BioKIDS: Kids' Inquiry of Diverse Species

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Between fourth and eighth grade, American students' achievement and understandings of complex science decline relative to their peers internationally. For urban students these declines are even more pronounced and, in many cities, standardized test scores remain among the nation's lowest. Through BioKIDS, late elementary students will embrace a coordinated curricular sequence that will support them as they grapple with complex science questions of their own design early, often, for multiple years, in multiple contexts and with the support of technologies tailored to their own needs and goals.Student learning and beliefs in biodiversity and other topics will be tracked over multiple years to profile in-depth and sustained inquiry learning. Standards of evidence will be used to provide compelling examples of late elementary inquiry that can compliment high-stakes testing. Hybrid technologies will serve as change agents for learning and will be embedded into many aspects of the learning activities. Interdisciplinary teams will converge on effective means of representing complex science for inquiry activities at different ages. Existing multi-year relationships with urban Detroit and schools nationally will serve as essential partners in the study of teacher support for innovation and scaling towards large impact.