Change Thinking for Global Science: Fostering and Evaluating Inquiry Thinking About the Ecological Impacts of Climate Change

该项目正在开发学习进度驱动的可视化技术、课程单元和评估，以实现关于初中生对全球气候变化生态影响的复杂思考的经验证据。在当前的初中生和高中生的一生中，我们的星球可能会经历比人类历史上迄今为止更多的人为变化。在全球竞争力的复杂思维中具有国家利益的情况下，存在着一种紧迫感，需要为大学预科科学教育中一个新的跨学科重点领域--学生关于全球变化对生态系统动力学的影响的复杂推理--建立坚实的、基于研究的基础。认识到需要系统地开发资源，该项目以现有资源为基础，利用学习进度的方法，系统地设计协调一致的课程、工具和评估产品。对匹配的和连续的队列进行准实验研究，以记录学习结果和轨迹。横断面调查被用来确定课程计划对学生成绩的有效性。成长曲线分析被用来描述性地考察学生在整个课程计划中复杂的推理成长轨迹。这项工作提供了动态的、适合年龄的可视化和建模工具，以及相关的课程单元和评估工具，作为关于全球气候变化影响的教与学的基础性、经验性信息。这项工作还为内容和探究推理过程提供了经验和理论基础，这些进展阐明了科学中的关键概念发展，并解释了学习发展与学习理论是如何一致的。来自初中生和高中生的数据与来自4-6年级学生的纵向数据相协调，提供关于学生成长轨迹和成就结果的信息，这将有助于理解在多个单元和年份中可能由学习进步驱动的结果。研究结果还将提供对学习轨迹的特征和动态的洞察，以及随着内容和推理知识的发展而出现的挑战。

This project is developing learning progression-driven visualization technologies, curricular units, and assessments towards realizing empirical evidence about middle and high school students' complex thinking about ecological impacts of global climate change. During the lifetimes of current middle and high school students, it is likely that our planet will undergo more anthropogenic change than it has during all of human history to date. With a national interest in complex thinking for globally competitiveness, a sense of urgency exists to build a solid, research-based foundation about a new, interdisciplinary focus area within precollege science education - students' complex reasoning about the impact of global changes on ecosystem dynamics. Recognizing the need for systematic development of resources, this project builds from existing resources and utilizes a learning progression approach for the systematic design of coordinated curricular, tool and assessment products. Quasiexperimental research studies on matched and consecutive cohorts are conducted to document learning outcomes and trajectories. Cross-sectional investigations are used to determine information on the effectiveness of curricular programs on student achievement. Growth curve analysis is used to descriptively examine students' complex reasoning growth trajectories throughout curricular programs. This work provides dynamic, age-appropriate visualization and modeling tools, and associated curricular units and assessment instruments to serve as foundational, empirically based information on teaching and learning about the impacts of global climate change. This work also provides an empirical and theoretical basis for content and inquiry reasoning progressions that articulate critical concept development in science and that explain how learning development is consistent with theories of learning. Data from middle and high school students coordinated with longitudinal data from 4-6th grade students provides information on student growth trajectories and achievement outcomes that will contribute to an understanding of possible learning progressions-driven outcomes over multiple units and years. Research results will also provide insights into the character and dynamics of learning trajectories and the challenges that occur as content and reasoning knowledge develops.