Technology
for promoting
scientific practice
&
personal
meaning in Science
1
Children need to see science is
relevant; scientific evidence, skills,
and argumentation matters
2
Traditional science learning can be
Alien
Boring
Disconnected
e.g., Atwater, 1996; Basu & Barton, 2007; Brickhouse & Potter, 2001; Lee & Fradd, 1998;
Life-relevant Learning
Environments
4
identify and explore
personally meaningful
5
Scientifically meaningful
experiences
6
Chaotic!
7
Children tend to:
Forget the purpose
End investigations
prematurely
Fail to recognize
importance of scientific
situations
Need help pursuing
interests and goals
Gleason & Schauble, 1999; Quintana et al., 2004
8
Technology
can support SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY
Virtual Worlds
Science Simulations
e.g., Barab et al., 2005; 2007
e.g., Stieff, 2005
Technology
can support PERSONAL EXPERIENCES
Social Networking
Programming Tools
e.g., Ahn, 2011
e.g., Resnick et al., 2009
10
Existing technology was either too structured
11
Or… too open ended
12
Designing
technology to
promote
scientifically
meaningful
experiences
13
Participatory Design
Children
Technology Designers
Educators
Balancing structure and freedom
Zydeco
StoryKit
15
ZYDECO
Structured support
Cahill et al., 2011; Kuhn et al., 2011
16
ZYDECO
Creating an entry
17
ZYDECO
Creating an entry
18
ZYDECO
Creating an entry
19
ZYDECO
Creating an entry
20
21
STORYKIT
Free-form support
Bederson et al., 2009; Bonsignore, 2010; Quinn, 2009
22
STORYKIT
Reading, creating
& sharing stories
23
STORYKIT
Editing a story
24
How do learners’ use of the
technologies show their personal
meaning and scientific
practice??
25
Kitchen Chemistry
After-school or summer camp learning
environment
e.g., Clegg et al., 2006
26
Context
One week summer camp program at a local
private school
6-9 participants Facilitators:
each day
Kitchen Chemistry
researchers
StoryKit &
Zydeco
27
Data Collection
Video of discussions
& activities (80 hours)
Interviews of
adults and children
(3 hours)
StoryKit and
Zydeco
Field notes
28
Analysis
Coded software entries
Stories on StoryKit
(15 Stories, 188 Pages)
Zydeco entries
(153 Entries)
29
Analysis
Examining technology affordances
Scientifically meaningful experiences
Scientific practice
Developed codes
Personal meaning
Open coding
Chinn & Malhotra 2001; Clegg, Gardner, & Kolodner, 2010; Osborne et al., 2001
30
Findings…
31
How did the technology support
scientific practice?
Documenting Experiment
Scientific Observations
Measurement Procedures
32
How did the technology support
personal meaning?
Creativity
Documenting the group
experience
Playfulness
33
ZYDECO
Structured supports at
opportune times
Reflective
Tags
Short
Later Analysis
STORYKIT
Storytelling as a natural
scaffold and guide
Supported scientific
inquiry processes
Learners wanted and liked
STORYKIT
Free-form integration of
media
Document personal
experiences
Personalize scientific
contributions
NEXT STEPS
ScienceKit
Visualizations
Tagging
Storytelling Tool
ScienceKit: Free-form integration of
media
38
ScienceKit: Flexible Structured Supports
39
Observations Toolbox
40
Take aways
41
Take away #1: Importance of promoting personally
meaningful experiences in science
42
Take away #2:
Need to balance structure and flexibility
43
Take away #3:
Life-relevant learning
technology
Storytelling
Tags
Integration of media
44
QUESTIONS
Find us on Twitter:
@tlclegg
@jasoncyip
@ebonsign
45
Tamara Clegg, Jason Yip, Elizabeth Bonsignore
Helene Gelderblom, Alex Kuhn, Tobin Valenstein
Becky Lewittes, Emily Rhodes, Evan Golub
Allison Druin
46
Zydeco
Contributions
• Short, tweet-like contributions
• Some play (e.g., playful titles)
• Scientific Observations and
Documenting experiment
• Visualization across groups
Drawbacks
• Less context
• Less integration of media
• Tighter control of creation
47
StoryKit
Contributions
• Sequential free-form
stories
• Authentic means for
providing context of
experimentation
• Free-form integration of
media
Drawbacks
• More support needed
for looking across
experiments
• Grouping data
48
Acknowledgements
God
Janet Kolodner
Christina Gardner
Jason Yip
Allison Druin
Beth Bonsignore
Mona Leigh Guha
Helene Gelderblom
Tobin Valenstein
Beth Foss
Charley Lewettis
June Ahn
49
Technology as
help & hindrance
50
Data Collection
Video of discussions
& activities
(200 hours)
Field notes
Focal learner
interviews
(15.5 hours)
the Context
51
Zydeco Supported scientific
practice
Code Frequency in Zydeco
Scientific Practice
Making Scientific Observations 122
Documenting Experiment
109
Comparison
9
Measurement Procedures
7
Raising Questions
6
Personal Meaning
Creativity
12
Documenting Experience
42
Playfulness
35
Storykit supported scientific practice
and Personal Meaning
Code Frequency in StoryKit
Scientific Practice
Documenting Experiment
101
Making Scientific Observations 52
Comparison
34
Measurement Procedures
22
Making Claims
12
Raising Questions
6
Personal Meaning
Documenting Experience
77
Creativity
47
Playfulness
40
STEM
Fields
Learning Other
physics
through
sports play
FUTURE WORK: NEW CONTEXTS
FOR STEM LEARNING
Extending
DataLife-Relevant
Capture in Everyday
Learning Life
Experiences
Social Media
Crowd Sourcing
FUTURE WORK: INTEGRATING
TECHNOLOGIES