No. DRL

Nonprofit research and development organization Dedicated to transforming education through technology Pioneers of learning innovations for STEM Dedicated to Open Source software Primarily funded by NSF since starting in 1994 Nonprofit research and development organization Dedicated to transforming education through technology Pioneers of learning innovations for STEM Dedicated to Open Source software Primarily funded by NSF since starting in 1994 The Concord Consortium

Graphs in Science and Math Graph comprehension is a critical part of education in math, science, and social science

Graphs are Vital to Everyone 4

The Problem Graphs are central to teaching and learning in many STEM courses However, many students, at all ages, have difficulty understanding graphs and the concepts represented in graphs SmartGraphs is designed to help students understand graphs and the concepts they represent.

Graphs are Vital in School 6

What is SmartGraphs? SmartGraphs is software to help students understand graphs and concepts in graphs A runtime and an authoring system The software runs in a web browser (HTML5) Students use multi-page SmartGraphs activities Activities work on an iPad (no motion sensor) Scaffolding is a distinguishing feature

Sample Activity Layout 8

Numeric Response Visual Highlights 9

Multiple Choice Multiple Hints 10

Multiple Non-Linear Functions 11

Scaffolding Shading, textual hints, highlighting of points both on the graph and the table…

Animation and Labels 13

Linking Two Graphs with Animation 14

SmartGraphs Research Research activities focus on motion and gravity Recruited 35 teachers ~ PA physical science teachers ~ 8 th or 9 th grade

Research Questions (Focusing on Physical Science, 8 th /9 th grade) 1. Do students using SmartGraphs activities learn more than students who do not use SmartGraphs? 2. What do teachers using SmartGraphs believe about the software? 3. Does greater teacher experience using SmartGraphs affect students’ learning gains? 4. Does scaffolding in our “slope tool” increase learning, compared to generic hints about slope? 5. Does it matter if teachers use a single sensor (and projector) versus students using sensors in groups?

Research Design, Year 2 Year 1 teachers were divided into four groups –A: Used 4 activities again (20 classes) –C: Used 4 activities again, but one sensor per class version (21 classes) –B: Used 5 activities, no slope tool (8 classes) –D: 5 activities with slope tool (23 classes) All teachers had 1-2 days of training, August 2012 Notes: Brackets indicate useful comparisons. Groups A and C were treatment group in Year 1.

Motion Activities Maria’s Run Motion Toward and Away How Fast Am I Moving? Describing Velocity Was Galileo Right? Each activity takes about one class period.

Findings: Research Question 1 Do Students Who Use SmartGraphs Learn More? Using SmartGraphs activities that focus on the motion of objects as a supplement to normal instructional activities in physical science classes results in statistically significant learning gains for students Random selection of classes Year 1 (exp. vs control): effect size 0.13 Cross-year (group D): effect size 0.28 (HLM analysis confirms this finding) 19

Findings: Research Question 1 (Cross-year comparison) n =

Findings: Research Question 2 What Did Teachers Think of SmartGraphs? Teachers reported that the activities helped students achieve learning goals for this unit of study, and that they would use the activities in the future 94% agreed or strongly agreed, “The activity helped my students meet the learning goals” 96% “would use this activity again” as is or with minor changes n =

Graph Literacy Research Randomized trial in Maine n=378 students completing pre & post Experimental students’ gains were greater than control students’ gains (effect size = 0.35, p=.001; 50->64 %ile) Teachers had positive views about the graph literacy activities 22

Graph Literacy Research Zooming, panning, stretching, and shrinking do not change the data within a graph Interpolating between points on a graph Determining the dependent and independent variables Identify the overall shape and direction of a line graph Identify the maxima and minima of a graph Estimating the slope of a line 23

Build Your Own! Credit: Stephen Edmonds, Flickr (Creative Commons)

SmartGraphs Authoring Tool

The SmartGraphs Building Blocks Image pane Graph pane Prediction graph Motion sensor graph Tables linked to a graph Constructed response question (text box) Numeric response question Multiple-choice question with various hint sequences Pick-a-point question Text hints Visual highlights on graphs, of various kinds Automated hints to help students understand slope Line of best fit Video embedded in an iframe Legends on graphs Authored labels on graph Student labels on graph Animations

SmartGraphs Activities 27

SmartGraphs Tablet App 28 African Lions: Modeling Populations – Making sense of exponential growth. Now available in iTunes –FREE! A version for Android tablets (Nexus 7 and Nexus 10) will be released soon!

Potential Collaborators & Users We welcome collaboration, as well as users Preliminary interest has been expressed by both non-profits and for-profits Collaborators can own the IP in activities they create, or license them via Creative Commons Collaborators can contribute to the software itself, which is open source All software free and open source

Fin Thank you! Any Questions?