Chicago Education

OptIPuter Education and Outreach: Learning Technologies Research at Lincoln

Elementary School in Oak Park, IL

Tom MoherAssociate Professor, Dept. of Computer Science

and College of Education

Electronic Visualization LaboratoryChicago Education Team Leader

September 2003

Chicago Education

Chicago Education Team

• Diane Conmy, Lincoln elementary 3rd grade teacher (GK-12 mentor teacher, RET awardee)

• Syeda Hussain, UIC CS graduate student (GK-12 Fellow)• Dr. Debi Kilb, SIO Visualization Center (earth sciences)• Kathy Madura, Lincoln elementary physical education teacher• Dr. Tom Moher, UIC Computer Science• Joe Progar, UIC EVL programmer• Marilyn Rothstein, Lincoln elementary 5th grade teacher (GK-12

mentor teacher) • Manuel Sánchez, UIC CS graduate student (GK-12 Fellow)• Vasisht Srinivasan, UIC CS and Biology undergraduate (REU)• Dr. Jennifer Wiley, UIC Psychology (learning sciences)

Chicago Education

Lincoln Elementary School

Chicago Education

Research goals

• Overarching agenda: Investigate learning and behavior within new activity structures afforded by emerging technologies.

• OptIPuter education research challenges:– Identification of learning goals– Development of exemplary curricula

• “OptIPuter science” features– New technologies: Dedicated high-bandwidth connections, distributed

resources (human, computational, display, communication, etc.), large data sets, access to specialized interfaces, etc.

– New skills/knowledge/ways of working: Data integration, data quality, design of experiments, large-scale collaboration, etc.

• Our approach to design– Knowledge-driven, using lightweight OptIPuter technology analogues

Chicago Education

RoomQuake (Year 1: Design)

“seismometer”tape measureepicenter

subwoofer

wireless server

3-D map of event history

Chicago Education

RoomQuake (Year 2: Deployment)

• Learning goals: triangulation, interpolation, scaling, interpretation of graphs, measurement and data collection, mapping, Earth’s crust, plates, earthquake safety, P- and S-waves, data validity, etc.

• Unit plan:– Introduction to Earth’s crust, plates (candy bar tectonics)– Introduction to P- and S-waves (Annenberg videos)– Seismometers and triangulation of epicenter, depth and magnitude– Earthquake series– Application of knowledge (construction strategies, “where are we?”, etc.)

• Individual assessment of learning:– Pre-/post-tests of content learning w/control– Formative evaluation of content-specific learning (interviews)– Analysis (coded transcripts of verbal protocols) of learner

activity/participation and relationship to learning

• Deployment: January 2004, fifth grade classrooms

Chicago Education

Smelling Bee (Year 2: Design)

olfactory epithelium olfactory glomerulus

axons

olfactorycortex

olefins

pyramidal cells

RFID tag

RFID reader