e-Science for Teachers

welcome

2019-03-09T10:36:00.000-08:00

This web site presents a series of outputs from the e-Science Usability project – a collaboration between researchers at the University of Sussex, London Knowledge Lab and University of Nottingham, UK. The project ran from 2007 to 2009.

The project investigated the potential for a variety of readily available web and media tools for use in engaging teachers and learners in exploratory learning science sessions. The technologies listed here were used in a variety of ways to engage teachers and learners to think about science teaching and learning in novel ways, and explore the potential role for the technologies to introduce new ways to collaborate, engage in critical thinking around their science, and report on, reflect, share, re-use, visualise and discuss their science with others.

It is intended these guidelines form a valuable and developing resource for teachers and learners and we value feedback and new ideas to be added in.

Participatory science lesson planning tools

2018-03-10T16:03:00.000-08:00

The following guidelines and checklist were iteratively developed with science teacher consultations in twilight sessions at the Science Learning Centre in London. They are designed to help teachers prepare technology-rich science learning experiences. The tool set comprises prompts to consider a range of e-Science and p-Science influenced elements within the lesson. In particular they focus on the value of each element to the learning experience, including possibilities for collaboration with scientists or peers, sharing, contributing or re-using data and extending learning beyond the class or school context.

DIY Energy session at Newick School

2009-09-15T02:14:00.000-07:00

On 27 March 2009 we ran an all-day session with a Year 4 class at Newick Primary School in Sussex, UK. In the morning session, students built and tested wind turbines in our DIY Energy activity. In the afternoon students created photo-stories about how they constructed their wind turbines. The activities were augmented with teacher-created resources including a Powerpoint presentation and worksheet shown below:

We documented the day, collecting the following data:

10 digital comic files

4 videos from mobile phone

13 photos from mobile phone of windmills and worksheets

6 audio clips

1 video

'Making my windmill' folder of photos used by students in photostories

Template for photostories

The teacher integrated the activities into the current science topic of sustainable energy, and began the session with a discussion about solar panels, tidal turbines, and wind turbines.

During the introduction to the wind turbine construction activity, the teacher showed slides of turbines created by other students, and gave a demonstration of how to create a simple fan. The following was projected on the digital whiteboard:

As students constructed their turbines in pairs, the teacher took photographs which were then downloaded and made available on the network for use in the afternoon session making photo stories. Here are a few:

One pair decided to have two sets of blades going different directions:

Yeah but I was thinking we make one of those um, one of them. The orange one. And then um, put it on behind, or on top. So we've got two really good engines running, two disks running at the same time. That's a good idea isn't it?

[...]

We have a 2 wheel one. One's gonna go one way, the other's gonna go a different way. Double the power... Double the power, the more energy you get from the wind.

[...]

Student 1: I think we should start decorating. Should we just do this one?

Student 2: No, we need double the power.... If one of them falls off, we've still got one blowing

S1: Yeah, well the thing is, it's not really gonna get a lot of wind on the back of that is it

Some completed wind turbines:

In the afternoon there were network problems so the teacher suggested students use the built-in Microsoft paint program to draw pictures of their windmills. Students clearly had good basic skills in using office and simple graphics programs as well as the PC interface. A good deal of time was spend copying images from the teachers laptop to a students using USB sticks. Finally, with the LAN came back to life the remaining students were able to access the images, but only very slowly, and when they tried to save their work it often failed.

Each turbine was tested in front of the class and a “score” (energy generated) read from an ammeter. Here is the testing apparatus we provided:

Normal table fan used for testing:

More images were taken and a class winner was announced. A final photo of the entire class outside with their turbines was taken before documentation using ComicLife began.

One student said, 'I like it because with the windmill pictures I actually managed to fill the boxes with pictures of me!'

Students again presented their comics during a plenary session toward the end of the workshop and again there was much applause.

Wind energy links

2009-08-01T08:28:00.000-07:00

Investigating wind energy with Google Earth

Wind Power (7 Activities)
student activities on wind energy for grades K-4, 5-8 and 9-12

Related projects & misc.

2009-07-25T09:24:00.000-07:00

A galaxy of helpful people
An Oxford scientist has harnessed the power of the web to create a massive citizen-science project that is truly collaborative (Guardian story 15 January 2009)

Citizen Science
A clearinghouse for ideas, news, and resources in support of citizen science-- partnerships between volunteers and scientists that answer real-world questions.

Curricula Development for e-Science: Meeting the Challenges

2009-07-25T05:13:00.000-07:00

By Malcolm Atkinson, David Fergusson, and Elizabeth Vander Meer, available here.

They discuss the need to teach 'distributed systems thinking,' to show how the tools act as aids to collaboration.

Computing can be used differently in every subject, so each discipline applies e-Science differently to answer or solve their particular research questions or problems. e-Science tools must fit the discipline’s needs and culture. Students must understand the analytical side to their own problems and then map these onto computational structures; one component can’t be taught without the other.

