Volume 7, No. 2, Fall 2003

Perspective

Technology to the Rescue

Robert Tinker

Nationwide, student achievement in technical fields — mathematics, science, and technology — is unacceptably low, highly inequitable, and headed downward. Scores of students in the class of 2003 on the ACT test provide the latest indications of the problem. Only a quarter of students taking the test reach a level that predicts a satisfactory grade in college science, and this figure is down from previous years. The scores for under-represented minorities are unacceptable, with only one in twenty African-Americans reaching this level. Only college-bound students take these tests, so national averages are certain to paint a more depressing picture.

Educational technologies are part of the solution

Although technologies are increasingly available in schools, mathematics, science, and technical (MST) educators make insufficient use of technology, one of one of the few new resources at their disposal. Information and computer technologies (ICT) should be an integral part of MST teaching. Better use of ICT is urgently needed because technology can be used to greatly improve learning and it is an essential part of modern science. ICT is called for in teaching standards and numerous reports from government, business, universities, and academics.

Not all uses of ICT are equally important for improving MST learning. Multimedia, drill and practice, Internet searches, and student-generated reports are increasingly commonplace and do have some role in teaching and learning, but these applications skirt the periphery of education. The core of math and science is about investigating, exploring, asking questions, analyzing, and thinking — activities that ICT is uniquely able to facilitate and deepen. ICT can enhance this kind of learning through student investigations of real events with probes, investigations of highly interactive models, electronic communications about investigations, and assessments embedded in learning activities.

Achieving current MST goals

Information and computer technologies can help more students achieve and surpass the current goals of MST learning. To do this, we make extensive use of substitution units that can be used in place of other instructional materials and require about the same amount of classroom time. Teachers can, for example, substitute a unit on phase change based on exploring the Molecular Workbench for a comparable unit taught using traditional approaches. (See �A Tale of Two Revolutions� on page 1.)

Most of the really hard concepts in introductory science can be addressed with substitution units and there is strong evidence that doing so will increase student learning. Our research already has promising data for substitution units for kinematics and dynamics, genetics, physical science, and plate tectonics.

Policy makers rightly require more rigorous data, however. For example, a dean or district superintendent needs to know whether these materials are reliably better than other approaches, whether they will be effective in colleges or schools like their own, using technology and professional development that they can afford. They also need data on a complete range of content, because their decisions might involve technology purchases for an entire course, not for just a unit on one topic. The Education Accelerator that we recently launched is designed to provide applied research data that can answer these policy questions. (See “The Education Accelerator Becomes a Reality” on page 11.)

Transforming MST education

But we need to do more than simply get more students up to the present standards for MST education. The most exciting capacity of ICT goes beyond simply finding better ways to meet current educational goals. Technology can fundamentally change what is taught in introductory science. For instance, linking genetics and bio-molecular models might permit a treatment that connects classical to modern genetics in middle school. Similarly, molecular modeling might give beginning students deep intuition for atomic explanations of the states of matter. New tools and models could allow nanotechnology to become a topic in introductory physical science, or genomics to be taught early in biology, or calculus concepts to be taught in physics. These advances would not be just for advanced students, because this kind of learning depends on explorations of the real world and models that any student can undertake. Unlike most MST teaching, these explorations avoid mathematical formalism, a barrier to most students.

This kind of curriculum change is difficult to justify to decision-makers, and extensive data will be required to convince skeptics of the value of making such changes. Any school willing to experiment with these approaches would need to find the courage to go well beyond the current standards. Careful research, of the kind planned by the Education Accelerator, will be needed to document the value of all the changes needed.

Ultimately, the kind of accelerated learning that we expect to document will give rise to a fundamental re-evaluation of the science education standards. Our long-term goal is to generate sufficient data to demonstrate that the science standards could profitably address a few core concepts more thoroughly, downplay the thicket of minor concepts that follow from a deep understanding of the core ideas, be more focused on cause-and-effect relationships, and include far more modern, interdisciplinary content.

As a nation, we are not protecting our technological lead by producing a technically literate population, nor are we training adequate numbers of MST leaders. We are squandering the contributions that could be made by large segments of our population, including women and under-represented minorities. The new capacities for learning that ICT creates could address these challenges by fundamentally changing what is taught and how learning takes place.

Interdisciplinary Science

An example can help illustrate the possibilities. An introductory interdisciplinary science course could start with our molecular models of atoms (see http://workbench.concord.org). By exploring what happens to two elastic atoms that collide, students will learn about the energy conservation laws and, because the atoms have an attractive van der Waals force, potential energy. Extending this to many atoms gives rise to the idea of temperature, which is simply the average kinetic energy. At low temperatures these atoms condense into a liquid and a crystalline solid, releasing potential energy that can be measured and compared to the attractive forces between atoms. The atomic basis of diffusion, entropy, phase change, latent heats, the distinction between heat and temperature, conduction, crystal structure and faults, evaporative purification, and many other phenomena are immediately obvious and open to exploration.

Similar experiments can be done with molecules that can break apart at sufficiently high temperatures. Experiments with these lead to a deep understanding of chemical reactions, equilibrium, reaction constants, and that mysterious free energy. The atoms in these molecules can be charged, enabling learning experiments with ions, polar molecules, and solvents. Finally, with smart surfaces and some other constructs, molecular biology concepts such as conformation, surface binding, and self-assembly can be subjects of inquiry.

A course with this structure is a blend of physics, chemistry, and biology. It would give students unprecedented ability to understand the fundamental ideas of all three subjects. It could be taught without a single equation to beginning or liberal arts students, or it could be used as the conceptual core of a highly mathematical treatment. By treating topics such as the physical basis of latent heat and giving students rich mental models of sophisticated topics like thermodynamics, such an interdisciplinary course would enable students to learn a few ideas more deeply and be able to apply these ideas to a very wide range of situations. Science would appear less as a miscellaneous collection of facts and more as a coherent set of powerful concepts.

Robert Tinker (bob@concord.org) is President of the Concord Consortium.

The projects described in this newsletter are supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, the Noyce Foundation and others. All opinions, findings, and recommendations expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funding agencies. Mention of trade names, commercial products or organizations does not imply endorsement.

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