Student Thinking in Science
 

My first project idea (Pasco probeware to support science lab investigations) turned out to be very equipment intensive, and hence expensive. Also, after some personal use, I find that screen of the Zire 71 is difficult to see and hence use outdoors. I have turned my attention to two pieces of software from Project Whirl at the University of Michigan that were created to support student thinking in science.

I plan to incorporate the use of HotQ Boomerang and Quizzler when teaching various types and quality of questioning to my preservice science teachers. This software allows students to generate questions, beam them to the teacher, be projected for a class evaluation of the quality of the question, and beamed back to the student for revision.

I think that this application will also be valuable when teaching experimental design. Students in groups will generate questions about what they want to know about a topic or an observation, and then categorize the questions into library questions or laboratory questions, testable and not testable. Using Quizzler, the teacher can create short quizzes for several purposes - pre/post knowledge checks, concept reviews, guided explorations, etc. Students can create questions that teachers can use to guide discussions or other class activities.

All of these activities could be done without the handhelds, but I am interested in a observation that a group of high school teachers made about the use of handhelds during a presentation at a recent conference - the students were captivated! The teachers noted more time-on-task, higher quality writing, and better attitudes when students used handhelds.

Last changed: 05/17/05