Learner-Generated Science workshop

2009-07-25T04:52:00.000-07:00

This documents the workshop we ran at the Science Learning Centre, Institute of Education (London) in April 2008.

In a follow up interview, one teacher said, "I think the main thing is it made more aware of things that are out there that I would never've thought of using before.... [In the workshop] "we tried to create a lesson that would be based around things like using the podcasting or the Internet for students to be a little more active in using technology in the lessons."

[more to come]

Related projects

2009-06-18T04:56:00.000-07:00

Flexe: From Local to Extreme Environments

GLOBE: Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment

LETS GO: Learning Ecology with Technologies from Science for Global Outcomes

MUSHI: Multi User Simulations with Handheld Integration

Science Created by You

Curriculum links

2009-06-13T23:56:00.000-07:00

Activities & resources for Key Stage 3 and 4 (UK) science curriculum topics

Applications and implications
(KS3.1.2 and KS4.1.4)

BioEthics Education Project
website and virtual learning environment for secondary school science teachers and their students

Physics & Ethics Education Project
physics and ethics in GCSE Science courses

Biology/organisms and health
(KS3.3.3 and KS4.2.1)

Fold.it
Solving puzzles/folding proteins for scientists

Journal of Visualised Experiments
Videos with Biological Science focus

Science Supremo
Students take on the role of scientists working in modern drug development, taking a new drug through clinical trials to assess its effectiveness in treating tuberculosis

Chemical and material behaviour
(KS3.3.2 and KS4.2.2)

Nano2Hybrids
Scientist video diaries about nanotechnology

Communication
(KS3.2.3 and KS4.1.3)

Nano2Hybrids
Scientist video diaries about nanotechnology

SciVee
Videos made by and for scientists

Energy, electricity, forces and radiation
(KS3.3.1 and KS4.2.3)

Centre for Alternative Technology
has a windfarm interactive and other related downloadable resource guides

Energy hungry gadgets
News item about how energy saving is being compromised by love for gadgets. Graph comparing TV running costs at bottom of page.

Sodarace
the online olympics pitting human creativity against machine learning in a competition to design robots that race over 2D terrains

UK wind strength map
A site to view what the wind speed is around the UK

Wind Power (7 Activities)
Propeller Design, Building a Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine, Building a Vertical Axis Wind Turbine, Calculating the Efficiency of Turbine Blades, Calculating the Efficiency of Turbine Generators, Measuring Wind Speed, Building a Data-Logging Anemometer

Wind with Miller
Kids' site by Danish wind power assn. with how-to's and other educational material.

Environment, Earth and universe
(KS3.3.4 and KS4.2.4)

Digital Library for Earth System Education
distributed community effort involving educators, students, and scientists working together to improve the quality, quantity, and efficiency of teaching and learning about the Earth system at all levels

Eagles and wind farms
news story about Golden eagles threatened by wind farm

Earth Learning Idea
Earth-related Activities

Encyclopedia of Life
US project that allows people to access and contribute to a Biology and species web resource collection

How Science Works: Chasing the Wind
Teacher TV video: Dr Maggie Aderin leads a team launching an instrument into space to read wind patterns, in order to help assess the impact of climate change.

International Polar Year
a large scientific programme focused on the Arctic and the Antarctic from March 2007 to March 2009.

Sea surface temperatures
live sensor data

Understanding Climate Change
multimedia gallery from US Natl Centre for Atmospheric Research

geograph.org.uk
allows anyone to submit photos, text for every square km of Great Britain

General science

Archaeology in Schools
Some resources on archaeology summer schools by Tim Vickers of Cambridge

Camden Out of School Learning
includes various science projects

Futures Channel
Videos of real world examples for teaching resources. This example shows wind farms and the scientists talk about the skills required by the people who work in wind energy.

How Science Works - An Introduction
Teacher TV video: An overview of the Key Stage 4 How Science Works programme of study, broken up into the following four areas. * data, evidence, theories and explanations * practical and enquiry skills * communication skills * applications and implications

How Science Works: In The Classroom
Teacher TV video: King Edward VII School in Sheffield try out some of the activities connected to the Secondary Science: How Science Works programmes

Nation's Favourite Experiment
The British Academy filmed a selection of popular, eye-catching experiments that you might come across at home, school or on TV and asked people to take a quick look at the short clips and vote online

STEM science directory
Has local and national science activities in all curriculum subjects

SciVee
Videos made by and for scientists

Science Across the World
Schools collaboration web site: "Exploring science locally - sharing science globally".

Squashed Frogs
Site suggestion from a science teacher in Brighton and Hove for teaching resources of science at KS3, 4, 5

TeacherTube
videos for teachers' use

Top 10 Chemistry, Biology, and Physics Videos
List of YouTube videos compiled by Wired magazine

Try Science
Flash based Science Education Resources

UPD8
activities, reviews, breaking science; includes a section called 'difficult and dull'.

