| Project | Belvedere and Control of Variables Projects |
| Contact | Eva Erdosne Toth |
| etoth+@andrew.cmu.edu, etoth+@pitt.edu | |
| URL | http://lilt.ics.hawaii.edu/belvedere/ |
| Project description | My interest in the use of various data representations during scientific inquiry stems from research conducted in three different research projects. Studying student's use of scientific data visualizations during my work with the EarthVision project (http://www.earthvision.svsu.edu) I found that high school students were able to use visualizations to conduct sustained reasoning during scientific inquiry, however some of the student teams were not able to effectively reflect on their investigative goals, the variables used in their models and did not use data visualizations effectively to answer their research questions. My observations suggest that reflective practices about the goals and methods of investigations may make the use of computational models and data visualizations during scientific inquiry more effective. My current research focuses on the role of such reflective software tools in learning to conduct scientific inquiry. Under the Advanced Cognitive Tools for Learning project at the Learning Research and Development Center of the University of Pittsburgh (http://advlearn.lrdc.pitt.edu) my colleagues and I study effects of the Belvedere instructional framework with special attention to the role of representations during collaborative scientific inquiry. The Belvedere framework includes 1. ) challenge activities for problem based learning, 2. ) a reflective assessment methodology based on the use of inquiry rubrics throughout the research cycle and 3.) the Belvedere software tool for evidence mapping. See more information on this project in Dr. Daniel Suthers’ posting.Another line of my current research is associated with the Control of Variables Project funded by the James McDonnell foundation at the Department of Psychology of Carnegie Mellon University. Under the direction of Dr. David Klahr this research team studies how students learn valid experimentation skills. The challenge for this project now is to build on a set of laboratory results and find various teaching and learning strategies that will be effective in science classrooms. My research interest in this project is to find visual, textual and graphical data representation techniques as well as interactive computer simulations and models that help students deal with both systematic and random errors during experimentation. |
| Theoretical background | The Belvedere curriculum materials are based on the Project Based Learning theory and are designed to meet criteria set by national standard movements. Our assessment tools and methodology are based on criteria set forth by the New Standards: Performance standards projects and by the reflective assessment practices for inquiry based classrooms developed by White an Fredricson. My overall research methodology is built on the work of Klahr et al. conceptualizing scientific inquiry as problem solving via dual space search in the space of hypotheses and the space of experiments. |
| Challenges | Finding methodologies and effective strategies for the improvement of scientific inquiry learning and teaching using models, representations and scientific data visualizations.What methodologies are effective for professional development of teachers for the use of these technology tools in teaching?What applications of reflective assessment are effective for the infusion of the results of laboratory studies in classroom situations? |
| Partnership | I look for collaboration with developers of modeling and visualization software tools who are interested in finding testbeds and teacher educators to develop effective pedagogies for classroom application of these technologies.I am also interested in partnering with researchers who are looking for collaborative research with developers of reflective assessment methodologies and applications of these with the use of graphical and visual data representation tools. |