NSF Award Abstract - #0337598| NSF Award Abstract - #0337598 |
| NSF Org | REC |
| Latest Amendment Date | January 27, 2004 |
| Award Number | 0337598 |
| Award Instrument | Continuing grant |
| Program Manager |
Elizabeth Vanderputten REC Division of Research, Evaluation and Communication EHR Directorate for Education & Human Resources |
| Start Date | January 1, 2004 |
| Expires | December 31, 2004 (Estimated) |
| Awarded Amount to Date | $306949 |
| Investigator(s) |
Joshua Radinsky joshuar@uic.edu (Principal Investigator)
Susan Goldman (Co-Principal Investigator) |
| Sponsor |
University of Illinois at Chicago 1737 W. Polk Street Chicago, IL 60612 312/996-7000 |
| NSF Program(s) | RESEARCH ON LEARNING & EDUCATI |
| Field Application(s) | 0116000 Human Subjects |
| Program Reference Code(s) |
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| Program Element Code(s) |
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Geographic Information Systems (GIS) provide opportunities for teachers and students to conduct scientific inquiry with large amounts of data, including geographically referenced observational research in fields spanning the natural and social sciences. The complexity of these investigations can provide opportunities for deep learning in critical areas of science and mathematics identified in national and state standards. However, these inquiry projects can also confuse students and overwhelm teachers. Prior formative design research with data-visualization inquiry environments suggests that students' manipulation and annotation of the intermediate artifacts of inquiry can promote student reflection on domain concepts, data interpretations, and inquiry processes, as well as provide opportunities for teachers to assess, engage, and further these understandings. This project is a three-year study that systematically investigates the claim that GIS inquiry projects that have iterative designs will increase student reflection on data artifacts, domain concepts, and inquiry processes, and help students relate data to the world around them. Iterativity is the instructional strategy of building later phases of an investigation on manipulation, annotation, and reconsideration of artifacts generated from data analysis in earlier phases. This building on earlier artifacts may also increase opportunities for teacher assessment of student understandings. The project tests the hypotheses with four inquiry projects using a GIS environment. Four learning outcomes are compared for iterative and non-iterative versions of the same projects: (1) reflective engagement in small-group inquiry activity with data, (2) scientific argumentation with data, (3) conceptual understandings in the inquiry domain, and (4) mathematical reasoning with multiple representations of data. The prediction is that the effect of iterativity will be greatest for reflective engagement and scientific argumentation, but that it will also impact science concepts and mathematical reasoning. The four GIS projects (two in natural science and two in social science) build on existing curricula developed by researchers and teachers in Chicago public schools, and are grounded in research on reflective inquiry and scientific argumentation with data. The specific natural and social science inquiry projects also differ in terms of the immediacy of the geographies and topics studied (e.g., local school garden versus global tectonic processes). A summative assessment for all participating students, and a summative and process assessment for targeted small groups of students in each classroom will be conducted. Student learning will be documented within and across the four inquiry projects over the course of the academic year, enabling comparisons across design conditions.