Web-based Inquiry Science Environment Research Articles

Exploring the impact of web-based inquiry on elementary school students’ science identity development in a STEM learning unit

One of the primary objectives of science education is to cultivate students’ science identity, and evidence points to the efficacy of inquiry-based learning in advancing this objective. Nevertheless, recent concerns have emerged regarding the effectiveness of information technology in supporting scientific research and its impact on students’ science identity. This study explores this domain through a comparative experiment conducted with fifth-grade students at a Chinese elementary school. Utilizing the Web-based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE) and the “Solar Oven” STEM learning unit, it scrutinizes the effects of web-based inquiry and traditional inquiry on students’ science identity development. The findings indicate that web-based inquiry is equally effective as traditional inquiry in fostering students’ science identity, especially in the two dimensions of “recognition” and “performance”. Notably, web-based inquiry surpasses traditional inquiry by significantly improving seven out of eleven assessed indicators, while traditional inquiry improves only four indicators. This research provides valuable insights into how integrating information technology within an inquiry-based learning environment can support Chinese elementary school students in developing their science identity. These results have significant implications for science education by demonstrating that web-based inquiry is a valuable approach for fostering science identity among elementary school students.

Exploring Primary School Students’ Self-Regulated Learning Profiles in a Web-Based Inquiry Science Environment

Exploring Primary School Students’ Self-Regulated Learning Profiles in a Web-Based Inquiry Science Environment

Knowledge Integration in Science Learning: Tracking Students' Knowledge Development and Skill Acquisition with Cognitive Diagnosis Models

AbstractIn scientific literacy, knowledge integration (KI) is a scaffolding‐based theory to assist students' scientific inquiry learning. To drive students to be self‐directed, many courses have been developed based on KI framework. However, few efforts have been made to evaluate the outcome of students' learning under KI instruction. Moreover, finer‐grained information has been pursued to better understand students' learning and how it progresses over time. In this article, a normative procedure of building and choosing cognitive diagnosis models (CDMs) and attribute hierarchies was formulated under KI theory. We examined the utility of CDMs for evaluating students' knowledge status in KI learning. The results of the data analysis confirmed an intuitive assumption of the hierarchical structure of KI components. Furthermore, analysis of pre‐ and posttests using a higher‐order, hidden Markov model tracked students' skill acquisition while integrating knowledge. Results showed that students make significant progress after using the web‐based inquiry science environment (WISE) platform.

Preservice elementary teachers’ explanations of properties of sound using a Web-based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE)

ABSTRACT Background Understanding the properties of sound is difficult for students across all grade levels and even preservice elementary teachers (PSETs). Because of their abstract nature, there are challenges interpreting common features of sound waves. Purpose The goal of this study is to understand pre-service elementary teachers’ (PSETs) understanding of the properties of sound waves, specifically frequency, wavelength, and amplitude. Sample We had 59 PSETs from an elementary methods science course learn about the properties of sound in small groups through a Web-based interface. Design and Methods After they used a simulation model of an oscilloscope, we analyzed PSETs’ responses to three prompts assessing their understanding of the relationships among frequency, wavelength, and amplitude. They were asked to construct explanations for the changing frequency in an oscilloscope, how adding water to a container changes the pitch of sound and how the frequency changes in a water-based xylophone. We used the Knowledge Integration (KI) framework to understand how PSETs reasoned through properties of sound waves. Results Our findings delineated three levels of explainers that PSET groups divided into. After the unit PSETs’ overall understanding of sound waves became more normative, particularly around ideas of frequency and wavelength. Conclusions The merging of science and technology played a crucial role in promoting meaningful learning for PSETs. Implications of using technology-enhanced units in supporting PSETs’ understanding of sound waves are discussed.

