Piloting Graph Literacy Activities in Maine

该项目的目标是开发和试点测试有限数量的免费计算机教学活动，以提高学生对图形的理解，特别是针对七年级和八年级的理科生。此外，该项目正在开发一种试点评估工具，重点关注学生对图表的理解（“图表素养”）。这些活动和评估工具正在缅因州进行试点测试，缅因州是一个农村州，家庭收入低于全国平均水平，高中毕业后学习STEM主题的学生人数不足。国家已将这一主题确定为来年重点关注的重要话题。图形素养是识别各种图形的重要特征并将这些特征与图形的上下文联系起来的能力。这不仅增加了学生对如何解释图表的理解，也增加了他们对科学内容的理解。图表素养的定义，虽然基于数学和科学标准，但超出了许多图表知识评估所测试的技能，因为它们主要关注图表的阅读点，通常是学生已经学习和熟悉的图表类型。在扩大图形技能的通常定义的同时，该项目侧重于在7-12年级的许多数学和科学课程以及报纸和杂志中遇到的散点图和线形图。在许多学科和几乎所有教育水平的STEM学习中，图表都是核心。尽管图表起着至关重要的作用，但所有年龄段的学生都表现出使用和解释图表的困难。正在开发的基于计算机的图形素养活动是基于对学生使用和理解图形的广泛先前研究，以及通过不需要学校安装任何软件的动态交互式网页提供教育活动的持续进展。基于研究文献，有一个共识，即需要通过三个步骤来教授学生图表素养：识别和编码他们想要理解的图表的重要表面特征，如标题、单位和轴标签；将图形的视觉特征与基于循环模式（例如线性增加或减少）的数学关系联系起来；将所有这些特征与图的上下文相结合。我们正在开发的活动是基于这种方法，正如正在开发的有效评估，以衡量学生的图形素养。该项目正在进行一个小型的随机实验，在项目的第二年进行图形读写活动。目的是确定图形读写活动在提高学生对图形的理解方面的有效性。在先前的资助下开发的开源软件和方法直接有助于这个项目的成功。由于人们对使用在线资源进行教学和学习的兴趣日益浓厚，这项工作可能会对广泛的受众产生变革，包括所有STEM领域和年级的教师、学生、研究人员以及教学材料的开发人员和出版商。Graph Literacy的底层软件技术是作为开源计算机代码提供的，任何使用这些代码的活动都是在知识共享许可下发布的。因此，图形素养活动和试点评估工具可以免费被广泛采用。

The goal of this project is to develop and pilot test a limited number of free computer-based instructional activities that improve student graph comprehension, aimed especially at science students in grades 7 and 8. In addition, the project is developing a pilot assessment instrument focusing on students' comprehension of graphs ("graph literacy"). The activities and the assessment instrument are being pilot tested in Maine, a rural state where family income is below the national average and students are underrepresented in studying STEM topics after high school. The state has identified this topic as an important one to focus on in the coming year. Graph literacy is the ability to identify the important features of a wide variety of graphs and relate those features to the context of the graphs. This increases the students' understanding not only of how to interpret graphs, but also of the science content. This definition of graph literacy, while based in the math and science standards, goes beyond skills tested by many assessments of graph knowledge because they focus primarily on reading points off a graph, typically a type of graph that students have studied and are familiar with. While broadening the usual definition for graph skills, the project focuses on scatter and line graphs of the type encountered in many mathematics and science courses in grades 7-12, as well as in newspapers and magazines.Graphs are central to STEM learning in many subjects and at almost all education levels. In spite of the vital role of graphs, students at all ages demonstrate difficulties using and interpreting graphs. The computer-based Graph Literacy activities being developed are based on extensive prior research about students' use and understanding of graphs, as well as continuing advances in delivering education activities through dynamic, interactive Web pages that do not require schools to install any software. Based on the research literature, there is a consensus that students need to be taught graph literacy in three steps: identifying and encoding the important superficial features of a graph they want to understand, such as the titles, units, and axis labels; linking visual features of that graph to mathematical relationships, based on recurring patterns (e.g., linear increase or decrease); and, integrating all of these features with the context of the graph. The activities we are developing are based on this approach, as are the validated assessments being developed to measure students' graph literacy. The project is conducting a small, randomized experimental trial of the graph literacy activities in year 2 of the project. The goal of is to determine the effectiveness of the graph literacy activities in improving students' understanding of graphs. The open source software and approaches developed under the prior grant contribute directly to the likely success of this project. Because of growing interest in use of online resources for teaching and learning, this work is potentially transformative for a wide range of audiences, including teachers, students, researchers, and the developers and publishers of instructional materials across all STEM areas and grades. The underlying software technology for Graph Literacy is being made available as open source computer code, and any activities that use the code are released under a creative commons license. As a result, the graph literacy activities, and the pilot assessment instrument, can be widely adopted at no cost.