Collaborative Research: Bridging between Tabletop Models and the Earth System

这个为期三年的项目解决了8年级和9年级地球科学课堂开展动手活动困难这一重要问题。PI使用桌面模型作为课程试图阐明的现象的类比。该项目调查了学生如何将从动态桌面模块中获得的见解应用到理解和推理完整的地球系统的过程中。研究人员与纽约市学校的300名学生和4名教师合作，测试了三种教学策略的有用性和缺陷。PI使用以证据为中心的设计原则开发书面评估，检查学生对模型属性、模型/地球属性对应、模型关系、模型/地球关系对应以及地球科学数据/证据的理解。PI使用t检验和多元回归分析来收集学生人口统计数据。他们还收集学生人口统计数据和质量措施，以描述教学策略是如何在课堂上实施的，并了解应该如何支持教师有效地使用这些策略。

The three-year project tackles the important problem of the difficulty of conducting hands-on activities for 8th and 9th grade Earth Science classrooms. The PIs take the approach of using tabletop models as analogs for the phenomena the curriculum is trying to elucidate. The project investigates how students apply insights gained from working with dynamic tabletop modules to understanding and reasoning about processes of the full scale Earth system.Working with 300 students and four teachers in New York City schools, the researchers test three instructional strategies in terms of the usefulness and pitfalls of each. The PIs develop written assessments using evidence-centered design principles that examine students' understanding of model attributes, model/Earth attribute correspondences, model relationships, model/Earth relationship correspondences, and geoscience data/evidence. The PIs collect student demographic data using t-tests and multiple regression analysis. They also collect student demographic data and qualitative measures to describe how the instructional strategies were enacted across classrooms and to understnd the ways in which teachers should be supported to utilize these strategies effectively.