Teaching Pupils to Design Comparative Experiments with Web-Based Inquiry Unit During COVID-19 Pandemic: A Pilot Study

The COVID-19 pandemic caused many students away from the classroom. Its affecting region was so large and the inquiry learning had to move to online from offline. Although many studies had investigated the effectiveness of web-based inquiry learning, few of them conducted that under the pandemic. The pandemic took many new characters into education, such as the demand for the Internet. Hence, we conducted the pre-posttest quasi-experiment to investigate the effectiveness of online science inquiry during the pandemic. Under the instruction of teachers online, 30 fifth-grade students (19 males and 11 females) in a Chinese city completed a web-based inquiry learning program in the Web-based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE) platform. The experimental design ability test (EDAT) was conducted before and after web-based inquiry learning as the pre-test and post-test. The students’ attitude to web-based inquiry learning was also measured. The results showed, different from the studies before, the students’ score on experimental design ability decreased after web-based inquiry learning, especially in Asking Questions and Making Hypotheses subscales of EDAT significantly. No significant gender difference was detected. The students showed not a high attitude toward web-based inquiry learning. The possible factors causing that results and implications were discussed.

Elementary students’ explanation of variation of traits and teacher‘s feedback using an online embedded assessment tool

ABSTRACT Although extensive research has shown the important educational value of technology-enhanced online units on students’ science learning, few studies have looked at upper elementary students' knowledge integration in a web-based inquiry science environment (WISE). This case study investigates how upper-elementary students responded to an online prompt, in an embedded assessment tool, to construct a scientific explanation around the variation of traits in their class and how a teacher provided feedback to encourage student discourse. Our findings show that students were able to identify which traits were more common in their class; however, they struggled with making a connection between variation of traits and inheritance of traits when analyzing data from their pie chart. Additionally, we show that an upper-elementary teacher used an embedded assessment tool to scaffold the iterative process of learning and feedback that occurs in an online platform that leverages learning technologies by engaging in high-level discourse moves. We suggest that teachers’ use of embedded assessments in a technology-enhanced environment can encourage student self-reflection and support teachers in making evidence-based instructional decisions as well as provide immediate feedback along the way, which is a key support when students are not participating in traditional face-to-face classroom environments.

Mining Effective Learning Behaviors in a Web-Based Inquiry Science Environment

Analyzing learners’ learning behaviors helps teachers understand how learning behaviors of learners influence learning performance. To determine which learning behaviors influence learners’ science-based inquiry learning performance, this work develops an xAPI (Experience Application Programming Interface)-based learning record store module embedded in a Collaborative Web-based Inquiry Science Environment (CWISE) to record detailed data about students’ learning processes. This work discusses whether the significant correlation and cause-effect relationship among science inquiry competence, learning time, and learning performance exist, and examines whether remarkable shifts and differences in the learning behaviors of learners with different learning performances and inquiry competences exist by using sequential pattern mining and lag sequential analysis. The results demonstrate that inquire ability, total learning time in the designed inquiry learning course, and learning time in an inquiry buoyancy simulation experiment are positively correlated with learning performance and can predict learning performance, and the learning time in the inquiry buoyancy simulation experiment appears to be the most significant predictor. The results of lag sequential analyses indicate that learners with high learning performance and high inquiry competence re-adjust hypotheses after performing an inquiry buoyancy simulation experiment, while learners with low learning performance and low inquiry competence lack this critical inquiry learning behavior. This study presents a systematic analysis method to insight the effective learning behaviors in a web-based inquiry learning environment based on mining students’ learning processes, thus providing potential benefits in guiding learners to adjust their learning behaviors and strategies.

Fostering Middle School Students’ Knowledge Integration Using the Web-Based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE)

In this mixed-method study, we investigated whether the use of a web-based inquiry science environment (WISE) unit would improve the knowledge integration (KI) of middle school students with no formal school-based prior experience with inquiry instruction. A unit on heat and temperature that reflected KI principles and processes was designed and developed using the WISE legacy-authoring tool. A KI Instrument for heat and temperature was developed and used to evaluate students’ KI levels. The WISE logs of three students with different KI improvement levels were analyzed qualitatively to identify the more critical KI processes that could explain different levels of KI improvement. The results showed that students improved their KI levels significantly after participating in the WISE-based unit. The findings highlighted the need to provide better scaffolding and support for two of the KI instructional processes in particular: distinguishing among ideas and sorting out ideas—especially in settings where students have no formal school-based prior inquiry experience in science classes.

