May 22nd, 2001
mvhs1.mbhs.edu/riverweb/explorer/index.html
Supporting Teacher Development
in Enacting the RiverWeb
Water Quality Simulator
Mary Ellen Verona, MVHS
mverona@mvhs1.mbhs.edu
David Curtis, NCSA/UIUC
dcurtis@ncsa.uiuc.edu
and
Donald Shaffer, North East HS
Acknowledgements
• Funding from National Science Foundation
• Assistance from Roger Azevedo, UMCP
• With thanks for additional support and
contributions from
– Lisa Bievenue, NCSA; Susan Ragan, MVHS
– UMCP graduate and undergraduate students
– Maryland science teachers
Overview
• Introducing the RiverWeb Water Quality
Simulator
• Project Team and Milestones
• Core Functionality and Pedagogic
Framework
• Professional Development Perspective
• Research Questions and Methods
• Findings
• Future Directions
Introducing the RiverWeb WQS
• The WQS is a collaborative design experiment for prototyping
MVHS’s WebSims
– Web learning environment integrating modeling and visualization with
digital teaching/learning resources linked to standards.
• The WQS represents in simulation the effects of land use on
water quality in an archetypal watershed or ”digital river basin”
– sustained student inquiry
– addresses core concepts such as interdependence of ecological
systems.
• The WQS represents a component of the RiverWebSM
Program aimed at formal and informal learning.
• WQS is an NSF-funded EOT-PACI* project initiated through
collaboration with National Center for Supercomputing
Applications (NCSA).
* Education, Outreach and Training Component, Partnerships for
Advanced Computational Infrastructure Program (NCSA, SDSC)
A Sneak Preview
Foundations
• Setting a Research and Planning Agenda for
Computer Modeling in the Pre-College Curriculum
(Final Report: NSF RED-9255877):
– Models help "abstract from reality key features that enable us to gain
insight into the fundamental processes underlying external complexity.”
– "[c]omputational modeling ideas and activities should have a key and
central role throughout the science curriculum - not peripherally, and
not only as part of a special or optional course."
• Developing effective learning software requires understanding
as fully as possible the user context, with ongoing, iterative
design input from the users
• This study focuses on needs of teachers as essential players
within that context
– Complements student-focused field studies (Azevedo, etc.)
WQS Project Team
Consistent with a Persistent Collaborative Methodology (PCM) for Applied AIED -Conlon & Pain, 1996
Piloting Partnership
Maryland
Teachers
UMCP
Azevedo
MVHS
Verona, Ragan
NCSA
Curtis
REU
students
NCSA/Alliance
Development
WQS Piloting Milestones
• Computer modeling of system relationships between land use
and water quality within an "archetypal" river basin
• Implementation of a web-based simulator based on resulting
models within a client/server framework
• Web interface to the simulator enabling learners to select subwatersheds corresponding to a distinct land uses, choose
indicators, and view model output in the form of graphs.
• An interactive tour that introduces learners to key operations as
well as the basic science behind the simulator.
• A digital notebook for student observations, explanations, and
hypotheses structured by teachers to scaffold, and assess student
investigations.
Core Functionality - Map Page
Select sub-watershed
Link to BMP, scatter plot, help
Time Series
Graph
Pages
Digital Notebook
Resources
• Students’ Corner
– Information about indicators, pollution, land
uses, BMPs, glossary
• Teachers’ Corner
– Login, notebook, message board,
– Lesson plans, pedagogic framework
– Annotated links to maps, data, web sites
about watersheds, hydrology, nutrients,
chemistry, pollutants, indicators, BMPs,
and a lot more
Pedagogic Framework
• Jigsaw cooperative learning model
• Stakeholder driven scenario
• Interactive tour
– Scaffolds initial goal setting and supports basic
skill acquisition
• Evidence gathering
– Support/refute initial hypotheses (digital
notebook)
• Concept maps
– Refine at key stages of Jigsaw
– Manual now, in software later?
• Student artifacts
– Performance assessments
embedded in the learning process
Professional Development
• Categories of teacher knowledge (Shulman, 1987)
– Content knowledge
– Pedagogical knowledge
– Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) -- critical to
everyday classroom practice
• Guidelines for embedding PCK in curriculum
materials (Schneider et al, 2000)
• Here we characterize data gathered during
WQS teacher workshops in terms of...
– Software functionality
• effectiveness to support inquiry
– Pedagogic framework -- Jigsaw
– Artifacts
– PCK support for teachers’ scaffolding
Research Questions
• To what extent does RiverWeb WQS and its
components support science learning?
• How does the WQS framework enable the teacher
to enact standards based inquiry?
• How does the proposed pedagogy foster
collaborative learning in practice?
• How helpful is the built-in scaffolding? What
additional teacher support is required?
• How may such support be characterized in terms
of content, pedagogy, and PCK?
Methods
• Participants: Seven secondary teachers
– 5 to 25 years teaching experience
– 5 high school science teachers; 1 middle school science
teacher; 1 high school computer science teacher
• Procedures
–
–
–
–
–
Workshops structured around Jigsaw
Explorations by pairs of teachers
Moderated discussions at different steps
In depth teacher interviews
Individual questionnaires
• Data Sources
– Transcripts from videotapes and audio tapes
– Questionnaire responses
Findings: Functionality
• Favorable Impressions
–
–
–
–
Ease of navigation
Utility of day/range zoom in tool
Ability to compare before/after BMP
Ability to manipulate numerical data
• Managing multiple windows
– Tracking, adding, saving notebook questions were
challenging for some participants
• Requests for additional features
– Biological indicators
– Change land use (sub-watershed) area and see
impacts on indicators
Findings: Standards and
Context for Inquiry
• WQS activities help students meet state
and national science learning standards
• WQS learning framework provides a
rich context for sustained inquiry
• WQS’ s real world problem-solving
scenario supports development of
driving questions to motivate and
structure subsequent activities
Findings: Cooperative Learning
• Experience
– Two teachers did not use Jigsaw type strategies
– Four teachers used a variety of cooperative
strategies
– One teacher used cooperative strategies only with
elective classes
• Attitudes
– Problems with students coasting or dominating
– Compatible with performance assessment of WQS
student artifacts
– Time needed conflicts with prescribed curriculum
Findings: Artifacts and Scaffolding
• Artifacts
– Concept maps (and questions) help students focus
and articulate relationships
– But teachers need ongoing PCK support
• Scaffolding
– Importance of students making connections between
what they discover through the WQS and wet labs, real
world observations, etc.
– Teachers prefer online help that enables them to
scaffold student learning themselves
• Control student access to external resources
• Access PCK in digestible chunks, when needed
Future Directions
• Development of resources to support teachers
– Content knowledge: mediating causes, flow dynamics
– Pedagogic knowledge: implementing Jigsaw strategy
– PCK: guiding students in building concept maps
• Integration within collaborative materials
development environment (CMDE) will
– Engage numerous geographically dispersed teachers in
design and development of WebSims
– Promote collaborative development and sharing of PCK
resources and learning & teaching strategies