CAREER: Embedded Computing and Authentic Inquiry in Middle School Science

自成立以来，科学探究一直基于科学家为其研究采购和开发的材料、工具和设备。从20世纪80年代开始，学校引进了以微电脑为基础的实验室。然而，这种新技术经常被用于许多学校科学实验室的工作中，学生们在那里进行测量确认实验，而不是深入的基于探究的调查。在过去的十年里，课堂机器人的使用在K-12年级已经变得普遍。这种机器人技术的大部分工作都展示了探究式科学的特点：学生在构建问题、实验、调试问题和寻求解决方案的过程中高度投入。为什么课堂机器人能成功地激发学生对自己的工作负责，而课堂科学却难以吸引学生的注意力？关键是主动权掌握在学生手中。为教师和学生提供功能强大、可扩展且具有吸引力的技术也很重要。该项目将使用并扩展研究技术——Handy Cricket微控制器——其目标是描述并提供材料，这些材料可以很容易地被教师和学生吸收到真实的基于探究的工作中。该项目包括研究和开发部分。PI将调查初任和实习中学科学教师如何进行自己的探究性科学实验，反思和理解自己的经验，然后将这些方法带给学生。随后，研究这些教师的学生如何使用蟋蟀进行科学探究，以及他们学到了什么，并与对照教室学生的实践和学习进行比较。该项目将建立计算机科学与中学科学内容之间的深层联系，并开发改进的技术以广泛应用于课堂。PI将与他的大学教育研究生院的教职员工密切合作，并将共同教授学生-教师在其项目中所需的科学方法课程。这些个人和其他参加专业发展讲习班的教师将被邀请参与使用项目材料和方法的课堂试验。该发展计划包括一个国际组成部分，扩展了PI之前与爱尔兰和德国领先的教育/研究人员的合作。该项目的智力价值源于其目标，即理解和促进教师和学生真正的科学探究，并在计算机和中学科学之间建立深刻的联系。它可能产生更广泛的影响是基于其实际的、以课堂为基础的方法，这将确保材料和教学策略可以广泛使用。

Since its inception, scientific inquiry has been based on the materials, tools, and equipment that scientists procure and develop for their research. Beginning in the 1980s with microcomputer-based laboratories, schools have introduced such equipment. This new technology, however, has often been employed in the fashion of much school science laboratory work, where students perform measurement-confirmation experiments rather than deep inquiry-based investigations. Over the last ten years, the use of classroom robotics has become prevalent across the K-12 grade levels. Much of this robotics work exhibits the characteristics of inquiry-based science: students are highly engaged as they frame problems, experiment, debug problems, and pursue solutions. Why is classroom robotics successful in inspiring students to take charge of their work, while classroom science has trouble getting students' attention?The key is that agency is in the hands of students. Providing capable, extensible and inviting technology to teachers and students is also important. This project will use and extend research technology - the Handy Cricket microcontroller - with the goal of characterizing and then providing materials that can be readily assimilated into authentic inquiry-based work by teachers and students. The project includes research and development components. The PI will investigate how beginning and practicing middle school science teachers perform their own inquiry-based science experiments, reflect on and make sense of their own experiences, and then bring these approaches to their students. Subsequently, how these teachers' students practice science inquiry using Crickets and what they learn will be studied, and compared with the practices and learning of students in control classrooms. The project will create deep linkages between computing science and middle school science content, and develop improved technology for widespread classroom use.The PI will collaborate closely with faculty and staff of his university's graduate school of education, and will co-teach sections of science methods courses required of the student-teachers in its program. These individuals and other teachers who participate in professional development workshops will be invited to be involved in classroom trials using project materials and approaches. The development plan includes an international component, extending the PI's previous collaborations with leading educator/researchers in Ireland and Germany. The project's intellectual merit stems from its goal of understanding and promoting authentic science inquiry by teachers and students, and creating deep connections between computing and middle school science. Its potential for broader impact is based on its practical, classroom-based approach, which will ensure materials and pedagogical strategies that can be employed widely.