The School-Home Science Connection: SHSC, Using TV-based Internet Technology to link School Science Projects to Home Activities

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

9729764 Soloway This SGER project will design, implement, and assess learning environments in which parents/guardians and children use TV-based Internet (i.e., the Web-TV commercial service) to engage in home science activities linked to science classroom curricula. For example, in the context of better understanding the biological basis of asthma (a major health problem in low socioeconomic status, urban communities), parents/guardians and their children can collect data twice daily on the child's lung capacity. They can then use the TV/Internet link to share this data with classmates, to receive analyses of this information on a longitudinal basis, to relate outcomes to current environmental conditions such as pollution, and to better comprehend theories about biology in the school curriculum. This study has three goals: 1) understanding how to create activities that encourage parents/guardians and their children to engage in serious scientific activities at home, 2) understanding how to better link specific school-based science curriculum units to home-based science activities, and 3) understanding how TV-based Internet technology can be used to support scientific inquiry activities by parents/guardians and children in home settings. As a pilot activity, the investigator is already working with four homes in which children have asthma, providing Web-TV service and prototype versions of learning materials. The proposed study would scale this initial effort into a one-year project linking a 7th grade classroom in an urban middle school to the homes of all children in that class. The project will develop and study four learning activities will be developed and studied, deriving design implications for researchers doing similar studies. The project will aid in understanding how consumer and entertainment technology can increase children's motivation and performance in science classes. This type of study is of great value for researchers in informal science education and in school-home linkages, as well as those concerned with improving the science knowledge of parents. ***