Lessons learned from integrating experimental technologies into education

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Lessons learned from integrating experimental
technologies into education

• National Virtual Observatory Outreach Workshop
• Space Telescope Science Institute
• Baltimore, MD
• 11 July 2002
• Umesh Thakkar
• National Center for Supercomputing Applications
• Graduate School of Library and Information
  Science
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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Background

• National Virtual Observatory impact
• It will democratize astronomical research the
  same data and tools will be available to students
  and researchers, irrespective of geographical
  location or institutional affiliation
  (http//www.us-vo.org/).
• It can also be used to teach computational
  science (Szalay Gray, 2001, p. 2039).
• NVO education and outreach complementary strands
• Formal education (e.g., K-16)
• Informal education (e.g., museums)
• Online outreach (e.g., learner-centered interface
  to the NVO)
• News media (e.g., Sciences NetWatch)
• Review of two examples about integrating
  technologies into education

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Example 1Inquiry-based bioinformatics learning
environment

• Outline
• Biology Workbench, a bioinformatics tool
• Overview of Biology Student Workbench
• Lessons learned

Bioinformatics in high school biology classroom
via the Graduate Teaching Fellows in K-12
Education Program
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Biology Workbench(http//workbench.sdsc.edu)

• Biology is becoming an information-driven
  science. The application of information
  technology to molecular biology is evolving into
  a new discipline, bioinformatics.
• Problem Huge biological databases
• and analysis tools with different formats.
• Solution Biology Workbench, a bioinformatics
  tool.

Workbench architecture
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The National Science Foundation workshop report
on information technology

• The report recommends that educational
  experiences of students include curriculum
  integration of learning tools that are
  "open-ended, inquiry-based, group/teamwork-oriente
  d, and relevant to professional career
  requirements" (NSF, 1998, p. 33).
• One way to accomplish this is to provide students
  access to the same information technology tools
  that scientists have but with addressing the
  needs, interests, and skills of the students.
• Tools such as the Biology Workbench are changing
  how biologists do their work.
• Students experiences in classrooms should
  reflect what biologists do.

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Biology Student Workbench(http//peptide.ncsa.uiu
c.edu)

• Problem Difficulty in using the Biology
  Workbench.
• Solution Biology Student Workbench, a
  collection of tutorials and inquiry-based
  materials, which help students and teachers to
  conduct meaningful investigations in molecular
  biology.
• Collaborators include teachers, teacher
  educators, curriculum designers, biologists,
  bioinformatics specialists, education
  researchers, and librarians. 

Whale study by high school biology students
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Sickle Cell Anemia Understanding the molecular
biology (http//peptide.ncsa.uiuc.edu/tutorials)

• Sickle Cell Anemia (SCA) is an inherited blood
  disorder. It affects about 72,000 Americans.
• The SCA tutorial looks at the mutation in
  hemoglobin that causes this disease. The tutorial
  utilizes the Biology Workbench as well as the
  Protein Explorer (http//proteinexplorer.org).
• Provide students with opportunities to learn how
  to search databases for DNA and protein sequences
  and then how to align and manipulate these
  sequences.
• Gain a deeper understanding about the molecular
  biology of SCA, an extremely common and painful
  disease.
• For more information, please visit National
  Center for Biotechnology Information
  (http//www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/disease/sickle.html).
  

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Constructing meaning from information
Gene
Structure
Understanding
Relationship
Evolution
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The Inquiry Page Learning begins with questions
(http//www.inquiry.uiuc.edu)

• The Inquiry Page performs two roles
• It helps to build a community of inquiry focusing
  on bioinformatics.
• It helps to foster the creation and adaptation of
  inquiry units by any learner in the community.
• Project units include
• How are different organisms related?
• How do I use the Biology Workbench?
• Using the spin-off feature, each unit can be
  adapted to individual needs.

Inquiry cycle
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Lessons learned

• Understanding that there are different ways to
  integrate bioinformatics into K-12 and
  undergraduate curriculum.
• Organizing regular interactions between
  pre-service and in-service teachers.
• Facilitating customization and adoption of the
  project materials.
• Developing the student interface to the Biology
  Workbench.

Starting from paper-and-pencil exercises to
web-based computing.
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Example 2Applications of remote scientific
instrumentation in education

• Outline
• Background on remote scientific instrumentation
• Review of remote scientific instrumentation
  projects
• Some challenges of inquiry-based learning and
  teaching

A Nashville second-grader examines the image of
an ant on her computer screen (http//www.tenness
ean.com, April 18, 2001)
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Background

• What, if expensive, but important scientific
  instruments such as Hubble Telescope, electron
  microscopes, or even remote sensing satellites
  were on the network, and students could queue up
  requests for their use? This is not a farfetched
  scenario. (Soloway, 1994, p. 16)
• Using a web browser, students, teachers, and
  teacher educators at any location and at any time
  have the potential to access the latest
  scientific instruments without having to travel
  to a remote site or invest in the hardware
  themselves. Thus, the web becomes a world wide
  laboratory.

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Why remote scientific instrumentation?

• Remote scientific instrumentation is becoming
  part of the daily practice in science.
• Students, teachers, and teacher educators may
  need to learn about this technology for doing
  science, and that it is likely to be more
  commonplace and less costly in future (e.g.,
  e-mail, which is now part of everyday activity in
  many schools).

