Scientific Reasoning Research Institute - Group

CLSG

root — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 15:24:34 +0000

Conceptual Learning in Science Group

Contact(s):

Clement, John

The Conceptual Learning in Science Group has been engaged in science education research activities since the late 70's, with the help of Professors Randall Phillis, Biology, UMass Amherst, Melvin Steinberg, Physics, Smith C., and Neil Stillings, Cognitive Science, Hampshire C., and many doctoral students, postdocs, and local school teachers. Our work has focused on analogies, misconceptions, useful intuitions, creativity and imagery use in experts, model based learning, discussion leading strategies, computer simulations, and other topics. The group has been funded virtually continuously during this period by the US National Science Foundation.

Latest CLSG News

Energy in the Human Body is freely available

02/15/2016 - 2:08pm

Energy in the Human Body, A Middle School Life Science Curriculum
Access the Energy in the Human Body curriculum here: http://www.cesd.umass.edu/energyinthehumanbody/

CLSG Debuts a Website for Educators!

01/29/2016 - 9:40pm

http://www.umass.edu/teachingstrategies/.

New Journal Articles

01/29/2016 - 9:04pm

In 2015, CLSG authors published in the International Journal of Science Education and Computers & Education.

CLSG Group had Visiting Professor from Chile through March 2015

08/11/2014 - 9:58am


Price, Norman	Post doctoral researcher
Stephens, A. Lynn	Post doctoral researcher
Clement, John	Professor of Education, Emeritus

CLSG publicatons (reprints, preprints, technical reports, etc.)

See the SRRI publications list.

Current CLSG projects

Strategies for Leading Classroom Discussions Aimed at Core Ideas and Scientific Modeling Practices

Contact: John Clement
Funding: NSF DRK-12 Program # DRL-1503456

Model Construction Processes in Experts

This project complements and provides input to our science education projects by attempting to understand model construction and learning processes in expert scientists, with an emphasis on the roles of analogy, imagery, and thought experiments.

Published CLSG "products"

Creative Model Construction in Scientists and Students: The Role of Imagery, Analogy, and Mental Simulation

This monograph presents a theory of creativity and imagery-based conceptual learning in science that was developed on the basis of think-aloud protocols from experts and students.

Energy in the Human Body

A Middle School Life Science Curriculum

Energy in the Human Body is an exciting curriculum for grades 6-8 based on learning theory.

Model Based Learning and Instruction in Science

This book is a collection of chapters by our research team describing new, model-based teaching methods for science instruction. It presents research on their characteristics and effectiveness, exploring them in a very diverse group of settings: middle school biology, high school physics, and college chemistry classrooms.

Preconceptions in Mechanics

Lessons dealing with conceptual difficulties

by Charles Camp and John Clement. Contributing authors: David Brown, Kimberly Gonzalez, John Kudukey, James Minstrell, Klaus Schultz, Melvin Steinberg, Valerie Veneman, and Aletta Zietsman. College Park, MD: American Association of Physics Teachers. Second Edition 2010.

The nine units in this high school physics curriculum focus on areas where students have exhibited qualitative preconceptions --- ideas that they bring to class with them prior to instruction in physics. Research has shown that certain preconceptions conflict with the physicist's point of view. It has also shown that some of these conflicting preconceptions are quite persistent and seem to resist change in the face of normal instructional techniques. The motivating idea for this book is to provide a set of lessons that are aimed specifically at these particularly troublesome areas and that use special techniques for dealing with them. Ideas in the lessons can be used to supplement any course that includes mechanics.

Strategies For Using Interactive Simulations In Science Class

a website for educators

http://www.umass.edu/teachingstrategies/

Admin

konold — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 15:20:29 +0000

Institute Administration & Support

SRRI's administration works under the direction of the Institute director and with the project PIs to manage research accounts, purchase equipment, process personnel forms, provide computer and web support, and coordinate with UMass administrative offices.