Technology links

2009-06-13T23:54:00.000-07:00

GPS Visualizer
Easy tool for mapping

Participatory sensing
Nokia's participatory sensing newsletter covering a few projects using / looking towards aggregated data from mobiles as sensors

Sensor Planet
SensorPlanet is a Nokia-initiated cooperation, a global research framework, on mobile device-centric large-scale Wireless Sensor Networks

Teaching tools

2009-06-13T23:48:00.000-07:00

9 easy web-based collaboration tools
Pointer to a news item of tools

10 Excellent Online Apps For the Innovative Teacher
Some applications are specifically geared towards teaching and learning. Other applications can be adapted for these purposes

Co-lab
learning environment that helps learners to develop flexible knowledge in science domains, skills to collect and synthesise information and to collaborate with others (EU)

ePals
the Internet's largest global community of connected classrooms

FieldScope
web-based mapping, analysis, and collaboration tool designed to support geographic investigations

Google Earth lessons
Resources / activity ideas for teachers based on google earth

Supporting e-Portfolios with blogging
A tutor reflects on using blogging as an eportfolio tool. The project aims to support students in reflecting on their strengths and weaknesses in relation to transferable and subject specialist skills and to develop their personal and professional goals to enhance their practice.

T4 - Transforming Teaching Through Technology
US site with resources, planning and technical support, and training for teachers wishing to use technology to transform their teaching

Webquests
an inquiry-oriented activity in which most or all of the information used by learners is drawn from the Web.

WISE
'simple yet powerful learning environment where students examine realworld evidence and analyze current scientific controversies' (US)

Science tools

2009-06-13T23:35:00.000-07:00

Google Earth lessons
Educational resource for teachers

My Experiment
Virtual Research Environment for sharing scientific data and workflows

Wolfram Alpha
A computable search engine for getting answers to scientific and mathematical queries

National Lab Day

designed to match scientists and classroom teachers from across the United States

KeyToNature

2009-05-27T05:04:00.000-07:00

One of the first steps in discovering and understanding biodiversity is to identify the organisms around us. Traditionally, this has been done using paper-printed keys which enable us to correctly name an organism. Most of them, however, are "difficult" and hardly usable for educational purposes. KeyToNature is developing a range of new, much easier and paper-free identification tools, for use within schools and universities across Europe. They are available on a variety of platforms including laptops and mobile phones, some of them can be tailored to individual requirements. more

Participatory Sensing

2009-05-27T04:36:00.000-07:00

Cell phones + user-generated data = citizen science on steroids. Article and video here.

Environment 2.0

2009-05-27T03:07:00.000-07:00

Participatory science projects at the Futuresonic festival in Manchester, UK, May 2009. Details here.

The Story of Stuff

2009-05-27T00:20:00.000-07:00

A 20-minute video about the effects of human consumption, has become a sleeper hit in classrooms across the US. It is "a brutal assessment of how much Americans waste, and it has its detractors. But it has been embraced by teachers eager to supplement textbooks that lag behind scientific findings on climate change and pollution.... It has also won support from independent groups that advise teachers on curriculum choices. Facing the Future, a curriculum developer for schools in all 50 states, is drafting lesson plans based on the video." Read full article here.

Participatory Learning in Context

2009-05-26T14:51:00.000-07:00

Prof. Rose Luckin, one of the researchers behind this web site, will give a keynote address at the Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning conference in Rhodes, Greece on 12 June, 2009. Find out more here.

Technology integration in the college classroom

2009-05-12T07:10:00.000-07:00

Adapted from the following, oriented originally to university sector but I think applicable to all levels.

Hopper, K. and R. Hendricks. Technology integration in the college classroom: A baker's dozen frugal but promising strategies. Educational Technology Sept-Oct 2008: 10-17.

1. Be student-centred.
Focus on teaching & learning not tech.

2. Capitalise on strengths of technology-mediated learning, especially efficiency and scalability.
Re-use, re-purpose digital assets such as recordings of lectures)

3. Be cost-effective.
UK educators will no doubt be aware of the millions wasted on high tech that doesn't get used. Tech should be used as part of a larger strategy (see 1 above). Use tech at hand or easily obtained; for example, some of our activities utilise mobile phones to surpass school network restrictions - not out of subversion but practicality of not having to wait for the IT dept., passwords, content controls etc. Another example given in the article is that many features of popular software like MS Word goes unused. Also there are lots of free tools online now - several linked from this web site.

4. Be judicious.
Tech is not the end all. Example from article is coming to class with latest articles on a topic downloaded from a web site, instead of giving a multimedia presentation. Show how you found them, incorporate into teaching, expect same level of scholarship from students.

5. Use online tech to support teaching.
Some of the same suggestions as on this site: YouTube, remote scientist/experts, content-related sites.

