Science Online: Learning Through Collaborative Writing of an Open-Content Scientific Encyclopedia

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The question that this project addresses is whether the new online publishing paradigm represented by Wikis can be successfully leveraged for science education? In this research, collaborative software that extends Wiki technology to support science learning by high-school students will be created. Students will learn about science content and method by collaboratively researching and writing about controversial science topics, supporting their writing with strong citations, and publishing their writing on the Internet. The site that is available to the students is Science Online. Science Online is an open-content science encyclopedia-anyone may add or modify its content at any time. This site will be persistent (similar to wikipedia) and will grow organically over time to the point that it becomes a useful reference for the general public. In addition to being useful in itself, this more importantly will help create a motivating, authentic context for high-school science students contributing to Science Online. The research hypothesis for education research is that having a real audience for published work will encourage students to be more engaged, since they see their work product as having real value to others. Second, Science Online will allow students to demonstrate sophisticated meta-cognitive strategies as they reflect on the real audience for their writing and what that audience may or may not understand. Tools to support the students in their use of Science Online will be developed and made available to the public. Additionally, lesson plans will be developed to incorporate the use of Science Online in science instruction in High Schools and will be made available to the public.