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BioKIDS Project: High-Impact Research Design

Explore the BioKIDS project focusing on high-poverty urban students in Detroit, enhancing science inquiry skills through digital resources, assessment systems, and complex reasoning development. Conducting comprehensive research on student performance, assessment systems, and scaling intervention impacts.

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BioKIDS Project: High-Impact Research Design

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  1. High-Impact Research Design: Examples from the BioKIDS Project Nancy Butler Songer The University of Michigan www.biokids.umich.edu

  2. Focus on High-Poverty Urban Students • ~30,000 Detroit Public School middle school students • 70% free/reduced lunch • 95% African American, Hispanic, Mixed Race • Class sizes often over 30 • ~ No substitutes, outside recess • Extreme pressure to perform well on high-stakes tests • Virtually no experience with digital resources or data

  3. BioKIDS: Kids’ Inquiry of Diverse Species • Numerous, sequential replacement units in middle school science • Activities scaffold learning of science concepts and complex reasoning in concert • Learning technologies created; from digital resource to cognitive tool • Own data as basis for inquiry reasoning (building explanations, analyzing data)

  4. From Digital Resource to Cognitive Tool using CyberTracker

  5. Research Foci • Development of assessment systems to systematically evaluate simple and complex reasoning in science • Urban students’ development of complex reasoning throughout multiple, coordinated science units • Scaling focusing on high-impact of intervention

  6. Research Foci • Development of assessment systems to systematically evaluate simple and complex reasoning in science (with PADI IERI) • Urban students’ development of complex reasoning throughout multiple, coordinated science units (BioKIDS IERI) • Scaling focusing on high-impact of intervention

  7. Treatment • 6th grade: Three eight-week, inquiry-fostering science units using customized learning technologies • Biodiversity and Ecology • Weather • Simple Machines • 7th grade: Up to four additional eight-week units • 8th grade • One fall unit • Michigan Standardized Test in Science (MEAP) • ___________________________________________ • = 3-8 coordinated inquiry units in 6, 7, 8th grades

  8. Quasi-Experimental Design • Pool of 25 teachers all given professional development support (~5000 students) • Assignment to treatment groups determined by extent of intervention activities implemented • Minimal Treatment (MT) • 595 students in 6 classrooms • Performed 0-30% activities in one academic year • High Impact Treatment (HT) • 1329 students in 15 classrooms • Performed 90-100% activities in one academic year

  9. Development of Assessment System: Content-Inquiry Matrix complexity of science content required to perform task amount of inquiry scaffold provided

  10. Look for student gains at simple, moderate and complex levels complexity of science content required to perform task amount of inquiry scaffold provided

  11. If all the small fish in the pond ecosystem died one year from a disease that killed only the small fish, what would happen to the algae in the pond? Explain why you think so.

  12. Student Performance on Inquiry Reasoning: Pre and Posttest (Biodiversity)

  13. Student Performance on Inquiry Reasoning By Complexity Type

  14. Passing Percentages by State, District, and Treatment Schools On State Science Test, Eighth Grade (MEAP) (Numbers in parentheses indicate standard error)

  15. Research Foci • Development of assessment systems to systematically evaluate simple and complex reasoning in science (with PADI) • Urban students’ development of complex reasoning throughout multiple, coordinated science units • Scaling focusing on high-impact of intervention

  16. What is being “brought to scale”? • Numerous consecutive eight-week middle school science units • Coordination towards fostering complex reasoning • Emerging technologies for complex reasoning • Ongoing professional development

  17. Three Scaling Research Foci • 1: Focus on Numbers • 2: Focus on Complexities of Intervention • 3: Focus on Persistence Within Individuals

  18. Current IERI project

  19. Scaling Focusing on Persistence • Persistence = sustained impact of intervention with individuals • Persistence works with science inquiry (e.g. developing complex reasoning skills takes time, multiple experiences)

  20. Conclusions • IERI presents a profound research challenge • Realize strong empirical outcomes and clear evidence to evaluate effectiveness of reform programs • Within challenging school contexts • While also considering scaling /impact tradeoffs • However, we know a fair amount about how people learn; now is the time to develop strengthen the pool of empirical data to further examine and challenge our learning theory-based understanding in real classroom settings

  21. For more information: www.biokids.umich.edu

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