Fostering Fifth-Grade Students’ Ability to Design Comparative Experiments Using an Online Model

Chinese Elementary Science Curriculum Standards requires that fifth- and sixth- grade students can plan and design comparative experiments. However, students at these grades have difficulties in distinguishing and controlling variables in a specific context. This study aimed to investigate the effects of a simulation-embedded scientific inquiry unit on fifth-grade students’ ability to design comparative experiments. Thermodynamics Challenge, implemented in the Web-based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE) and translated into Chinese, engaged fifth-grade students in conducting virtual investigations with NetLogo models to test how thermal insulation effect is enhanced by different material use. A total of 86 fifth-grade students (47 boys and 39 girls) from an elementary school in Weifang City, Shandong Province participated in the research. Pre- and post-tests were used to examine changes in students’ understanding of comparative experiment design. Results showed that all students have a significant improvement in knowledge of comparative experiments from pre- to post-test, and students with low prior knowledge improved more than the other two groups. These findings indicated the feasibility of fostering fifth-graders’ comparative experiment design with simulations. Implications for science teaching are discussed.

Designing a suitable learning technology for an authentic science classroom: reflection from WISE and smart classrooms

Different emerging learning technologies provide new insights into the utility of educational applications. However, their proper integration for collaborative problem solving in authentic science classrooms remains a complex challenge for researchers and stakeholders. This paper presents an in-depth analysis of two systematic works on design learning technologies for authentic science classrooms. The first study concerns the web-based inquiry science environment (WISE) research team from the University of California Berkeley, and the second involves the smart classroom research team from the University of Toronto. Such in-depth analyses will further enhance our understanding of the role of technology in the classroom context and offer a systematic reflection on designing suitable learning technologies for authentic science classrooms.

Supporting students to become autonomous learners: the role of web-based learning

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore how web-based science curriculum materials designed to develop autonomous learners can succeed in Brunei. In this instruction, designed to prepare students to independently explore new topics, students and teachers take new roles. Students collaborate with a peer to engage in inquiry and teachers monitor progress and guide students rather than leading the class. Design/methodology/approach – The authors studied two Web-based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE) units (photosynthesis and cellular respiration) developed using the knowledge integration framework. The framework promotes autonomous learning by building on the diverse ideas that students bring to science lessons and encouraging them to distinguish among their own ideas and those they encounter when using scientific visualizations. In a study on “How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience and School”, Bransford et al. (1999) suggest that the students’ preconceptions of how the world works must be engaged, as failing to do so may hinder them from grasping new concepts and information that are taught. Two intact classes of students from two secondary schools in Brunei each studied one of the WISE units. Observations revealed that students could work in pairs to jointly engage in inquiry with encouragement from teachers. Embedded assessments and interviews were analyzed to show how students linked observable events and scientific ideas when explaining the conversion of solar energy to chemical energy in photosynthesis. Findings – Significant gains in knowledge integration show that Brunei students who collaboratively study WISE inquiry units can autonomously succeed. Specifically, students using WISE were able to construct complex ideas about photosynthesis and cellular respiration by linking observable events and scientific ideas while working autonomously with infrequent teacher monitoring. Originality/value – The paper provides invaluable insights into ways in which web-based learning supports students to become autonomous learners.

