WWW and Internet Dissemination of Biology and Computer Labs for Prospective Elementary Teachers and of a Biology Test for Conceptual Understanding

该项目的目标是：1)传播为未来小学教师开发的生物课程。每节课包括一个动手实验活动，一个基于计算机的知识建构活动，和一个教师指南；2)开发并传播一种生物学概念理解的选择题测试，该测试将有助于评估未来小学教师、其他非科学专业学生和生物学专业学生的学习情况，从而衡量课程的进展和课程之间的比较；3)开发、完善和测试几门新的生物课，旨在为小学教师提供工具，通过课堂上的人口研究来教授进化论。生物课分为三个实验手册：分子生物学；生物的生物学;3)种群生物学。每个生物实验室都配有由SemNet软件支持的“知识构建练习”。这些练习为以活跃的、有效的思维模型的形式组织知识提供了指导，包括个人和合作的混合工作。实验室将以印刷和电子形式提供。潜在用户包括未来小学教师的本科讲师、本科教育专业的教师、职前教师和在职教师以及其他感兴趣的人。该项目将开发一个两层的多项选择题测试，以衡量对生物学的概念理解。每个问题的第一部分将评估学生对一种生物现象的知识，比如预测胡萝卜放在饱和盐水中的结果的能力。问题的第二部分要求学生解释做出这个预测的原因。该测试将使用通常提供实验室练习的简短描述和结果（包括图形表示）的项目来开发，并作为k学生的解释。最初获得的开放式回答将被转换为多项选择题，其中的干扰因素代表常见的误解。

The goals of this project are to: 1) Disseminate biology lessons that have been developed for prospective elementary school teachers. Each of the lessons includes a hands-on laboratory activity, a computer- based knowledge construction activity, and a Teachers Guide; 2) Develop and disseminate a multiple choice test for conceptual understanding of biology that will be useful for assessing learning among prospective elementary school teachers, other non-science majors, and biology majors so as to measure progress within a course and comparisons among courses; and 3) Develop, refine and test several new biology lessons designed to provide tools to elementary school teachers for teaching about evolution through in-class studies of population. The biology lessons are organized into three laboratory manuals: Molecular Biology; Organismal Biology; and 3) Population Biology. Each biology laboratory is accompanied by "knowledge construction exercises" supported by the SemNet software. These exercises provide guidelines for organizing knowledge in the form of active, working mental models and include a mix of individual and collaborative work. Laboratories will be made available in both printed and electronic form. Potential users include undergraduate instructors of prospective elementary teachers, undergraduate education majors, pre-service and practicing teachers, and other interested persons. The project will develop a two-tiered, multiple-choice test to measure conceptual understanding of biology. The first part of each question will assess student knowledge about a biological phenomenon such as ability to predict the outcome when a carrot is placed in saturated salt water. The second part of the question asks the student to explain the reasoning s/he used to make that prediction. The test will be developed using items that typically provide a brief description of a laboratory exercise with results (including graphic representation), and that as k students for interpretation. Open-ended responses obtained initially will be converted to multiple choice items in which distracters represent common misconceptions.