Supporting Teacher Development in Enacting the RiverWeb Water Quality Simulator

Mary Ellen Verona, MVHSmverona@mvhs1.mbhs.edu

David Curtis, NCSA/UIUCdcurtis@ncsa.uiuc.edu

andDonald Shaffer, North East HS

May 22nd, 2001 mvhs1.mbhs.edu/riverweb/explorer/index.html

Acknowledgements

• Funding from National Science Foundation

• Assistance from Roger Azevedo, UMCP

• With thanks for additional support and contributions from– Lisa Bievenue, NCSA; Susan Ragan, MVHS – UMCP graduate and undergraduate students– Maryland science teachers

Overview

• Introducing the RiverWeb Water Quality Simulator

• Project Team and Milestones• Core Functionality and Pedagogic Framework• Professional Development Perspective• Research Questions and Methods • Findings

• Future Directions

Introducing the RiverWeb WQS• The WQS is a collaborative design experiment for prototyping

MVHS’s W ebSims– Web learning environment integrating modeling and visualization with

digital teaching/learning resources linked to standards.

• The WQS represents in simulation the effects of land use on water quality in an archetypal watershed or ”digital river basin” – sustained student inquiry– addresses core concepts such as interdependence of ecological

systems.

• The WQS represents a component of the RiverWebSM Program aimed at formal and informal learning.

• WQS is an NSF-funded EOT-PACI* project initiated through collaboration with National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA).

* Education, Outreach and Training Component, Partnerships for Advanced Computational Infrastructure Program (NCSA, SDSC)

A Sneak Preview

• Setting a Research and Planning Agenda for Computer Modeling in the Pre-College Curriculum (Final Report: NSF RED-9255877):– Models help "abstract from reality key features that enable us to gain insight

into the fundamental processes underlying external complexity.”

– "[c]omputational modeling ideas and activities should have a key and central role throughout the science curriculum - not peripherally, and not

only as part of a special or optional course." • Developing effective learning software requires understanding as

fully as possible the user context, with ongoing, iterative design input from the users

• This study focuses on needs of teachers as essential players within that context– Complements student-focused field studies (Azevedo, etc.)

Foundations

WQS Project Team

MVHSVerona, Ragan

NCSA/AllianceDevelopment

MarylandTeachersUMCP

Azevedo

NCSACurtis

REUstudents

Piloting Partnership

Consistent with a Persistent Collaborative Methodology (PCM) for Applied AIED -- Conlon & Pain, 1996

WQS Piloting Milestones• Computer modeling of system relationships between land use

and water quality within an "archetypal" river basin

• Implementation of a web-based simulator based on resulting models within a client/server framework

• Web interface to the simulator enabling learners to select sub- watersheds corresponding to a distinct land uses, choose indicators, and view model output in the form of graphs.

• An interactive tour that introduces learners to key operations as well as the basic science behind the simulator.

• A digital notebook for student observations, explanations, and hypotheses structured by teachers to scaffold, and assess student investigations.

Core Functionality - Map Page

Select sub-watershed

Graph Pages

Time Series

Link to BMP, scatter plot, help

Digital Notebook

Resources

• Students’ Corner– Information about indicators, pollution, land

uses, BMPs, glossary

• Teachers’ Corner– Login, notebook, message board, – Lesson plans, pedagogic framework– Annotated links to maps, data, web sites about

watersheds, hydrology, nutrients, chemistry, pollutants, indicators, BMPs, and a lot more

Pedagogic Framework• Jigsaw cooperative learning model• Stakeholder driven scenario• Interactive tour

– Scaffolds initial goal setting and supports basic skill acquisition

• Evidence gathering– Support/refute initial hypotheses (digital notebook)

• Concept maps – Refine at key stages of Jigsaw– Manual now, in software later?

• Student artifacts– Performance assessments

embedded in the learning process

Professional Development• Categories of teacher knowledge (Shulman, 1987)

– Content knowledge– Pedagogical knowledge– Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) -- critical to everyday

classroom practice• Guidelines for embedding PCK in curriculum materials

(Schneider et al, 2000) • Here we characterize data gathered during WQS teacher

workshops in terms of...– Software functionality

• effectiveness to support inquiry– Pedagogic framework -- Jigsaw– Artifacts

– PCK support for teachers’ scaffolding

Research Questions• To what extent does RiverWeb WQS and its

components support science learning?

• How does the WQS framework enable the teacher to enact standards based inquiry?

• How does the proposed pedagogy foster collaborative learning in practice?

• How helpful is the built-in scaffolding? What additional teacher support is required?

• How may such support be characterized in terms of content, pedagogy, and PCK?

Methods• Participants: Seven secondary teachers

– 5 to 25 years teaching experience– 5 high school science teachers; 1 middle school science

teacher; 1 high school computer science teacher

• Procedures– Workshops structured around Jigsaw– Explorations by pairs of teachers – Moderated discussions at different steps– In depth teacher interviews– Individual questionnaires

• Data Sources– Transcripts from videotapes and audio tapes– Questionnaire responses

Findings: Functionality• Favorable Impressions

– Ease of navigation

– Utility of day/range zoom in tool

– Ability to compare before/after BMP

– Ability to manipulate numerical data

• Managing multiple windows– Tracking, adding, saving notebook questions were

challenging for some participants

• Requests for additional features– Biological indicators

– Change land use (sub-watershed) area and see impacts on indicators

Findings: Standards and Context for Inquiry

• WQS activities help students meet state and national science learning standards

• WQS learning framework provides a rich context for sustained inquiry

• WQS’ s real world problem-solving scenario supports development of driving questions to motivate and structure subsequent activities

Findings: Cooperative Learning• Experience

– Two teachers did not use Jigsaw type strategies– Four teachers used a variety of cooperative

strategies – One teacher used cooperative strategies only with

elective classes

• Attitudes– Problems with students coasting or dominating– Compatible with performance assessment of WQS

student artifacts– Time needed conflicts with prescribed curriculum

Findings: Artifacts and Scaffolding• Artifacts

– Concept maps (and questions) help students focus and articulate relationships

– But teachers need ongoing PCK support

• Scaffolding – Importance of students making connections between what they

discover through the WQS and wet labs, real world observations, etc.

– Teachers prefer online help that enables them to scaffold student learning themselves

• Control student access to external resources

• Access PCK in digestible chunks, when needed

Future Directions

• Development of resources to support teachers – Content knowledge: mediating causes, flow dynamics– Pedagogic knowledge: implementing Jigsaw strategy– PCK: guiding students in building concept maps

• Integration within collaborative materials development environment (CMDE) will– Engage numerous geographically dispersed teachers in

design and development of WebSims

– Promote collaborative development and sharing of PCK resources and learning & teaching strategies