Transcript The WISE Rock-Cycle online curriculum: A modular

The WISE Rock-Cycle Project: Goals
and Assessments
Michele Spitulnik & Yael Kali
Center for Innovative Learning Technologies
Jim Slotta and Marcia Linn
The Web-based Inquiry Science Environment
University of California, Berkeley
Web-based Learning Environments
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Scaffold students to use Web effectively
Add inquiry to the science curriculum
Support students as they work collaboratively
Design technology that helps guide inquiry
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Inquiry maps to give procedural guidance
Cognitive guidance on demand
Embedded assessments
Reflection notes
Online discussions
modeling, data visualizations
Support teachers as they adopt new inquiry and
technology practices
Web-based Inquiry Science Environment
(WISE)
Students investigate conditions for
growing plants in space
Learning Environment Goals
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Make Science Accessible
 Use appropriate models, representations, content
 Choose topics, activities that students find meaningful
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Make Thinking Visible
 represent student and scientific ideas
 Use simulations, visualizations (e.g., Sensemaker)
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Help Students Learn from Each Other
 Design social activities (e.g., debate) and social supports
 Peer review, collaborative search, online discussions
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Foster Lifelong Learning
 Help students become good science learners
 Critique, design, and argument activities
WISE Components
Helping Teachers Assess Student Work
WISE Components
The Sensemaker Argument Editor
WISE Components
Online Discussions
WISE Components
- Data Visualization, Drawing, Causal Mapping
WISE Components
- Interactive Educational Media
Gene Flow Model
Simulates flow of
genes from
engineered crops to
neighboring plants
Curricular use
embeds model into
particular GMF
contexts
WISE Teachers and Students
42 months, 5/99 - 10/02
50000
40000
Teachers
Students
30000
20000
10000
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May
Aug
Nov
Feb
May
Aug
Nov
Feb
May
Aug
42 Months (5/99 - 10/02)
Nov
Feb
May
Aug
WISE Partnerships
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School District Partnerships
 Enable district-wide inquiry and technology program
 Possibilities for professional development research
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Disciplinary Partnerships
 NOAA, NASA, Nat. Geographic, Monterey Bay Aq.
 Jointly develop curriculum projects
 Enable Mission of all partners
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Research Partnerships
 Educational or Cognitive researchers can use WISE
WISE Research Partnership
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Provide a Pedagogical Framework
 Scaffolds curriculum design, review/revision
 Situates research innovations in a project context
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Provide a Technology Platform
 Web-based authoring, review of curriculum
 Web-based delivery to global audience
 Database of student assessments, project work
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Embedded Research  Enable Research questions are addressed through
experimental design
The Rock-Cycle Partnership
 A WISE project adapted from a textbased curriculum developed at the
Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel
(Kali & Orion, in review)
 Designed for middle school students with
focus on the processes that transform
materials within the crust of the earth.
Scientific Background
The rock-cycle is a system including the crust of the earth, which is characterized by a
cyclic and dynamic nature. The rocks exposed on the surface of the earth are only a
small sample in time and space of constant material transformation within the crust,
driven by geological processes (e.g. weathering, sedimentation, burial, metamorphism,
melting, crystallization of molten rocks, uplift and erosion)
The Rock-Cycle
project currently
focuses on only one
cycle - the formation
and exposure of
magmatic rocks.
Learning Goals
 To engage students in the critical thinking processes
associated with scientific inquiry
 Students will engage in asking questions, building models, collecting
data and collating evidence.
 To support a systems-thinking approach
 Help promote students’ understanding of dynamic, cyclic
nature of the system (Kali, Orion, & Eylon, 2000).
 To promote environmental literacy among students
 students begin to understand their local environment and
make informed decisions.
Making Science Accessible
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Goal: Engage students in a local context or environment as basis
for learning content and processes (Orion, 1998).
Feature: Introduction and final project connects local environment
to content within the project
The Introduction:
The Final Project:
Making Science Accessible
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Goal: Engage students in both hands-on and online observations
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Feature: The environment provides structure and prompts for
students to make real world hands-on observations
(Orion & Hofstein, 1994).
Students look at both online and real world rock samples.
An Embedded Note:
Making Student Thinking Visible
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Goal: Engage students in inquiry & model building (Spitulnik, 1998)
Features: Students build models of geological phenomena. For
example, students use “Salol” to model crystal formation. Students
also build “relationship” models to explain processes.
Modeling Crystal Formation
A student relationship model
Making Student Thinking Visible
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Goal: Engage students in building connections between models and
the phenomena they represent (Grosslight, Unger, & Jay, 1991; Kali &
Orion, in review).
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Feature: Textual and visual cues prompt students to explain
relationships between experimental procedures and models and the
geological processes they represent
Students build models of melting, rising and cooling wax (magma) and relate
the features of their models to geological features.
An Embedded Note:
Promote Lifelong learning
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Goal: Engage students in metacognitive reflection of the scientific
processes they are guided through (Palinscar, 1984)
Feature: Prompts provide metacognitive scaffolding
Early in the project students
reflect about models
Later in the project students
revise hypotheses
Facilitating Peer Learning
• Goal: Engage students in discussions that support
debate and justification of ideas. (Linn & Hsi, 2000)
• Feature: Student online discussion
Students debate the classification of obsidian in an online discussion.
Making Student Thinking Visible
• Goal: Engage students in building connections between
concepts and different parts of the project
• Features: “Where are we going?” steps make explicit
connections between ideas. Model building activities also
require creating connections between ideas
An Embedded Note:
Scoring Rock-Cycle Assessments
• A Knowledge Integration Framework
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Scoring Rubric is on a 4 point scale
Score = 4 a high knowledge integration score and
indicates students hold a high degree of understanding
and demonstrate many relationships between ideas.
Score = 3 a good understanding of the relationships
involved
Score = 2 a moderate understanding
Score = 1 an area that needs further development
Score = 0 indicates a lack of response.
Scoring Rock-Cycle Assessments
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A Post Test Question: An example
• How does granite rock form and why do we find it on top of a
mountain like Half Dome at Yosemite National Park?
Combining a knowledge integration and systems approach. Scoring proceeds
with a 4 point scale and is determined by how many “pieces” of the system
(starting material, place, process, product) students include.
Score = 4: Granite starts as magma underground (starting material), cools
slowly (process) underground (place) and forms rock with big crystals
(product). The movement of earth’s plates (process) causes mountains to
form and pushes rock, formed underground, to become exposed.
Score = 3: Three pieces of the system.
Score = 2: Two pieces of the system.
Score = 1: One piece of the system.
Score = 0: No response
Scoring Rock-Cycle Assessments
• A Student Model: An example
• Students create a “relationship” model to relate the Beaker
Experiment to the phenomenon it represents
Scoring Rock-Cycle Assessments
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A Student Model: An example
• Scoring is based on two elements: Representation of the physical
model or beaker experiment and Links between the physical model and
the real world phenomena
Score = 4 Physical model is represented before and after heating
an links are apparent between physical model and phenomena (with
words including plutonic, volcanic, magma, outer crust, vents)
Score = 3 Physical Model is represented before and after and a
couple links are apparent (2 or 3 links)
Score = 2 Physical Model is represented either before or after and
some links are apparent
Score = 1 Physical Model is represented but no links are apparent
Score = 0 Students did not build a model.
The previous example was scored a four.
Conclusions
The Rock-Cycle Projects represents:
• An attempt to tie goals to assessments
• An attempt to integrate assessments into the online
learning environment
• An attempt at scoring for knowledge integration
Contact Info:
• E-mail: [email protected]
• Web: http://wise.berkeley.edu