Using Web 2.0 and Interactive Tools to Teach Chemistry Concepts in the

K-12 Classroom

Victoria Costa, Science EducationCynthia Gautreau, Elementary and Bilingual Education

Presentation to the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry California State University Fullerton

September 17, 2009

How Students Should Learn Science• Students learn science best by doing (Dalton et al.,

1997). • When students are engaged in actively constructing

knowledge from a combination of experience, interpretation and structured interactions with peers and teachers, they are more likely to gain an expert understanding of science concepts. (Roschelle et al., 2000)

Costa and Gautreau 2Pennsylvania High School Chemistry Class, 1950

Supplementing the Classroom• The structure and resources

of traditional classrooms are often inadequate.

• Technology – when used effectively – can enable ways of teaching that are much better matched to how children learn.

• Multimedia technologies allow students to interact with information in new ways, change content, and even create their own visualizations. Such interactivity enables a wide variety of users to access content.

Lawrence North High School, Indianapolis, IN

Wilson Memorial High School, Fishersville, VA

Anderson New Technology High School, Napa, CA

EXAMPLES OF HIGH SCHOOL

CHEMISTRY CLASSROOMS

Click on images for class wikisCosta and Gautreau 3

Students Could Work Like Scientists• Scientists use technology tools in their daily practice, including virtual

laboratories and simulations, models of scientific phenomena, and collaborative tools such as e-mail, video conferencing, and online collaborative knowledge bases. – Many of these tools support hands-on work done in the laboratory or field; – Others enable researchers to view processes–such as protein folding–that

would be impossible to observe otherwise. • Students can use similar technologies and multimedia tools to work like

scientists; by collaborating with their peers, modeling scientific processes, conducting virtual experiments, and actively participating in research with scientists locally and around the world.

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Categories of Technology Resources• Collaboration and Discourse Tools

– Audience Response Systems– Wikis, Webpages, Collaborative Docs– Twitter

• Modeling Tools– Interactive Whiteboards– Multiple Representations– Chemistry Interactives, including Mastery Learning– Simulations and Virtual Labs– Games

• Laboratory and Data Collection Instruments– Not addressed in this presentation

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Collaboration and Discourse Tools• Students may collaborate with each other, with their teacher, with

experts in the wider scientific community, and even with artificial intelligence.

• Collaborative learning tools help students confront scientific misconceptions and refine theories.

• Students can present hypotheses and observations, test their understanding, engage in debate, and build upon each others’ work and ideas – this simulates the process of peer review. (Lajoie, 2001)

• Discussion, debate, and collaboration help students to think like scientists and make the shift from novice to expert understanding of scientific inquiry.

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Audience Response Systems• Provides immediate feedback to the students and the teacher.• All students are engaged in the learning process and each

response is validated. Accountability is increased when integrating audience response systems.

• Increases active participation by students during lectures (Caldwell, 2007).

• Possible uses: formative assessment, quizzes, assess lecture comprehension, attendance, increase active engagement, assess readings and

assignments, peer interactions.

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Audience Response System Demo• One of the newest features on the ARS is a texting feature. • Note that additional improvements are still possible:

– A keyboard – Increased functions– Ways to minimize distractions– Integration with cell phones, etc.

• Audience Response System Companies– Promethean– Turning Points Technologies– iRespond– iClickers

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BLOGS, WIKIS, AND COLLABORATIVE WEBSITES

• BLOGS: Short for weblogs, blogs are used to share information and opinions with readers and to solicit feedback and discussion. Blogs often take the form of a journal and are regularly updated.– Examples: http://usefulchem.blogspot.com • WIKIS: Wikis are collaborative Web sites that can be set up to be

edited by anyone or only designated users. The creator of a wiki can receive notice of all changes and can track and monitor the development of the site content.

• Examples: http://spectralgame.wikispaces.com/ ; http://mast.wikispaces.com • COLLABORATIVE WEBSITES Collaborative Websites allow individuals

to create or upload documents to the Web where they can then be edited using familiar formatting tools. Some sites also provide the ability to edit and create presentations and spreadsheets. – Examples: Google Docs http://docs.google.com

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Comparison of Blogs, Wikis, and Collaborative Sites

Purpose of Activity Blogs WikisCollaborative

Sites

Users can share their thoughts, ideas, and projects with others.

