Supporting Teacher Development in Enacting the RiverWeb Water Quality Simulator

1. May 22nd, 2001 mvhs1.mbhs.edu/riverweb/explorer/index.html Supporting Teacher Development in Enacting the RiverWeb Water Quality Simulator • Mary Ellen Verona, MVHS • mverona@mvhs1.mbhs.edu • David Curtis, NCSA/UIUC • dcurtis@ncsa.uiuc.edu • and • Donald Shaffer, North East HS

2. Acknowledgements • Funding from National Science Foundation • Assistance from Roger Azevedo, UMCP • With thanks for additional support and contributions from • Lisa Bievenue, NCSA; Susan Ragan, MVHS • UMCP graduate and undergraduate students • Maryland science teachers

3. Overview • Introducing the RiverWeb Water Quality Simulator • Project Team and Milestones • Core Functionality and Pedagogic Framework • Professional Development Perspective • Research Questions and Methods • Findings • Future Directions

4. Introducing the RiverWeb WQS • The WQS is a collaborative design experiment for prototyping MVHS’s W ebSims • Web learning environment integrating modeling and visualization with digital teaching/learning resources linked to standards. • The WQS represents in simulation the effects of land use on water quality in an archetypal watershed or ”digital river basin” • sustained student inquiry • addresses core concepts such as interdependence of ecological systems. • The WQS represents a component of the RiverWebSM Program aimed at formal and informal learning. • WQS is an NSF-funded EOT-PACI* project initiated through collaboration with National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). * Education, Outreach and Training Component, Partnerships for Advanced Computational Infrastructure Program (NCSA, SDSC)

5. A Sneak Preview

6. Foundations • Setting a Research and Planning Agenda for Computer Modeling in the Pre-College Curriculum(Final Report: NSF RED-9255877): • Models help "abstract from reality key features that enable us to gain insight into the fundamental processes underlying external complexity.” • "[c]omputational modeling ideas and activities should have a key and central role throughout the science curriculum - not peripherally, and not only as part of a special or optional course." • Developing effective learning software requires understanding as fully as possible the user context, with ongoing, iterative design input from the users • This study focuses on needs of teachers as essential players within that context • Complements student-focused field studies (Azevedo, etc.)

7. WQS Project Team Consistent with a Persistent Collaborative Methodology (PCM) for Applied AIED -- Conlon & Pain, 1996 Piloting Partnership Maryland Teachers UMCP Azevedo MVHS Verona, Ragan NCSA Curtis REU students NCSA/Alliance Development

8. WQS Piloting Milestones • Computer modeling of system relationships between land use and water quality within an "archetypal" river basin • Implementation of a web-based simulator based on resulting models within a client/server framework • Web interface to the simulator enabling learners to select sub- watersheds corresponding to a distinct land uses, choose indicators, and view model output in the form of graphs. • An interactive tour that introduces learners to key operations as well as the basic science behind the simulator. • A digital notebook for student observations, explanations, and hypotheses structured by teachers to scaffold, and assess student investigations.

9. Core Functionality - Map Page Select sub-watershed

10. Link to BMP, scatter plot, help Graph Pages Time Series

11. Digital Notebook

12. Students’ Corner Information about indicators, pollution, land uses, BMPs, glossary Teachers’ Corner Login, notebook, message board, Lesson plans, pedagogic framework Annotated links to maps, data, web sites about watersheds, hydrology, nutrients, chemistry, pollutants, indicators, BMPs, and a lot more Resources

13. Pedagogic Framework • Jigsaw cooperative learning model • Stakeholder driven scenario • Interactive tour • Scaffolds initial goal setting and supports basic skill acquisition • Evidence gathering • Support/refute initial hypotheses (digital notebook) • Concept maps • Refine at key stages of Jigsaw • Manual now, in software later? • Student artifacts • Performance assessments embedded in the learning process

14. Professional Development • Categories of teacher knowledge (Shulman, 1987) • Content knowledge • Pedagogical knowledge • Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) -- critical to everyday classroom practice • Guidelines for embedding PCK in curriculum materials (Schneider et al, 2000) • Here we characterize data gathered during WQS teacher workshops in terms of... • Software functionality • effectiveness to support inquiry • Pedagogic framework -- Jigsaw • Artifacts • PCK support for teachers’ scaffolding

15. Research Questions • To what extent does RiverWeb WQS and its components support science learning? • How does the WQS framework enable the teacher to enact standards based inquiry? • How does the proposed pedagogy foster collaborative learning in practice? • How helpful is the built-in scaffolding? What additional teacher support is required? • How may such support be characterized in terms of content, pedagogy, and PCK?

16. Methods • Participants: Seven secondary teachers • 5 to 25 years teaching experience • 5 high school science teachers; 1 middle school science teacher; 1 high school computer science teacher • Procedures • Workshops structured around Jigsaw • Explorations by pairs of teachers • Moderated discussions at different steps • In depth teacher interviews • Individual questionnaires • Data Sources • Transcripts from videotapes and audio tapes • Questionnaire responses

17. Findings: Functionality • Favorable Impressions • Ease of navigation • Utility of day/range zoom in tool • Ability to compare before/after BMP • Ability to manipulate numerical data • Managing multiple windows • Tracking, adding, saving notebook questions were challenging for some participants • Requests for additional features • Biological indicators • Change land use (sub-watershed) area and see impacts on indicators

18. Findings: Standards and Context for Inquiry • WQS activities help students meet state and national science learning standards • WQS learning framework provides a rich context for sustained inquiry • WQS’ s real world problem-solving scenario supports development of driving questions to motivate and structure subsequent activities

19. Findings: Cooperative Learning • Experience • Two teachers did not use Jigsaw type strategies • Four teachers used a variety of cooperative strategies • One teacher used cooperative strategies only with elective classes • Attitudes • Problems with students coasting or dominating • Compatible with performance assessment of WQS student artifacts • Time needed conflicts with prescribed curriculum

20. Findings: Artifacts and Scaffolding • Artifacts • Concept maps (and questions) help students focus and articulate relationships • But teachers need ongoing PCK support • Scaffolding • Importance of students making connections between what they discover through the WQS and wet labs, real world observations, etc. • Teachers prefer online help that enables them to scaffold student learning themselves • Control student access to external resources • Access PCK in digestible chunks, when needed

21. Future Directions • Development of resources to support teachers • Content knowledge: mediating causes, flow dynamics • Pedagogic knowledge: implementing Jigsaw strategy • PCK: guiding students in building concept maps • Integration within collaborative materials development environment (CMDE) will • Engage numerous geographically dispersed teachers in design and development of WebSims • Promote collaborative development and sharing of PCK resources and learning & teaching strategies