6. Help students find their own answers.
Library and scholarly databases, basic web skills, ability to assess credible sources.

7. Manage expectations.
Students may expect instant results with technology. In contrast, many activities include collecting data but then discussing, editing, shaping into a coherent (often narrative) form. See for example our activities on using Comic Life.

8. Use tech to increase the value of feedback.
Online or quizzes, discussion forums mean instant feedback to students; email and asynchronous message boards mean you and they can accept feedback when convenient. The authors suggest that frequent feedback promotes multiple drafts: work isn't 'finished' on the first draft.

9. Encourage best practice.
Protecting privacy, copyright and intellectual property, ethical conduct. Separate official school emails, for example, from those for personal use. Social networks like Facebook can have value in learning, but only when used with awareness, oversight and structure.

10. Focus on long term goals.
Don't abandon classroom practises that work; select technologies that work with them. Think about students' long-term careers, and how these tools will be useful for them. In a project in Kenya with farmers new to computers, we tried all sorts of new technologies but in the end they really wanted to learn office applications to improve their business practises.

11. Prepare for a mix of technology experience levels.
While students at all levels now grow up with digital technologies, some are more confident than others - and often teachers even less so. The authors suggest having more able students teach the less able; pointing out interface conventions; and using technologies to solve real problems, not in an abstract way. I would add that both hardware and software evolve frequently, so teach some basic computing concepts (e.g. http://csunplugged.org/)so that students can learn to teach themselves about new technologies as they come along.

12. Use the technology's power to archive and distribute.
Despite trends toward constructivism there are still bodies of knowledge to learn in most subject areas, and here technology is good for holding a lot of data and moving it around easily, in different forms: for example doing revisions on a mobile device. Use the tech for what it's best at, freeing the humans for the creative stuff!

13. Don't over-rely on Powerpoint
"We sometimes reflect sadly that our own children may bemoan their education as an endless stream of Powerpoint presentations," the authors write, "and they are well aware that this promotes a fragmented, narrow form of learning."

14. Attend to aesthetics and usability.
The seemingly obvious: communicate clearly and simply. Kids don't need childlike illustrations and as the authors observe, websites that try to be "fun" are forced and silly. Select tools that will not require learning themselves but can focus on subject learning.

15. Don't panic.
Don't rush into tech usage for fear of being left behind, and don't be seduced by the latest and greatest. That's where the millions in government money have gone. Technology is not necessarily going to engage or make learning faster, easier, more fun.

Publications

2009-05-09T11:21:00.000-07:00

These are publications and presentations generated by the e-Science Usability project.

Underwood, J., Luckin, R., Smith, H., Walker K., Rowland, D., Fitzpatrick, G., Good, J., Benford, S. Reflections on Participatory Science for TELSci2.0. Science2.0 for TEL workshop at EC-TEL, 29 Sept - 2 Oct 2009, Nice, FR.

Fitzpatrick, G. (2009) Participated in From Social Butterfly to Urban Citizen: A HCSNet Workshop on Social and Mobile Technology to Support Civic Engagement. 13-14 July 2009, QUT, AU.

Luckin, R. (2009) Invited panelist at What Comes Next? The Channel 4 Education Summer Conference, 30 June 2009.

Luckin, R. (2009) Keynote speaker at CSCL, Rhodes, 12 June 2009.

Luckin, R. (2009) Invited panelist at Public Service Media, 7 May 2009.

Smith, H., Underwood, J., Fitzpatrick, G. and Luckin R. (2009) Classroom e-Science: Exposing the Work to Make it Work. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, Vol. 12, Issue 3 Pages 289–308

Smith, H., Underwood, J., Fitzpatrick, G., Walker, K., Good, J., Luckin R., Rowland, D. and Benford, S. (2009) Sustainability requirements for online science communities and resources. Presented at CAL'09, Brighton, UK, 23-25 March 2009.

Underwood, J., Smith, H., Walker, K., Luckin R., Good, J., Fitzpatrick, G., Rowland, D. and Benford, S. (2009) Designing p-Science: Participation, Learning & Technology. Poster presented at CAL'09, Brighton, UK 23-25 March 2009. *Best poster award.

Smith, H., Underwood, J., Walker, K., Fitzpatrick, G., Luckin R., Benford, S., Good, J. and Rowland, D. (2008) e-Science for Learning: Crossing the Boundaries between School Science and Research Science. Presented at the UK e-Science All Hands Meeting, Edinburgh, UK, 8-11 September 2008.

Smith, H., Underwood, J., Walker, K., Fitzpatrick, G., Luckin R., Benford, S., Good, J. and Rowland, D. (2008) Web 2.0 for schools e-Science: A hands-on approach. Proceedings of workshop on Research 2.0, at 4th International e-Social Science Conference 2008, Manchester, UK, June 18.