SRRI Administrative Personnel


Konold, Cliff	Director of SRRI & Research Associate Professor
Boron, Kathy	Clerical assistant
Szczepanski, Philip	Business manager
Kreetong, Kosoom (Jang)	Ed.D student (Mathematics, Science and Learning Technologies), Webmaster

SERG

konold — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 15:19:45 +0000

Statistics Education Research Group

Group Page:

SERG

Contact(s):

Konold, Cliff

SERG is a group of researchers with backgrounds in psychology, education, and computer science who have been collaborating since the late 1970's. The group's mission is to better understand how people reason about probability, statistics, and data analysis, and to use this understanding to improve the teaching of these topics at both the university and K-12 levels. Research initially focused on how adults reason about statistics and probability before receiving any formal instruction. More recent work has focused on younger students learning about data and chance and how their understanding develops over instruction in technology-rich environments.

Latest SERG News

Announcing TinkerPlots Version 2.2

06/30/2014 - 12:21pm

June 30, 2014

Today we are releasing Version 2.2 of TinkerPlots. This is a special, free version, which will expire in a year — August 31, 2015.

Kreetong Presents Data Games at UMass

04/17/2014 - 4:34pm

Kreetong presented "Play and Learn with Data Games" at the 2014 Symposium for Research and Innovation in Education held at the UMass Hotel and Conference Center on April 18, 2014.

An Open Letter to the TinkerPlots Community

03/23/2014 - 9:47am

March 21, 2014

As you may have discovered by now, you can no longer purchase TinkerPlots. Many of you who have been using TinkerPlots in courses and workshops have found your way to us asking if and when it will be available for purchase again. We expect soon, by this June. But to allow you to make informed decisions about future instructional uses of TinkerPlots, we need to provide a little background.

TinkerPlots Dropped by McGraw Hill Education

03/04/2014 - 1:00pm

As of December 31, 2013, McGraw Hill Education (MHE) stopped publishing TinkerPlots (and Fathom). While you cannot currently purchase it, you can still get access to TinkerPlots resources on MHE's website.

Kreetong Presents at ICOTS 9

03/04/2014 - 12:03pm

Kosoom Kreetong will be presenting research on students' statistical reasoning at the 9th International Conference on Teaching Statistics (ICOTS 9) , which will take place on July 13-18, 2014 in Flagstaff, Arizona.


Konold, Cliff	Director of SRRI & Research Associate Professor
Kreetong, Kosoom (Jang)	Ed.D student (Mathematics, Science and Learning Technologies), Webmaster

SERG publications (reprints, preprints, technical reports, etc.):

See the SRRI publications list.

Current SERG projects:

Data Games

Tools and Materials for Learning Data Modeling

Students playing computer games generate large quantities of rich, interesting, highly variable data that mostly evaporates into the ether when the game ends.

What if in a classroom setting, data from games students played remained accessible to them for analysis?

Past SERG projects:

Model Chance

Simulation software and classroom activities to help middle school students understand probability

Model Chance was a project funded by the National Science Foundation to develop simulation software and classroom activities to help middle school students learn about probability and data modeling. The simulation tool was integrated into our data-analysis software, TinkerPlots and was eventually released as TinkerPlots version 2.0.

TinkerZeum

Involving museum visitors in data analysis explorations

Funded by the National Science Foundation, the Tinkerzeum Planning Project was a one-year collaborative project exploring the feasibility of involving museum visitors in data analysis. These studies, which took place at the Museum of Science in Boston and at the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield MA, have helped us understand the kinds of data and exhibits that lead to compelling museum investigations and the types of additional supports visitors require to begin exploring data.

Data Modeling

Constructing data, modeling worlds: Collaborative investigation of statistical reasoning

This project aimed to change the way students -- and teachers -- think about math and science and was part of a larger endeavor by Peabody College to "reform the schooling of mathematics and science," said co-investigator and Professor of Science Education Rich Lehrer. This innovative project focused on learning rather than performance as the standard by which educational methods are judged.

