TY - JOUR
T1 - "Doing science" in elementary school
T2 - Using digital technology to foster the development of elementary students' understandings of scientific inquiry
AU - Schellinger, Jennifer
AU - Mendenhall, Anne
AU - Alemanne, Nicole D.
AU - Southerland, Sherry A.
AU - Sampson, Victor
AU - Douglas, Ian
AU - Kazmer, Michelle M.
AU - Marty, Paul F.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Authors.
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - National efforts have described the need for students to develop scientific proficiency and have identified informal learning environments, interactive technologies, and an understanding of inquiry as ways to support this development. The Habitat Tracker project was developed in response to this need by developing a digitally-supported, inquiry-oriented curriculum focused on engaging elementary students in science practices in formal and informal settings. This study employed a mixed methods approach to explore how engagement in the project affected 125 fourth and fifth grade elementary students' views of scientific inquiry and if certain aspects of scientific inquiry were shaped by student participation. The Views of Scientific Inquiry - Elementary School Version (VOSI-E), was administered before and after students had engaged with a three week Habitat Tracker curriculum and assessed aspects including the role of questions, diversity of methods, experiments and investigations, developing scientific explanations, supporting scientific explanations, predictions and hypotheses, role of subjectivity, role of creativity, and goal of science. VOSI-E responses were analyzed using a mixed methods approach. Chi-squared test results suggest that classroom learning coupled with visits to a wildlife center can help improve student understanding of scientific inquiry when integrated with technology-enhanced, field-based inquiries that emphasize the practices of science.
AB - National efforts have described the need for students to develop scientific proficiency and have identified informal learning environments, interactive technologies, and an understanding of inquiry as ways to support this development. The Habitat Tracker project was developed in response to this need by developing a digitally-supported, inquiry-oriented curriculum focused on engaging elementary students in science practices in formal and informal settings. This study employed a mixed methods approach to explore how engagement in the project affected 125 fourth and fifth grade elementary students' views of scientific inquiry and if certain aspects of scientific inquiry were shaped by student participation. The Views of Scientific Inquiry - Elementary School Version (VOSI-E), was administered before and after students had engaged with a three week Habitat Tracker curriculum and assessed aspects including the role of questions, diversity of methods, experiments and investigations, developing scientific explanations, supporting scientific explanations, predictions and hypotheses, role of subjectivity, role of creativity, and goal of science. VOSI-E responses were analyzed using a mixed methods approach. Chi-squared test results suggest that classroom learning coupled with visits to a wildlife center can help improve student understanding of scientific inquiry when integrated with technology-enhanced, field-based inquiries that emphasize the practices of science.
KW - Digital technology
KW - Elementary students
KW - Informal science education
KW - Practices of science
KW - Scientific inquiry
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UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85029811824&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.12973/eurasia.2017.00955a
DO - 10.12973/eurasia.2017.00955a
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85029811824
SN - 1305-8215
VL - 13
SP - 4635
EP - 4649
JO - Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education
JF - Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education
IS - 8
ER -