Smith, H., Underwood, J., Benford, S., Walker, K., Fitzpatrick, G., Luckin R., Good, J. and Wyeth (2008) Photo Stories as a Tool to Support Review and Reflection. Poster presented at the 4th International e-Social Science Conference 2008, Manchester, UK, June 18-20.

Underwood, J., Smith, H., Luckin, R. and Fitzpatrick, G. (2008) E-Science in the classroom - Towards viability. Computers and Education 50 (2), pages 535-546

Smith, H., Fitzpatrick, G., Luckin R., Benford, S., Underwood, J., Walker, K. and Good, J. (2008) Reflecting on Learning Through a Comic-style Photo Story Tool. Poster presented at The Environmental e-Science Revolution, 7-8 April 2008, The Royal Society, London.

Wyeth, P., Smith, H., Ng, K.H., Fitzpatrick, G., Luckin, R., Walker, K., Good, J., Underwood, J. and Benford, S. (2008) Learning Through Treasure Hunting: The Role of Mobile Devices. In proceedings of Mobile Learning '08, 11-13 April, Algarve, Portugal, Pages 27-34.

Smith, H., Ng, K.H., Walker, K., Underwood, J., Heldt, S., Fitzpatrick, G., Luckin, R., Good, J., Wyeth, P. and Benford, S. (2007) Reconstructing an Informal Mobile Learning Experience with Multiple Data Streams. Proceedings of workshop on "Research methods in informal and mobile learning: How to get the data we really want", WLE Centre, Institute of Education, London, 14 December 2007.

Smith, H. and Underwood, U. (2007) e-Science, e-Learning but Not as we Know it. Paper presented at the workshop on "Design, Use and Experience of e-Learning Systems", HCI 2007, Lancaster, UK

Apply knowledge to problem solving

2009-05-06T03:59:00.000-07:00

6 May 09

Recently released OECD report focuses on excellence in science education. “The rapidly growing demand for highly skilled workers has led to a global competition for talent.... “The routine cognitive skills, that can be digitized, automated or outsourced, are no longer sufficient to be successful in the global economy.” Read more here.

Obama promises major investment in R&D

2009-04-27T04:07:00.000-07:00

27 Apr 09

President Barack Obama on Monday promised a major investment in research and development, with the goal of spending 3 percent of the nation's gross domestic product on scientific innovation. more

Trip planning support for teachers

2009-04-23T02:28:00.000-07:00

This piece of work was undertaken by a visiting student working on the project in summer 2007, as part of her thesis project. We consulted with and interviewed 5 teachers and used online questionnaire data from other teachers during her project. The following are derived from her data analysis and prototype preparation.

Main steps taken by teachers when school-trip planning

Contact the destination venue(s) and find out about the facilities offered
Liaise with assistant head teachers to discuss trip viability
Book the venue
Allocate staff/parents for managing the trip at the required teacher : pupil ratio
Consider and book transport
Inform parents and hand out consent forms

Reported problems during planning a trip

Time: minimal time for organisation and preparation
Money: there is sometimes funding available for special kind of trips e.g. Gifted and Talented, otherwise they are funded by parents or school funds
Risk assessments: necessary for everything, teachers don’t always know which assessments are necessary and may need advice
Consent forms: not always returned on time, often handed in to the wrong person
School calendar: printed once a year, difficulties to select a date that can be covered and staffed adequately. Some times of year e.g. before summer holidays, are more suitable
Work is repeated by more than one teacher: no exchange of skills and tips

Problems discovered during the trip

Teachers had to exchange their phone numbers between each other at start of day
Teachers carry around a lot of paper work during the trip
Teachers don’t know all the children who are taking part in a school trip: difficult for them to identify all the pupils belonging to their own group
Teachers don’t know all venue’s facilities beforehand

Vision of an authoring tool for teachers

The pupils play the role of end user of the materials produced by the Authoring System. These materials include letters, work sheets and messages send to the pupils’ mobile phones.
The parents as the legal guardians have to give their consent to everything their child does on a trip or activity outside the school. To get the permission from the parents the teachers have to send them a letter which informs the parents about the trip or activity and also contains a coupon for their attention ⇨ a consent form to be returned
The head teacher has to give his consent to the teachers’ plans. He has to be informed about the purpose of the trip and everything related to the trip like means of transport or accommodation if the trip takes longer than one day.
The staff members accompanying a trip are basically the same target group as the teachers. To guarantee the seamless flow in the phase of planning it is important that every teacher always submits his appointments to the school calendar.
The trip venues become stakeholders as well if they are allowed to advertise trips or activities in the Authoring System’s repository

Features and requirements for an Authoring System for teachers

Easy interface and use
Low mental load
Straight forward and clear structure, not too many functions
A central place for all the different forms
Centralize trip planning in one application
Rating system for reuse to facilitate teachers in re-use of materials or trip venues
Tabs for the different functions, clear separation and easy way of navigation
Integrate with school’s calendar for coordination of dates and free staff automatically suggested
Automatic check function for what tasks are remaining (different stages for documents)
Replacement for all the different sheets the teachers use at the moment
Replacement for consent form problem, identification via credit card
Financial model - venues pay for advertising their trips to teachers and schools
Repository for trips or activities

Contact us

2009-04-23T02:19:00.000-07:00

Send questions and feedback to Hilary Smith, University of Sussex.

