Weather, Climate, and Global Change: Linking Models and Data in Science Education

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This project uses advanced data collection and simulation technology to help students link models to data. In the context of collecting temperature data and modeling heat flows, students will work their way up from simple objects, characterized by a single temperature, to larger and larger systems that exhibit increasingly complex behaviors. We will create technology that enables the simultaneous collection and analysis of data from multiple, spatially separated but otherwise identical probes. We will also implement a modeling and simulation tool with which students can describe their models to the computer, run them as simulations, and compare the results to the experimental data they have collected. We will work with seventh and eighth grade students at two schools, one urban and one suburban. We will continue to evaluate the knowledge, thought patterns, and attitudes toward science of these students as they enroll in science courses in high school. Our goal is to help students recognize that neither theories nor experiments embody ultimate truth in science, that either may be iteratively revised to account for anomalies, and that the creation of scientific knowledge is ultimately driven by this interplay.