Science

How should science curriculum developers respond to the changing technological landscape in school and out?

This session will showcase and solicit feedback on a prototype online learning community designed to facilitate collaboration between teachers and scientists. A team of scientists and education researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute developed the learning community as part of the Investigations in Cyber-enabled Education (ICE) Program, a DR K–12 program. The unique learning community is the central component of an online course for secondary teachers.

The presenters of this session seek feedback on the design and feasibility of an interactive, Web-based  curriculum environment that aims to support responsive teaching and elementary students' science inquiry. Session participants will explore and discuss a beta version of an interactive, Web-based,  curriculum environment designed to facilitate responsive teaching and students’ science inquiry.

This session will describe recent findings from four projects, each applying the facet-based perspective in different instructional contexts: force and motion and waves (middle and high school), properties of matter and particulate nature of matter (middle school), Earth science (middle school), and chemistry (high school).

What are the opportunities and challenges that arise when trying to harness psychometric models for diagnosis in STEM education?        

In this session, panelists from five NSF-funded gaming projects will discuss ways in which digital game-based learning can enable learner-led exploration, taking games beyond the "quiz" model many educators still think of.