Members of the e-Science Usability project were:

Project Leaders

Rosemary Luckin
London Knowledge Lab

Geraldine Fitzpatrick
Judith Good
University of Sussex

Steve Benford
Nottingham University

Project Members

Kevin Walker
Joshua Underwood
London Knowledge Lab

Hilary Smith
Sarah Heldt (visiting researcher)
University of Sussex

Peta Wyeth
University of Queensland

Marina Ng
University of Nottingham

Example teacher profile

2009-04-22T05:09:00.000-07:00

The following profile presents an example profile and scenario for trip planning.

Name: Mr Miller
Age: 34
Teaching experience: 10 years at a secondary school

Mr Miller is a biology teacher. He has been working at a secondary school for ten years. During his studies at the University he used a computer for data analysis. In his first few years as a teacher he did all his organisational work on paper. When the school introduced free laptops for the teachers, Mr Miller took part in one week training on how to use his laptop. He likes the ideas of administering all his papers on his laptop, but sometimes he is annoyed, because he cannot perform all his tasks on the laptop. For planning trips or activities, he still has got to fill in a lot of forms handwritten.

Concept video of the second Power Point prototype

Two scenarios: normal flow, based on the information provided by the teachers and new flow supported by the Authoring System for teachers

Prototypes were created depending on the findings during the events and actions undertaken as part of the E-Science Usability project, to design the prototypes as usable as possible some constraints were followed:

“Help” and “Save” were always placed at the same location on the screen
Change of background colour for the change from read to write mode
Different groups of functions are clearly separated by a tab-based navigation
The system eliminates obstacles before the teachers are confronted by them (dates)

The scenarios and trip planning tool flows

2009-04-21T06:41:00.000-07:00

Scenario – normal flow of actions

Mr Miller, a biology teacher, wants to organise a trip for his class. He first checks the topics in the curriculum for the next few weeks. The functionality of a waste water treatment plant would fit together with the induction of the new plant not far away. First Mr Miller browses the internet to find out some news and facts about the plant. On the plant’s website he hits on the email address of the public relations manager. He writes an inquiry, if it is the possible to visit the plant and to get a guided tour with 30 pupils. Three days later he receives a reply:

“Thanks for your interest in our waste water treatment plant. We would welcome to show you and your pupils around. Due to the fact that the interior of a waste water plant is a dangerous place, we must insist on having a signed consent form from every visitor or his legal guardian saying he knows the possible dangers and will follow the staff’s instruction. Enclosed please find our standard form. Furthermore we have to raise £2 admission fee per person for visiting our visitor park with nature trails.”

Mr Miller is happy about this positive reply and starts planning his trip. Mr Miller finds out, by using a route planner, that they will need about one hour to reach their destination. This time he could use to inform the pupils about the functionality of a waste water treatment plants and repeat the facts they had already heard about at school. The guided tour through the plant will take about 2 hours. After 3 hours of input he decides to give the children 20 minutes off to play near the plants’ park near the fish ponds. After this break the pupils are to follow the nature trail Mr Miller will choose for them and to complete a worksheet about the waste water treatment plant. Mr Miller estimates 1.5 hours for this part of the day. When the children have finished their task it would be time for lunch. The public relations manager had recommend that they eat in the plants’ staff canteen. Between 1pm and 2.30pm the manager would be free to answer the pupils’ questions. Mr Miller wants to benefit from this opportunity and tries to match his time plan to this appointment. He quickly discovers that he will not make it to finish the other tasks until 1pm. He writes to the public relations manager again and asks him if it is possible to reschedule their appointment to 2.30pm till 4pm. Fortunately the manager agrees to Mr Miller’s proposal, but he can only afford one hour, because Mr Miller’s enquiry was so late. Now they would arrive back at school between 5pm and 5.30pm. Mr Miller writes down his time plan on a piece of paper. After his idea for the trip he has to start the organisation. First he writes a letter to his headmaster to get an approval and maybe some extra budget for his trip. On the next day he gets feedback from the headmaster, who appreciates the trip to the waste water treatment plant and accredits £150 out of the school’s budget. Now Mr Miller can book the coach, recruit two more teachers and inform the parents. The coach will cost £5 per person, therefore the parents will have to pay the admission fee and the lunch. Mr Miller recommends £10 pocket money to cover all the expenses. It takes him one week to collect back the consent forms and the money from the pupils.

