Design and Development of
Pathways to Inquiry
A three year proof-of-concept project supported by NSF
Yiping Lou, Pamela Blanchard,
Jaime Carnaggio & Srividya Singampalli
Louisiana State University
MERLOT, August 7-10, 2007
New Orleans, Louisiana
Project Purpose

Design and development of an Inquiry Skill
Analyzer (iSA)


To assist teachers in analyzing their own
science inquiry skills as well as those of their
students
Design and development of an Inquiry
Activities Portal (iAP)

To assist teachers in identifying and
selecting technology-supported earth
science activities to develop science inquiry
skills through the development of
Inquiry Abilities in NSES
1.
2.
3.
4.
Identify questions that
can be answered through
scientific investigations.
Design and conduct a
scientific investigation.
Use appropriate tools and
techniques to gather,
analyze, and interpret
data.
Develop descriptions,
explanations, predictions
and models using
evidence.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Think critically and
logically to make the
relationships between
evidence and
explanations.
Recognize and analyze
alternative explanations
and predictions.
Communicate scientific
procedures and
explanations.
Use mathematics in all
aspect of scientific
inquiry.
Inquiry Skill Analyzer

A web-based assessment application
and can also be downloaded and
administered through PDA. Teachers
can use it to:
Identify their areas of strengths and
weaknesses in science inquiry skills
 Monitor progress in inquiry skills
 Evaluate the effects of the chosen
activities to guide their future efforts

Inquiry Activity Portal
A database of identified earth science activities based
on the inquiry practiced in the activity.
Target specific science inquiry skills in the
context of earth science
 Provide teachers with a platform to share their
experiences and evidence of student results
from using the resources
 Build a community of practice in teaching
inquiry science

Project Staff and
Collaborators





PI: Dr. Yiping Lou (Educational Technology)
Co-PI: Dr. Pamela Blanchard (Geology and
Science Methods)
Middle school science teacher collaborators
A team of programmers at LSU Information
Technology Services
Educational Technology and Computer
Science graduate students
Year One Project Activities
1.
2.
3.
Develop earth science inquiry skill
assessment items
Design and develop PTI web
application
Select and develop technologysupported earth science inquiry
activities
Assessment Items
Development Methods





Mapping and classification of inquiry skills
based on the National Science Education
Standards (NRC, 1996)
Developing inquiry skill test development
specifications
Assessment item development
Expert panel review of all items using a
checklist and through discussion
Pilot testing and item analyses
Inquiry Skills Wheel
Item Review Checklist
Results of Item Development
Number of items developed in year 1:
about 100
 Panel review agreement rate:

Inquiry skill matching: 82%
 Appropriate earth science content and
categorization of basic and advance
content: 75%

Results of Item Development

Item analyses

Difficulty level:
• 0.24-0.77 with the majority at around
0.50-0.60

Discrimination validity:
• pbs = 0.11 to 0.47
• 5 items below 0.20, which were later
revised
Inquiry Activity Research
and Development Process

Research earth science inquiry activities
(Sources include: Digital Library of Earth System Education,
Nasa websites, and other NSF science inquiry projects
such as WISE and Keystone)
Develop a Learning Cycle activity overlay
 Activity review
 Develop a classroom observation protocol
 Classroom observation and evaluation

Activity Overlay
Activities Selected and
Classified
Activity Observation
Protocol
Web Application Design
and Development Process





Review commercial assessment
applications (e.g., Questionmark
Perception, Exam View)
Develop design specifications
Application development using ASP Inbuilt
Membership technology for User
Management, User Session management,
Cookie Management, etc.
Code testing and walk through
Ongoing formative evaluation and
enhancement
PTI Home
Future Work
Year 2 (2007-8)
Piloting with four 8th grade earth science
teachers and their students
 Further development of both the Analyzer
application and the Activities Portal


Year 3 (2008-9)

Field testing with 16 teachers, data analysis,
and reporting
Significance



It is expected that the use of iSA and iAP will
 significantly increase the number of inquiry activities
used in the classroom
 Improving teachers’ pedagogical skills in teaching
science as inquiry
 Improving middle grade students’ understanding of
and skills in science inquiry.
The prototype can be replicated to other grade levels
and subject areas.
The positive results from this project can provide a
model for building and using cumulative knowledge
with collaborative efforts from teacher educators,
researchers, educational technology designers, and
classroom teachers.