X X X

Users can share links to Web sites. X X X

Users can solicit and respond to others’ thoughts. X X X

Users can modify, add to, and delete others’ content. X X

Users can create multilayered Web sites. X

Users can create linear, journal-like documents. X

Skill Requirements Blogs WikisCollaborative

Sites

Users are familiar with basic word processing skills. X X X

Users can respond critically and constructively to peers' ideas.

X X X

Users need basic understanding of how the components of a Web page work.

X

Technical Requirements Blogs WikisCollaborative

Sites

To work offline, special software is needed. X

Access can be restricted to selected users. X X X

Password protection is available. X X XCosta and Gautreau 10

GENERAL FEATURES OF BLOGS, WIKIS, AND COLLABORATIVE WEB SITES

BLOGS WIKISCOLLABORATIVE WEB

SITES

Example Instructional Uses

Character journals, lists of research sources, reflections on learning, collecting responses to ideas, debating issues relevant to the subject area, and so forth.

Group writing, collaborative Web development, share research findings, project planning, information collection, and so forth.

Collaborative writing, revising, editing, giving and getting feedback from multiple writers, tracking authors' contributions, comparing different revisions.

Drawbacks 1. Interaction is limited to written responses.

2. Unless made private, blogs often can be viewed by anyone with Internet access.

3. Formatting, design options, and multimedia are often limited.

4. Content must be edited online.

5. People may respond to blog entries with inflammatory or inappropriate content.

1. Other authors could make unwanted changes.

2. Content must be edited online.

3. People may contribute inflammatory or inappropriate content.

1. Usually, files created online require special software to be viewed offline.

2. Content can be lost if you revert to a previous version.

3. Other authors could make unwanted changes to your work.

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Wikis (Quick Website)• Provide an online venue for teachers to manage science classroom

activities and provide information to students. • Make it easy for teachers to collaborate with their students on projects. • Provides a way for students to receive online group study guides, lessons,

and classroom notice boards. • Provides a way for students to work together on group assignments or to

submit individual assignments.– Glossary of Scientific Terms: students develop an interactive glossary for defining

physical science terms throughout the entire school year.– Taxonomy – students develop dichotomous keys or classification systems.– Investigations – student groups report on experiments and investigations.– Collaborate with Other Schools – teachers and students collaborate with other schools

or scientists around the country or world to collect data for scientific investigations.– Visual Arts – students groups collaborate in research to find web-based resources which

describe scientific processes using works of art.

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Chemistry Tweets• Chemistry World• Chem Tweet (ScienceBase.com)

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Multiple Representations• Learners are better able to grasp new pieces

of information and discern patterns when they are presented with “numerous, effective examples.” (Rose and Meyer, 2002)

• If we view science learning as a process of inquiry and investigation, it makes sense to use multiple representations as an inquiry tool, in much the same way that scientists in the field do. (Kozma and Russell, 2005)

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Interactive Whiteboards

• Interactive Whiteboard Companies– Promethean– SmartBoard

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• Seamless technology integration into instructional practices. (Clemens, Moore, Nelson, 2001)

• Increased teacher and student motivation and constructivist learning when integrating the interactive whiteboard. (Damcott, 2003)

• Engagement and active learning are enhanced through the use of the interactive whiteboard technologies.

• The teacher may use a slate and teach from any area of the classroom.

Chemistry Interactives• Simple (Web 1.0)

– Build a Steroid In this feature, watch as diosgenin transforms into adrenal hormone cortisone.

• Moderate (Web 1.5)– ChemBalancer– Balancing Equations Game:

Rags to Riches

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Rags to Riches

ChemBalancer

Modeling Tools• Computer-based modeling tools can help students

overcome these difficulties. These tools “create exciting opportunities for students to create, manipulate, and interact with their own constructions, which in turn support them in developing understandings through their first-hand experience” (Barnett, et al.)

• ChemSense provides an environment in which students can explore chemical processes and see the effects of changes. These open environments can also help students to correct errors and misconceptions in their thinking by allowing them to test out hypotheses.

• ChemSense– www.chemsense.org/classroom/inaction.html

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ChemSenseSan Leandro High School students used ChemSense to investigate and design experiments around the topic of solubility. Students created drawings and animations of their predictions and observations, used PASCO to collect and graph lab data, and viewed and commented on their peers' work in ChemSense.

