Zydeco: A Mobile "Nomadic Inquiry" System to Support and Bridge Science Inquiry Between Classroom and Museum Contexts

虽然学生可以在课堂上进行科学探究，但他们也必须在课堂之外的现实环境中进行科学探究，以建立持久的技能和对核心科学内容思想的深刻、有意义的理解。Zydeco项目的目标是探索新的移动和基于web的技术如何支持内容丰富的游牧式查询；也就是说，在K-12正式和非正式的综合环境中进行的科学探究。学生将在课堂上使用课程活动和在项目中开发的Zydeco网络软件开始调查过程，以帮助定义目标和问题，并设计数据收集策略和分类，以便在非正式的实地考察中使用。在移动设备和Zydeco移动软件的帮助下，学生们将在博物馆里继续他们的探究，以有组织的、脚手架式的方式，以标记、字幕、语音注释的照片、视频和文本的形式，收集相关的数据和信息。Zydeco系统将把学生收集的数据存储在网络服务器上，学生们回到教室后就可以访问这些数据。因此，学生可以访问、分类和分析他们收集的数据，使用课程和基于网络的框架来帮助评估和解释他们的发现，以完成调查过程。该项目将涉及来自伊普斯兰蒂和底特律公立学校的中学教师和学生；密歇根大学自然历史博物馆和底特律科学中心的教育工作者、研究人员和科学家；以及密歇根大学教育学院和电气工程与计算机科学系的研究人员。科学内容将根据博物馆合作伙伴的重点和教师的课程进行调整：生物学、地球科学和物理科学。Zydeco项目探讨了三个主要的研究问题：(1)移动和网络技术如何与学校课程相协调，以支持游牧式的探究并提高学生的学习？(2)脚手架式移动技术如何支持教师和学生更紧密地将课堂和博物馆体验联系起来，以加强科学探究和内容学习？(3)架空游牧探究体验对课堂科学探究和科学学习有何影响？合作团队将使用迭代的、以学习者为中心的方法来开发Zydeco网络和移动系统以及相关的学生活动。对于每一次迭代，研究人员将对学生的讨论和活动进行录像和录音，并收集学生在课堂和博物馆的网络和移动系统中参与课程的人工制品和工作日志。这些数据将使用旨在衡量学生探究的质量和多样性、他们讨论和工作的科学内容以及他们在整个过程中的参与度的标准进行分析。此外，项目前和项目后的评估任务将用于评估项目对目标探究技能和内容理解的短期和长期影响。将对学生和教师进行访谈，以收集有关程序内容和可用性的反馈。技术评估标准将用于评估Zydeco移动和网络系统中不同的脚手架功能，以衡量这些系统如何帮助学生在多种环境下克服科学探究的复杂性。本研究的产品将包括一个基于网络的软件应用程序，它将支持访问前和访问后的查询活动，以及移动设备的应用程序，以支持学生在访问非正式学习环境时进行查询。该项目将制作文件，使教师和博物馆教育工作者能够使用发达的游牧查询系统。将撰写关于脚手架游牧式探究、开发适应性技术以帮助教师将课堂课程与实地考察经验联系起来、在正式和非正式环境中进行学习的课程设计以及开发技术以加强非正式环境中的学习和探究的研究论文。

Although students may engage in scientific inquiry in their classrooms, it is also essential for them to practice scientific inquiry in real-world settings outside the classroom context to build enduring skills and deep, meaningful understanding of core science content ideas. The goal of the Zydeco project is to explore how new mobile and web-based technologies can support content-rich nomadic inquiry; that is, science inquiry that takes place on-the-go, across integrated K-12 formal and informal settings. Students will begin the inquiry process in the classroom using curricular activities and the Zydeco web software developed in the project to help define goals and questions and to design data collection strategies and categories for use on a field trip to an informal setting. With a mobile device and the Zydeco mobile software populated with the students' preparatory work, students will continue their inquiry in the museum, collecting relevant data and information in an organized, scaffolded manner, in the form of tagged, captioned, and voice-annotated photographs, video, and text. The Zydeco system will store the students' collected data on a web server, which students can access upon their return to the classroom. Thus students can access, sort, and analyze their collected data, using curricular and web-based scaffolds to help evaluate and explain their findings to complete the inquiry process.The project will involve middle school teachers and students from the Ypsilanti and Detroit Public Schools; educators, researchers, and scientists at the University of Michigan Exhibit Museum of Natural History and the Detroit Science Center; and researchers from the University of Michigan School of Education and Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. The science content will be tailored to both the museum partners' foci and the teachers' curricula: biology, earth science, and physical science.The Zydeco project explores three major research questions:(1) How can mobile and web technologies coordinate with school curricula to scaffold nomadic inquiry and enhance student learning?(2) How can scaffolded mobile technologies support teachers and students to connect classroom and museum experiences more closely in order to enhance science inquiry and content learning?(3) What impacts do scaffolded nomadic inquiry experiences have on classroom-based science inquiry and science learning? The collaborative team will use an iterative, learner-centered approach to develop the Zydeco web and mobile systems and the associated student activities. For each iteration, the researchers will videotape and audio-tape students' discussions and activities, and collect artifacts and logs of student work as they engage with the curriculum the web and mobile systems in the classroom and museum. This data will be analyzed using rubrics designed to gauge the quality and variety of students' inquiry, the scientific content of their discussions and work, and their engagement throughout the process. In addition, pre-and post-program assessment tasks will be used to gauge the program's short-term and long-term impacts on targeted inquiry skills and content understanding. Student and teacher interviews will be administered to gather feedback about the program content and usability. Technology evaluation rubrics will be used to evaluate the different scaffolding features in the Zydeco mobile and web systems to gauge how well those systems help students overcome the complexities of scientific inquiry in multiple settings.The products of this research will include a web-based software application that will support pre-visit and post-visit inquiry activities and applications for the mobile device to support student inquiry on their visit to an informal learning environment. The project will produce documentation to enable teachers and museum educators to use the developed nomadic inquiry system. Research papers about scaffolding nomadic inquiry, developing adaptable technologies to help teachers connect classroom curricula and field trip experiences, curriculum design for learning across formal and informal settings, and developing technologies to enhance learning and inquiry in informal settings will be written.