Inquiry-Based Collaboratory

for the STCChip Bruce

Ann Peterson BishopMichael TwidaleP. Bryan Heidorn

Steven Poulakos & Suresh Srinivasan

A community of InquiryA community of Inquiry

Build overlapping communities of inquiry: scientists, engineers, teachers, students, media, policy-makers, and citizens learning about water purification.

Emphasis on: active involvement, communication across groups, and building on the diversity of backgrounds and interests.

Method: participatory design and evaluation of an inquiry-based collaboratory through scientist-citizen collaboration, teacher workshops, and ongoing support of other site uses.

A community of InquiryA community of Inquiry

Short Term Goals (Year 1)

Develop customized Inquiry Page interface for the STC web site.

Construct model Inquiry Units to represent use in various settings, including: schools, museums, libraries, nature centers, after-school programs, community centers.

Develop a digital library of water-related information and freely-available, high-quality, collaborative tools.

Engage diverse groups in the participatory design process, including those typically marginalized.

Conduct workshop with teachers affiliated with Clark-Atlanta.

A community of InquiryA community of Inquiry

Long Term Goals (Years 2-5)

Construct easy-to-use, inexpensive learning modules: hardware (e.g., pH testing, filters), web resources, print, collaborative tools.

Extend the Inquiry Page to support scientific collaborations.

Investigate the learning that occurs in different contexts (e.g., over-the-shoulder learning in labs, citizen action work).

Connect water purification studies to relevant curricular domains, such as environmental studies, government, geology, etc.

Study community-building process as part of evaluation.

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Definition of Inquiry-based Learning?

… a philosophy of education which recognizes the diversity of learners and promotes the development of a critical, socially-engaged intelligence. It draws on a long history of theoretical and practical work, but takes on new meanings in an age of digital information and new communication technologies. It typically involves what John Dewey calls the primary interests of the learner: investigation--to find out about the world; communication--to enter into social relationships; construction--to create things and change the world; and expression or reflection--to extract meaning from experience.

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• Creating opportunities to engage students in active learning based on their own questions.

• A learner centered and learner driven process.• A cycle where each question leads to an

exploration which will then lead to more questions to investigate.

• The process of asking, investigating, creating, discussing, and reflecting, and then asking again.

What is Inquiry?

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How does Inquiry work?

• Inquiry involves students as active learners. They may hatch chickens, run a business, or investigate evolution.

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• Partner project• Resource for inquiry

teaching philosophy• Collaborative teaching

& learning community• Lesson planning

support and idea site

What is the Inquiry Page?

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The Inquiry Page

…is designed to foster inquiry-based learning. Participants include community members, P-12 teachers, museum educators, librarians, university students and faculty, scientists, and others engaged in a variety of lifelong and informal learning activities. The development of the site has been design-through-use: The processes of creating, using, and critiquing the site and the resources within it should exemplify the open-ended aspects of inquiry and social participation that the site itself is encouraging.

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Types of Inquiry Units

• Lesson plan• Syllabus• Student work product• Locus for collaborative investigation• Policy discussion thread• Community action plan• Multimedia digital library document• Pathfinder or bibliography

Designing digital water quality tools:How Michael Twidale’s research will help

 

  Use of computer simulations How can we provide better ways of learning and understanding with computer simulations?Often the most important factor in enabling successful use of computer simulations is not the simulation itself, but all the other stuff that ‘wraps around’ it

Examples

·       The work book·       The running commentary on what it means·       Provocative questions about what to ask·       Intriguing things to try and investigate·       Easy ways of recording, presenting and thinking about what you have tried so far and what you might try next We can try and explore how to support this added value of simulations use, so that educators can leverage off the learning experiences of others, and tailor simulation use to the unique backgrounds of their class.

Informal collaborative learning

  An ongoing research project entitles ‘Over The Shoulder Learning’ is looking at informal learning about computer applications in the workplace. It notes the rather obvious but understudied fact that a large proportion of the learning of how to use computer applications does not come from taking formal classes, or even from learning alone from a manual or help system. People ask their friends for help – something so obvious that it does not seem worthy of attention.

But we fail to design computer applications that are aware of this or try to facilitate such an important part of the learning experience.  In the case of learning about water quality that leads to certain interesting questions: ·        How can we facilitate informal collaborative learning?·        How can we make it easier for users of the technologies to show their friends how to use it?·        How can we design technologies and lesson plans to facilitate this kind of learning in a regular classroom?·        How can we support informal learning mediated at a distance by visitors to our site helping each other out?·        How does a peer-to-peer model of learning as opposed to the traditional hub (teacher) and spokes (learner) model change our attitudes to learning, to science education and to citizen involvement in science information?

Current work: Heidorn is currently working with high school science teachers, students, and citizen scientists on biodiversity surveys. Data gathered are used to develop digital field guides and biodiversity databases. Inquiry Units are created by teachers to weave digital resources and environmental projects into their curricula.

Involving citizen scientists in environmental studies:

Bryan Heidorn’s action research

In connection with the STC, Heidorn will develop water quality studies that can be carried out by teachers, students and citizen scientists. For example, sampling for some insect species such as mayflies (Ephemeroptera), stoneflies (Plecoptera), and caddisflies (Trichoptera) can be used to indicate water quality in local streams.

Inquiry-based water studies

STC Inquiry-based collaboratory:

Preliminary design