Peer ideas can be valuable contributions to scientific inquiry. Divergent peer ideas can enrich students' thinking and encourage curiosity. Meanwhile, similar peer ideas can promote convergent thinking that can reinforce understanding. However, students need guidance in critically evaluating peer ideas in relation to their own, and in recognizing…

Guiding teachers to customize curriculum has shown to improve science instruction when guided effectively. We explore how teachers use student data to customize a web-based science unit on plate tectonics. We study the implications for teacher learning along with the impact on student self-directed learning. During a professional development…

Inquiry instruction often neglects graphing. It gives students few opportunities to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to take advantage of graphs, and which are called for by current science education standards. Yet, it is not well known how to support graphing skills, particularly within middle school science inquiry contexts. Using…

In this study, we explore how two different prompt types within an online computer-based inquiry learning environment enhance 392 7th grade students' explanations of evolution with three teachers. In the "elaborating" prompt condition, students are prompted to write explanations that support the accepted theory of evolution. In the…

We compared designs of guidance to support students while interacting with dynamic visualizations of complex scientific phenomena in inquiry instruction. Three hundred thirty-two 7th-grade students were randomly assigned to either a reading or a generating condition and completed a web-based inquiry unit focusing on energy concepts in…

In 4 classroom experiments we investigated uses for technologies that automatically score student generated essays, concept diagrams, and drawings in inquiry curricula. We used the automatic scores to assign typical and research-based guidance and studied the impact of the guidance on student progress. Seven teachers and their 897 students…

Both multiple-choice and constructed-response items have known advantages and disadvantages in measuring scientific inquiry. In this article we explore the function of explanation multiple-choice (EMC) items and examine how EMC items differ from traditional multiple-choice and constructed-response items in measuring scientific reasoning. A group…

Dynamic visualizations have the potential to make abstract scientific phenomena more accessible and visible to students, but they can also be confusing and difficult to comprehend. This research investigates how dynamic visualizations, compared to static illustrations, can support middle school students in developing an integrated understanding of…

Although researchers call for inquiry learning in science, science assessments rarely capture the impact of inquiry instruction. This paper reports on the development and validation of assessments designed to measure middle-school students' progress in gaining integrated understanding of energy while studying an inquiry-oriented curriculum. The…

The Technology-Enhanced Learning in Science (TELS) center, a National Science Foundation-funded Center for Learning and Teaching, offers research-tested science modules for students in grades 6-12 (Linn et al. 2006). These free, online modules engage students in scientific inquiry through collaborative activities that include online…