Research

Technology CAN Improve Education!

We have some exciting and important research results that confirm our basic tenant that technology enhanced student activities can improve education. On this page we feature some recent results and link to the detailed reports.

Modeling Skills Accelerate Learning

It is an item of faith that students can learn by interacting thoughtfully with computational models, but proof of this is hard to come by. For four years, we have been following high school students in traditional science courses that have been augmented with model-based learning activities. We inserted six “substitution units” across biology, chemistry, and physics using models, but covering traditional content. Our software told us each student’s every move, for over 10,000 students, some of whom took six of our activities over three years.

This detailed information allowed us to identify students with good “modeling skills,” such as using the model several times and systematically varying one variable at a time. Also, good modelers initially explore broadly and then settle down narrower aspects of a model that are “interesting” in some sense. Students with these skills learn more regardless of the level at which they start, and they retain their knowledge better. Other researchers have found that one related skill—controlling variables—can be taught. This suggest that we can accelerate student learning through heavy reliance on models and teaching modeling skills that allow students to get the most out of the models.

Young Learners Learn Better with Probeware

Can students as early as grade three learn science with probeware? Many educators assume that elementary learners are not ready for sophisticated probes, sensors, and the associated quantitative data, arrays of numbers, graphs, and analysis. Our classroom data shows the opposite. We equipped 40 diverse grade 3-8 classrooms throughout Missouri and in other locations with probe-based science and technology learning activities and studied their learning. Non-computer tests given before and after each teaching showed that in all cases, kids learned important, standards-based concepts. Compared to learning the year before using our materials, our approach resulted in more learning in most cases.

No elementary curricula requires probes, including material from dozens of projects funded by the NSF. This reluctance to use modern technology has been justified by uncertainty of its value. Now that probeware is proven to accelerate learning, further delay of its wide scale is inexcusable.

Anyone Can Learn about Atoms and Molecules

We have head the same kind of reluctance to delve into atoms and molecules—they are supposedly too abstract, too complex, and impossible to perceive. The conventional wisdom is to wait for high school chemistry. But the Molecular Workbench is so interactive and makes atoms and molecules seem so tangible, we embarked on a series of studies to demonstrate the opposites.

Our studies across the curriculum indicate that middle, high school, and community college students can use MW-based materials to acquire robust mental models of core content such as random motion of atoms, the relationship of temperature to the kinetic energy of particles, gas laws, states of matter, dissolving and diffusion, and protein folding. In all classes, from 8th grade to 13th grade, misconceptions about atomic-scale phenomenon virtually disappeared and student content scores were significantly higher.

We consistently find that students demonstrate “molecular reasoning”—the ability to transfer to new contexts what they learn about how atoms and molecules interact. Explorations of MW models appear to foster students’ ability to develop cause-and-effect reasoning at the molecular scale by providing a unique environment for experimentation.

Having demonstrated that it is possible to teach important concepts by interacting with MW, we are now looking at whether student learning persists and whether this approach is better than others. Preliminary studies indicate that students retain clear mental models of the activities and their interactions with models for at least six months. Finally, an initial comparison study found that student who engage in MW activities show improved content knowledge, compared to those who learned similar materials without the models.

Additional Resources

Find out more about our main research themes

Molecular Viewer - PDB Files
Teachers and students can explore a large molecule such as chlorophyll – the basic pigment of plants’ photosynthetic system – from various perspectives, starting with traditional “atoms and bonds” view (A) to its carbon skeleton (B) or a surface view (C).