Miramonte High School students used ChemSense to animate H2O molecules as they changed phase from a solid to a liquid to a gas, with a graph indicating the temperature at each point in the animation. From pre- to post-test, students showed marked improvement in their ability to create detailed and accurate representations of H2O molecules in the solid, liquid, and gaseous phases. Costa and Gautreau 18Click on molecule for animation

Databases of Interactives • Interactive Chemistry - list of interactive chemistry sites rated

according to accessibility, playfulness, interactivity, and explanation• Chemistry Java Applets

Costa and Gautreau 19Interactive Chemistry

Simulations and Virtual LabsMolecular Workbench (Chemical Equilibrium and Le Chatelier's Principle)

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Howard Hughes Medical Institute Virtual Labs (Bacteria Identification Lab)

Games • Games differ from

simulations by including a goal or challenge (Van Horn, 2007).

• Educational games and simulations have been found to be effective in motivating students to learn (Papastergiou, 2009).

• Games that encourage exploration may be particularly engaging to students, especially girls (Kinzie & Joseph, 2008).

A hurricane is approaching the US coastline! Where will it hit? How dangerous will it be? In Storm Tracker, you will step into the role of a hurricane forecaster. Analyze satellite maps and weather data in order to make daily storm track and intensity predictions. As landfall approaches, determine which cities must be warned of the impending danger. When it comes to saving lives and protecting property, your forecasting skills may mean the difference!

The JASON Project (National Geographic)

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Video Games– Between 2000-2005, ~450,000

students graduated annually in the US with a bachelor’s degree in STEM.

– World of Warcraft, a multiuser fantasy computer game, has over 10 million current subscribers, with ~2.5M in North America.

– Food Force, the U.N. game on the mechanics of food aid distribution, saw 1M players in its first 6 weeks and 4M in its first year.

– Whyville has 4M subscribers, 90% North American, with the dominant demographic being 8-14 year old girls.

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Storm Tracker Demo

http://www.jason.org/gated/content/formats/digitallab/DigitalLabsAndGames.aspx

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ChemGames• Rainbow Matrix Nomenclature Game

– There are two matrices of ions. You start the anion/cation selection process by pressing a button and the ions start to randomly blink until you decide to stop. The students are then required to write out the formula and name for the resulting cation/anion combination that results.

• Virtual Laboratory– lntroductory Chemistry, Organic Chemistry– Intended to compliment chemistry course;

includes lecture material. Goal is to give the students lab experience and knowledge that would approximate what they would have learned in a real lab setting

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Spectral GameThe spectral game was developed by Jean-Claude Bradley, Andrew Lang and Antony Williams) based upon a 3d nmr spectra gamethey developed for Second Life. It is not just a fun game to enhance learning for college chemistry students, but the game itself uses techniques to help curate spectra files submitted to ChemSpider.

By keeping track of spectra files that are missed most often it helps identify low quality or incorrect spectra files. Players may also flag and comment of spectra, helping ChemSpider curators.

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Each round you'll be presented with a new spectrum. You have to select the molecule that matches the spectrum. For each molecule you identify correctly you'll get one point. The game continues until you get one wrong.

Games (cont.)Research demonstrates that:

– Students are motivated by a game format.

– Games and simulations can provide a safe environment for exploration and experimentation

– Students need guidance when using games and simulations

– Students need to be challenged

– Students need time to reflect

Immune Attack (Federation of American Scientists)

Players navigate a nanobot through a 3D environment of blood vessels and connective tissue in an attempt to save an ailing patient by retraining her non-functional immune cells. Along the way, students learn about the biological processes that enable macrophages and neutrophils – white blood cells – to detect and fight infections.

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The Future• Learning with Multimedia Agents (Web 3.0): Agents are

the lifelike characters in multimedia software and online applications that pop up on the screen to explain rules, provide hints, or prompt the user to use program features. They can be human or nonhuman, animated or static.

Early findings (not based on science applications):• Agents can serve as effective mentors. • Teachable agents can simulate peer

tutoring.• Students report increased interest in

and less difficulty with content when using agents.

• Agents that can be taught and controlled may engage students in higher-order learning.

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Chemistry in Second Life

• What is Second Life? Second Life (SL) is an internet-accessible virtual world developed is. Users (called Residents) interact with each other through avatars. Residents can explore, meet other residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, and create and trade virtual property and services with one another, or travel throughout the world, which residents refer to as the grid. Second Life is for people aged 18 and over, while Teen Second Life is for people aged 13 to 17.Built into the software is a three dimensional modeling tool based around simple geometric shapes that allows a resident to build virtual objects.

– Chemistry in Second Life– ACS Talk on Teaching Chemistry with Second Life– Second Life Education Wiki

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Resources

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References

Websites

Research Abstracts