Mars Pathfinders land rover, Sojourner (http//mp
fwww.jpl.nasa.gov/MPF/, July 31, 1997)
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Stardial(http//www.astro.uiuc.edu/stardial)

• Problem Provide real-time images of the night
  sky to students to access and study.
• Solution Stardial, an autonomous astronomical
  camera, to provide students with authentic data
  complete with irregularities and surprises.
  Stardial data can be used for many purposes, such
  as discovering comets and asteroids.

Asteroid (3) Juno identified by a student
(http//www.astro.uiuc.edu/stardial/mpeg/aster3.mp
eg, September 1996)
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Chickscope(http//chickscope.beckman.uiuc.edu)

• Problem Demonstrate remote access to the
  magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) instrument for
  research and education.
• Solution Chickscope allowed students and
  teachers in ten classrooms from kindergarten to
  high school, including an after-school science
  club and a home school, to study 21-day chicken
  embryo development using a remotely-controlled
  MRI instrument.
• Students and teachers (pre- and in-service)
  learned much about how to collect and analyze
  data, how to ask questions, and how to
  communicate their findings with others.

Seventh-grade students learning about acquiring
MR images from their classroom
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Illinois Chickscope(http//inquiry.uiuc.edu/partn
ers/chickscope/chickscope.php3)

• Problem How to scale a (successful) project?
• Solution Illinois Chickscope (ILCS), a
  professional development program for teachers
  interested in integrating Chickscope into their
  curriculum.
• ILCS built a community of teacherspre- and
  in-service linked that community with scientists
  in a variety of disciplines promoted an
  integrated understanding in science and
  mathematics and experienced new ways of using
  the Internet.

A pre-service teacher demonstrating egg candling
to a student
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Bugscope(http//bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu)

• Problem How to scale and sustain a remote
  scientific instrumentation project?
• Solution Bugscope, an outreach project that
  allows students, teachers, and teacher educators
  to study insects and other arthropods through
  remote access and control of an environmental
  scanning electron microscope from classrooms
  nationwide.
• No cost for classrooms to participate
• Instrument resources 2-4 hours/week
• Frequency once per week (over 75 classroom
  sessions from over 25 US states)

Inquiry-in-Action
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Remote access and control software
Image Observer
Scope Controller
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Middle school classroom scenario

• A 7th and 8th grade classroom in a public school
  in an urban community (Texas City, TX)
• Proposal We are researching the effects of
  ground level ozone in our area. My students have
  noticed a decrease in Monarch Butterflies and we
  feel that it may be as a result of the
  photochemical smog. I would like to raise the
  butterflies and go through the metamorphosis with
  them and with the plant they need to survive.
• Comments The images sparked many
  conversations over the parts of the butterfly and
  how they did not know the butterfly looked like
  this. We were especially surprised to see pollen
  on our butterfly.

Bacteria on the Monarch Butterfly leg, 10240x
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Teacher education classroom scenario

• A secondary and elementary science methods course
  at a university (Milwaukee, WI)
• Proposal I am interested in modeling the use of
  technology to these future educators. I also
  feel that having some control over the process of
  inquiry and discovery when using the Internet is
  extremely valuable for young students to
  construct their own knowledge.
• Comments Students took turns viewing another
  spider I had here under a regular magnifying lens
  as well as a dissecting microscope to compare
  their conceptions of what they saw under ESEM.

Dirt and other foreign material on the spiders
leg, 640x
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Bugscope and education outreach

• Students and teachers have the opportunity to
  mail in specimens of insects and other
  arthropods, and then study the high
  magnifications images of these specimens on the
  microscope.
• Like scientists, they have to propose a project
  to request the use of an expensive scientific
  instrument.
• Like scientists, they are responsible for
  planning an experiment and then making efficient
  and good use of the time that they are allocated
  on the instrument to carry out their own
  investigations.
• Like scientists, they have an infrastructure of
  people and technology to assist them.
• Bugscope motivates an interest in the scientific
  research enterprise among students and teachers.

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Some challenges of inquiry-based learning and
teaching

• Recent reports concur that inquiry-based projects
  successfully facilitate learning (e.g., National
  Research Council, 2000).
• However getting teachers interested and familiar
  with inquiry and providing support for them, is
  challenging. For instance,
• How do we get students to engage in inquiry?
• How do we ensure that all students are involved
  in inquiry activities?
• How do teachers link to other teachers and
  student teachers to facilitate inquiry learning
  and teaching?
• What are roles for scientists in supporting
  inquiry in classrooms?
• How can teachers study their own inquiry practice
  and share what they learn with others?

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Summary

• Some suggestions for creating a sustainable and
  scalable NVO infrastructure for outreach and
  education
• Support for creating and sustaining a community
  of inquiry focusing on NVO
• Support for customization and adoption of NVO
  materials
• Opportunity for professional development
  workshops for K-12 teachers (pre-service and
  in-service) and college faculty and their
  undergraduate and graduate students
• Opportunities for astronomers to actively
  collaborate with students and teachers (e.g.,
  Graduate Teaching Fellows in K-12 Education
  Program, http//www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Divisions/eot/gk
  12)

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Contact information

• Thank you for your time.
• Please contact me for questions or comments
• Umesh Thakkar
• 217-333-2095
• uthakkar_at_ncsa.uiuc.edu