Distributed Revisiting: an Analytic for Retention of Coherent Science Learning

Designing learning experiences that support the development of coherent understanding of complex scientific phenomena is challenging. We sought to identify analytics that can guide such designs to also support retention of coherent understanding. Based on prior research that distributing study of material over time supports retention, we explored revisiting previously studied material as an analytic. We tested ways to operationalize revisiting: as a general propensity to revisit previously studied material; as a propensity to revisit specific curricular steps; as a general propensity to distribute study by revisiting previously studied material on different days; and as a propensity to distribute study by revisiting specific steps on different days. The specific steps identified as central to the learning design included a static illustration and a dynamic visualization. We modeled revisiting in a sample of 664 students taught by 7 different teachers using a Web-based Inquiry Science Environment unit. Analysis of log files and regression modeling revealed that a general propensity to revisit did not predict retention. Revisiting the dynamic visualization better supported retention than revisiting static material, but only for distributed revisiting. Our findings suggest that revisiting can be a useful analytic when aligned to the framework guiding learning design.

Sixth-Grade Students’ Progress in Understanding the Mechanisms of Global Climate Change

Developing solutions for complex issues such as global climate change requires an understanding of the mechanisms involved. This study reports on the impact of a technology-enhanced unit designed to improve understanding of global climate change, its mechanisms, and their relationship to everyday energy use. Global Climate Change, implemented in the Web-based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE), engages sixth-grade students in conducting virtual investigations using NetLogo models to foster an understanding of core mechanisms including the greenhouse effect. Students then test how the greenhouse effect is enhanced by everyday energy use. This study draws on three data sources: (1) pre- and post-unit interviews, (2) analysis of embedded assessments following virtual investigations, and (3) contrasting cases of two students (normative vs. non-normative understanding of the greenhouse effect). Results show the value of using virtual investigations for teaching the mechanisms associated with global climate change. Interviews document that students hold a wide range of ideas about the mechanisms driving global climate change. Investigations with models help students use evidence-based reasoning to distinguish their ideas. Results show that understanding the greenhouse effect offers a foundation for building connections between everyday energy use and increases in global temperature. An impediment to establishing coherent understanding was the persistence of an alternative conception about ozone as an explanation for climate change. These findings illustrate the need for regular revision of curriculum based on classroom trials. We discuss key design features of models and instructional revisions that can transform the teaching and learning of global climate change.

Scaffolding learning from molecular visualizations

AbstractPowerful online visualizations can make unobservable scientific phenomena visible and improve student understanding. Instead, they often confuse or mislead students. To clarify the impact of molecular visualizations for middle school students we explored three design variations implemented in a Web‐based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE) unit on thermodynamics: Observation, Research Guidance, or Critique. We tested these variations in an inquiry unit designed following the knowledge integration framework to promote coherent understanding. Seven middle school classes (205 students) and their two teachers participated in the study. Students studying each version of the unit made significant gains on knowledge integration items designed to measure coherent understanding of thermodynamics. Compared to Research Guidance, the Critique condition was more successful, especially in helping students conduct consequential experiments. Embedded assessments revealed that students who critiqued a confounded experiment were more successful in conducting valid experiments than students who did not critique. In addition, the combination of critique and virtual experimentation increased student ability to connect molecular and observable phenomena. These results suggest design guidelines to help future designers. Specifically, preceding experimentation with critique activities helps students distinguish among existing and new ideas. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 50: 858–886, 2013

Knowledge Integration and Wise Engineering

Recent efforts in engineering education focus on introducing engineering into secondary math and science courses to improve science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education (NAS, 2010). Infusing engineering into secondary classrooms can increase awareness of and interest in STEM careers, help students see the relevance of science and math in their everyday lives, and increase STEM literacy. This paper describes how the knowledge integration framework provides research-based guidelines to help secondary students develop and connect science and engineering concepts. Results from technology enhanced curriculum units demonstrate how instruction based on knowledge integration principles and patterns using the Web based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE) can infuse engineering into existing secondary science classrooms. This paper explores how the knowledge integration framework can guide curriculum development and assessment of engineering concepts and habits of mind.