ViSoR

Advanced visualization tools for understanding statistics

This project addresses the growing importance of data literacy as a fundamental skill for living in a democratic society and the disheartening fact that few people have a solid understanding of data. It addresses this need by studying how advanced visualization tools can affect teachers' and students' develop understanding of several crucial statistical concepts.

TinkerPlots Project

Developing tools and curricula for enhancing data analysis in the middle school

In the TinkerPlots project, funded by the National Science Foundation, we created a software tool and curriculum materials for teaching data analysis and statistics in middle schools.

Data Sharing

A Study of Student Investigations in Data-Sharing Projects

Overview The primary objectives of this research project were to a) identify the core ideas in rudimentary data analysis, b) research the methods students typically employ to compare two groups or judge the relationship between two variables, and c) identify features of data and tasks that we should attend to in designing instruction. Our research was aimed at informing teachers as well as the development of future data analysis projects, materials, software, and teacher development efforts.

Critical Barriers

Students Analyzing Data: A Study of Critical Barriers

This study was funded under the Small Grant for Exploratory Research Program at NSF.

ChancePlus

A Computer-Based Curriculum in Probability and Statistics

ChancePlus was a four-year project to develop and field test materials for teaching probability and statistics at the high-school level using computers.

Research: Statistical Intuitions

Investigate statistical intuitions of college students

Understanding of Basic Statistical Concepts
NSF Grant BNS-8509991 (1985 - 88)

Cognitive Skills Underlying Statistical Inference
NSF Grant SED-8113323 (1981 - 85)

Program of Applied Research on Scientific Reasoning Processes
NSF Grant SED-8016567 (1980 - 83)

Role of Preconceptions and Representational Transformations in Understanding Science and Mathematics
NSF Grant BNS-8509991 (1978 - 80)

In these four projects We used primarily clinical interviews to investigate statistical intuitions of college students.

S-CASTS

S-CASTS: System for Collaboration among Students, Teachers and System is a collaboration between UMass, TERC, and Artificial Intelligence researchers at Harvard. We are investigating the use of models of collaboration, especially as embodied in collaborative human-computer interface systems, in the augmentation of existing flexible software tools for mathematics education.

Published SERG "products":

For TinkerPlots Software and Materials

>go to www.tinkerplots.com

Click here for downloads, [support](http://www.tinkerplots.com/support-and-resour

DataScope

DataScope® was a Macintosh Classic data-analysis program from the 1990s with accompanying data sets and instructional activities for grades 9-13.

GrowAverage

Grow Average© was a Macintosh (Classic) program from the 1990s for demonstrating the Law of Large Numbers and the Central Limits Theorem.

ProbSim

Software and activities for teaching probability via simulations

Prob Sim was a Macintosh (Classic) program from the 1990s with accompanying instructional activities designed for teaching probability via simulations in grades 6-13.

PERG

root — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 15:17:36 +0000

Physics Education Research Group

Contact(s):

Beatty, Ian D.

During 2008-2009, PERG (a.k.a. UMPERG) transitioned from UMass to the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where it joined the UNCG Department of Physics & Astronomy. PERG is a team of physicists studying knowledge, cognition, learning, and teaching about physics and other sciences. We investigate fundamental questions in the cognitive science of physics learning and expertise; develop pedagogic techniques and curricula; and promote effective instruction within our university and around the world.

PERG was founded by Prof. William Gerace, a theoretical nuclear physicist, who began research into physics education in 1976. He was joined in turn by Jose Mestre, Robert Dufresne, and William Leonard, all of whom completed doctoral dissertations in theoretical nuclear physics before joining the educational research effort. Ian Beatty joined later, completing a Physics Ph.D. with a dissertation in physics education research. Over the years, UMPERG has employed and worked with many undergraduate and graduate students.

UMPERG was originally a research group within the UMass Department of Physics as well as a founding element of SRRI; in later years, it was solely affiliated with SRRI.

The information below may become increasingly obsolete as time passes. Caveat emptor.

