iPhone App for Data Collection and Critical Thinking about Ecology and Biodiversity Nancy Butler Songer Professor of Science Education and Learning Technologies The University of Michigan 10 April 2012

Working with Next Generation Science Standards 1. Focus on fewer big ideas building over time Japanese eighth-grade textbooks cover eight topics, compared to an average of more than 65 for U.S. eighth- grade textbooks.” (Linn, Lewis, Tsuchida, Songer, 2000) 2. Emphasize science practices e.g., explanations, predictions, data collection, modeling 3. Systematic guidance in developing content + science practices

What We Do Build tools + curricular units emphasizing guided development of explanations around focal content 4, 5, 6 th grade biology/ecology (8 weeks) 8th grade, high school Climate Change (8-14 weeks)

Fusing Content + Practices Content Ecology 13: Because many animals rely on each other, a change in the number of one species can affect different members of the web. Science Practice Explanations: Students build a complete scientific explanation consisting of a claim, two pieces of Evidence and Reasoning with content hints Learning goal: Students construct scientific explanations to address the question, how have recent changes in the Detroit River affected yellow perch populations?

Systematic Guidance of Strategic Thinking

26% of fourth graders have difficulty generating two pieces of evidence for an explanation, even with guidance26% of fourth graders have difficulty generating two pieces of evidence for an explanation, even with guidance (Songer and Gotwals, 2012)(Songer and Gotwals, 2012)

Passing Percentages by State, District, and Treatment Schools On State Science Test, Eighth Grade (MEAP) (Numbers in parentheses indicate standard error)

Results: Achievement by Completion as Measured by Three Tests (N= 1885)

BioKIDS app for animal data collection Record data on phones, ipods, PDAs Icon-based entry