Meanwhile the three teachers meet to plan their lecture on the coach and the worksheet. They visit the plant one week in advance to get to know the public relations manager and the nature trails. They decide on one trail, make some notes and finish their preparations on the day before the trip.

On the day of the trip two children have forgotten the recommended raincoats and the pocket money. On the coach Mr Miller tells the pupils about the waste water plant and pictures are handed round. After the guided tour Mr Miller hands out some worksheets, which are to be completed on the nature trail. He had made some extra copies because pupils tend to lose or damage them outdoors.

After the trip the pupils have to copy their notes and findings on their PCs to prepare a presentation for the next day. Mr Miller has to put together an information leaflet for repeating and learning for tests.

My Mobile Mission (M3)

2009-04-20T12:16:00.000-07:00

My Mobile Mission (M3) was an outdoor treasure hunt designed to allow children to explore sustainable energy technologies on an eco-friendly university campus (Nottingham University’s Jubilee campus). The treasure hunt was experienced by students aged 10-12, working in small groups independently from each other, to solve clues and discuss potential findings. The experience was mediated through text messages between each group and base-station researchers, with a second mobile phone used by each group to capture photographic evidence for each solution which was uploaded to a website. This evidence was available instantly on the web through the OOKL web site, and students edited and reflected upon the media they’d collected when back in the classroom.

Technology used

Mobile phone using SMS to structure the activity by sending clues;
Mobile phone using OOKL used to record activity and capture images and descriptions related to solving the treasure hunt;
Mobile used to submit solutions to treasure hunt clues;
Online media gallery (OOKL) used to structure media resources into a narrative of activity, for reflection and reporting.

Scenario – new flow using an interactive trip planner

2009-04-20T06:43:00.000-07:00

Mr Miller, a biology teacher, wants to go on a trip with his class. He first checks the topics in the curriculum for the next few weeks. The functionality of a waste water treatment plant would fit together with to induction of the new plant not far away. Fortunately there is already a hint in his Mobile Mission Trip Planning Tool saying that the waste water plant is happy to invite school classes to visit the facility and to talk to one of their experts. The plants consent form for visitors and an interactive map of the nature trails with GPS information is already deposited for teachers.

Mr Miller enters his wish date, the number of people, and his five aims (guided tour, expert interview, nature trail, time to play, lunch nearby) in the systems inquiry form and dispatches it. The plant replies two days later, confirms Mr Millers wish date and suggest tow appointments: a 2 two hours guided tour at 10am and 2 hours time with their waste water expert at noon or at 3pm. Mr Miller chooses the 3 o’clock appointment. In the meantime the pupils are invited to explore the trails and to have lunch in the staff canteen.

Using the System’s integrated features Mr Miller informs his headmaster about his planning. After the headmaster’s approval and the accreditation of £150 out of the schools budget, the System automatically informs the parents via email and forwards the plants consent form and opens a new trip object for Mr Miller. The trip object already includes all the information Mr Miller has entered in the inquiry form.

Mr Miller now creates a tour with guide-object, expert-interview-object, trail-object, play-object, and lunch-object. He specifies the objects’ attributes and puts them in the right order. Since the System knows the time schedule after Mr Miller’s release of the trip it asks automatically for offers from the local coach companies, recruits two more teachers and informs the parents about the trip’s schedule and the advices Mr Miller had specified before.

On the next day Mr Miller gets four offers from local coach companies and can decide for the best offer and confirm it. The System creates all necessary reminders in Mr Miller’s personal diary and he can concentrate on the planning for the nature trails. The System has imported the interactive map for Mr Miller. He may know pick out certain spots and create questions related to this spot for his pupils. If the pupils pass by a spot with their mobile phones they get a message with the question or the task.

On the next day in class they can transfer their answers directly to the teacher’s laptop or the whiteboard. Besides Mr Miller’s questions are all put together in an information paper into which the best answers from the pupils can be added after the trip. As soon as the paper is complete, it is forwarded as PDF to the pupils to keep it for repeating and learning for tests.
Mr Miller’s colleagues and other teachers using the Mobile Mission Trip Planning Tool can now view Mr Miller’s trip and reuse his planning for their own trips. After reusing a trip it is possible to rate the trip and the provided material.

Collaborating with scientists & experts

2009-04-10T02:08:00.000-07:00

Here are some decision prompts and considerations to guide teachers in planning collaborations with external partners, and ideas on how to set-up and manage the collaboration.

Learning activities

What is the purpose of the collaboration? See also our session design guidelines and checklist. For example:

Experiment and discuss science with peers, locally or remotely
Listen to a live talk and engage in discussion on a topic
Research and create a science discussion, building up a resource of supporting evidence
Engage in activities that could continue out of school via web or in small groups
Collaborate with an active scientist to contribute to their work
Expose students to global variations in a particular science concept
Gain experience with using expensive equipment not normally viable in school science, with other students, across schools, or loan from external organisations.