Latest PERG News

Assessing-to-Learn (A2L) Website Moved to UNC

03/15/2012 - 12:35pm

The Assessing-to-Learn website (A2L.physics.umass.edu) has moved to a new server (clickercentral.net), contact Ian Beat

PERG Moved from UMass to UNCG

03/20/2009 - 10:47pm

The UMass Physics Education Research Group has moved from UMass to the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Beatty Talks About TLT Project For STEM Institute

11/25/2007 - 12:23am

On Tuesday, December 4, SRRI's Ian Beatty will give a talk on the SRRI TLT project as part of the UMass STEM Institute's seminar series.


Leonard, William J.	Lecturer, Electrical & Computer Engineering

PERG publicatons (reprints, preprints, technical reports, etc.):

See PERG's share of the SRRI publications list.

Current PERG projects:

This list is not complete.

→ There don't seem to be any projects to list here!

Past PERG projects:

This list is definitely not complete!

TLT

Teacher Learning of Technology-Enhanced Formative Assessment

TLT was a five-year research project studying how secondary science and mathematics teachers learn to use an electronic "classroom response system" to implement a specific pedagogical approach called Technology-Enhanced Formative Assessment (TEFA).

homeworkCentral

Online support for students doing electronic homework

At a large state university such as UMass, resources are necessarily limited, and students in a course with 200 or more classmates often think they cannot possibly get the assistance they need to answ

Every Decision Counts (EDC)

Developing and researching the impact of an alternative format for multiple-choice assessment

Standard multiple-choice assessments, for which there are 4 incorrect and exactly one correct choice, are efficient to implement but imprecise and difficult to interpret.

RRA

Researching the Role of Qualitative Analysis

RRA was a research project on the combined impact of qualitative analysis and reasoning activities and formative assessment on the attitudes, conceptual understanding, skills, and problem-solving prof

A2L Project

Assessing-to-Learn: Continuous Formative Assessment for Physics Instruction

There has been considerable interest in assessment, especially in view of the goals set forth in reform documents, such as the NRC's National Science Education Standards.

ConMap

Computer-based assessment tools for probing physics students' conceptual knowledge structures

Traditional problem-based exams are not reliable tools for diagnosing students' knowledge and guiding pedagogical intervention; new tools grounded in cognitive science and educational research are nee

Minds*On Physics Project

Developing and field testing a research-based curriculum for high school physics

To learn about the finished Minds·On Physics product, see the MOP entry in our Resources section.

Knowledge Broker

Exploring technology for next-generation classroom response systems

Effective pedagogy --- identifying students' initial understanding and misconceptions, engaging their minds in the activity of learning, continually monitoring their individual progress, and adjusting

Published PERG "products":

Minds*On Physics

A constructivist, active-learning curriculum for high school physics

MOP is a one-year curriculum for high school physics. It is the result of a materials development project supported by the National Science Foundation, and its design was guided by educational research findings. The curriculum integrates topics traditionally taught at different times of the year, and students are expected to develop conceptual understanding of physics while improving problem-solving proficiency.

Springbok

A simple but rich mechanical system for teaching about the physics of jumping

(This is a companion website to the article Springbok: The physics of jumping, published in The Physics Teacher.)

Springbok is our name for a simple mechanical system for teaching about the physics of jumping. A springbok consists of a large mass and a small mass connected by a spring; when compressed and then released, it jumps up into the air.

Scientific Reasoning Research Institute - Group

CLSG

Latest CLSG News

Current CLSG members

CLSG publicatons (reprints, preprints, technical reports, etc.)

Current CLSG projects

Published CLSG "products"

Admin

SRRI Administrative Personnel

SERG

Latest SERG News

Current SERG members:

SERG publications (reprints, preprints, technical reports, etc.):

Current SERG projects:

Past SERG projects:

Published SERG "products":

PERG

Latest PERG News

Current PERG members:

PERG publicatons (reprints, preprints, technical reports, etc.):

Current PERG projects:

Past PERG projects:

Published PERG "products":