Supporting Teacher Development in Enacting the RiverWeb Water Quality Simulator
Mary Ellen Verona, [email protected]
David Curtis, NCSA/[email protected]
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