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，以实现有关初中和高中学生对全球气候变化生态影响的复杂思考的经验证据。在目前的初中生和高中生的一生中，我们的星球很可能会经历比迄今为止人类历史上更多的人为变化。随着国家对全球竞争力的复杂思维的兴趣，迫切需要建立一个坚实的，以研究为基础的基础，关于大学前科学教育中的一个新的跨学科重点领域-学生对全球变化对生态系统动态影响的复杂推理。该项目认识到有必要系统地开发资源，因此利用现有资源，采用学习进展办法，系统地设计协调的课程、工具和评估产品。对匹配和连续的队列进行准实验研究，以记录学习成果和轨迹。横截面调查被用来确定信息的有效性课程计划对学生的成绩。成长曲线分析是用来连续性地检查学生的复杂推理的增长轨迹在整个课程计划。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，作为基础的，基于经验的信息教学和学习全球气候变化的影响。这项工作还提供了一个经验和理论基础的内容和调查推理的进展，阐明了关键的概念发展科学，并解释学习发展是如何与学习理论相一致。来自初中和高中学生的数据与来自4- 6年级学生的纵向数据相协调，提供了有关学生成长轨迹和成就成果的信息，这将有助于了解多个单元和多年来可能的学习进展驱动的成果。研究结果还将提供深入了解学习轨迹的特征和动态，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.