WISE science: Web-based inquiry in the classroom

This book shares the lessons learned by a large community of educational researchers and science teachers as they designed, developed, and investigated a new technology-enhanced learning environment known as WISE: The Web-based Inquiry Science Environment. WISE offers a collection of free, customizable curriculum projects on topics central to the science standards as well as guidance for teachers on how these Internet-based projects can be used to improve learning and instruction in their science classrooms (grades 6-12). Hundreds of teachers and over 100,000 students have learned from WISE projects taught in English, Norwegian, Dutch, German, Hebrew, Chinese, and Korean. Highlights of WISE include:* A wealth of findings about the WISE curriculum and assessments from 10 years of research funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation.* A collection of classroom-tested, inquiry-based curriculum projects that are available to every classroom via the Internet, free of charge.* An accumulation of successful practices, patterns, and principles to guide classroom teachers and curriculum designers.* Effective models of professional development and school partnerships that support teachers in integrating inquiry-based methods in their own curriculum.* Key strategies and recommendations for policymakers.

Partnerships in the Web-based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE)

Partnerships in the Web-based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE)

Moving Technology to the Center of Instruction: How One Experienced Teacher Incorporates a Web-based Environment Over Time

The paper reports on a 3-year study of an experienced fifth grade teacher learning to integrate a Web-based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE) into his core science instruction. Data from this study included videotapes and transcripts of classroom instruction, and audiotapes and transcripts of professional development meetings and interviews conducted with the teacher as he was implementing the curriculum. The results suggest that the teacher’s classroom practices shifted meaningfully over time, thus moving WISE from the peripheral to the center of his science class instruction. There was an increased integrated use of the technology by this teacher during the WISE enactments in years two and three. The teacher also engaged his students in significantly more science dialogues during the WISE online investigations. Further findings suggest that this shift in pedagogy can be attributed to repeated opportunities for the instructor to teach an inquiry-based curriculum, as well as reflecting on his teaching experiences.

Learning to Teach Inquiry Science in a Technology-Based Environment: A Case Study

This paper reports on a 2-year study designed to investigate the trajectory of change in an urban 5th grade teacher as she introduces science inquiry using the Web-Based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE). Data for this study included videotapes and transcripts of classroom instruction, and audiotapes and transcripts of interviews conducted with the teacher as she was implementing the curriculum. We also conducted retrospective interviews that enabled us to validate our account of the observational-based changes in the teacher's practices. The results suggest that the teacher's classroom practices shifted over time, from a greater focus on logistics to more of an inquiry orientation. The results further suggest that this shift can be attributed to repeated opportunities to teach a WISE curricular unit. They also show that support from the curriculum and other professionals, allowed the teacher to reflect on how her practices support students' learning.

WISE design for knowledge integration

AbstractScaling research‐based curriculum to the multitude of science teaching standards and contexts has proven difficult in the past. To respond to the challenge, the Web‐based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE) offers designers a technology‐enhanced, research‐based, flexibly adaptive learning environment. The learning environment can incorporate new features such as modeling tools or hand‐held devices. Using WISE, design teams can create projects that bend but do not break when customized to support new school contexts and state standards. WISE curriculum projects are created by diverse design teams that include classroom teachers, technologists, discipline experts, pedagogy researchers, and curriculum designers. WISE inquiry projects incorporate Internet materials and build on the commitments and talents of teachers as well as the constraints and opportunities of their classroom contexts rather than imposing new practices without concern for past successes. These design teams create projects that incorporate diverse features of the WISE learning environment to form specific patterns that are then combined into whole projects. We refer to the whole projects as implementing curriculum design patterns for student activities. The projects are tested to determine how the curriculum design patterns promote knowledge integration, then reviewed by WISE researchers and revised accordingly (see M. C. Linn, P. Bell, & E. A. Davis, in press, Internet Environments for Science Education). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.). The most successful projects become part of the WISE library. This paper describes WISE design team practices, features of the WISE learning environment, and patterns of feature use in current library projects. The success of WISE in classrooms illustrates how flexibly adaptive projects can meet the needs of diverse teachers. Variation amongst library projects shows that designers can support inquiry with a wide variety of activities. Taken together, the library of projects and the success of students learning from them suggest that sustainable curricular innovations require extensive opportunities for customization and flexibly adaptive designs. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed 87:517–538, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/sce.10086