Partner considerations

Does the topic lend itself to distributed work, or calling in an expert?
Is a suitable collaborator known and available, or does a colleague know one?
Consider searching for a UK expert using the scientist directory or scientist search tool
Is the collaborator a teacher who understands age group and school context? If not consider how to moderate language to student level
Has the expert or scientist suitable experience of school collaborations? Do they need a police check?
Is the collaborator (or group) in the same time zone? How could a collaboration be managed if not?
What kinds of communication and data analysis technology do both partners have access to? If nothing found in common consider web tools (Google docs for example)

Locations

Could experience of people in a different environment be used to illustrate global differences?
Can language barriers be overcome?
Is non-local peer-collaboration a more suitable option than schools close-by, or could a healthy rivalry or competition be created?
Can collaboration be tied in with a previous or forthcoming school exchange trip?
What activities can be engaged in locally (on school grounds) to exchange discussions with others with different kinds of built and weather environments?

Collaboration management considerations

Collaborating in real time – is the timetable flexible for both partners? Is there a mutual time (e.g. after school club) that could be used?
Is there a supportive technician available to help teacher set-up the collaboration?
Agree aims and successful outcomes early on in relationship building
Using a web-based data store and idea gathering area (e.g. Google docs) allows for asynchronous work if scheduling a live chat is difficult
Allow sufficient technology set-up and testing time between collaborators before session
Check any daylight saving conflicts that may upset meetings scheduled
Are there any local policies or practices that affect the work being done, e.g. school network filtering of some websites, student equipment (mobile phone ban in school), multiple logins and access to a web site slowing down the network
An openly visible website may need moderating or contributors to login to allow postings and protect inappropriate material being uploaded.

Locating science experts

2009-04-09T05:10:00.000-07:00

A demo film introducing some of the following tools is available here

Scientist directory
These scientists have agreed to be contactable by teachers.

Scientist search
A science expert UK-wide Google search created by our team

Science and Engineering Ambassadors
contactable through STEMNET

Institute of Education Expertise Directory

Data collected

2009-04-06T06:46:00.000-07:00

Here is a list of data collected during the e-Science Usability project

23 Apr 2007
In-school science observation, Sussex

19 June 2007
E-Science Exchange meeting with teachers, Univ. of Sussex

21 Jun 2007
In-school science observation, Sussex

23 June 2007
Teachers' meeting, London Knowledge Lab, recorded with audio

28 June 2007
In-school science observation, Sussex

June 2007
Trip planning chat with teacher David Daniels.

20 July 2007
In-school science observation of Nicky Halstead class, Hove Park, includes trip planning interview

1 Aug 2007
Trip planning: 1 hour 20 min discussion with David Daniels re:

10 Aug 2007
Wind: 30 min. chat with David Daniels

14 Aug 2007
Mobile Missions Trials, Nottingham: Video, audio (iPod interviews), still pictures, SMS timestamps and logs, Moodle logs

20 Aug 2007
trip planning: Interview with Peter Passaro on prototype

29 Aug 2007
Windmill trials: 4 kids trial session with us and D.D. video, photos, audio , bit of paper

30 Aug 2007
Trip planning: audio of Jo Bell interview

20 Sept 2007
Trip planning: Attended science centre school trip with Sarah (org by DD)

26 Sept 2007
Trip planning Session with Helen Gaiger. HS notes, video, audio

24 Feb 2008
Wind: Brighton Science festival. Milan audio on iPod and video tape, couple of iPod ints by Judith on audio, worksheets, flickr photos, photos, blog posts, google analytics.

27 Feb 2008
Lesson observation: Nicky Halstead, Electricity. Notes plus a few photos of resources

10 Mar 2008
Wind: Teachers' Event in science week iPod recordings on 3 iPods, 2 Video tapes, notes, Flickr photos, photos, RCUK questionnaires from participants and presenters

15 Mar 2008
Wind: Public Event in Science Week, Brighton: iPod recordings, 2 videos, photos by HS and GF, flickr photos and blogs.

Photo story session at Newick School

2009-03-20T05:49:00.000-07:00

On 20 March 2009, Year 4 students at Newick Primary School used Comic Life software to make a one-page photo story titled 'A day at our school,' for the purpose of initiating communication with Silanga School in Kenya, as part of this project as well as the VeSeL project. Two researchers from this project were on hand to document the session and offer technical help.

Preparation

We created the template pictured below. The teacher took pictures beforehand of different activities around the school which students could use (using cameras which we supplied for the VeSeL project). We also set up simple blogs for each school, and before the session the class talked about their typical school day and about how conditions at Silanga School might be different. Students thought for example that school assemblies are different, having seen pictures of Silanga School gathered outside under the trees instead of in a large hall where Newick's assemblies are held; they thought the school might not have tables or a library; one student suggested that Silanga wouldn't have such a large digital whiteboard, having only a single laptop.

In preparation the teacher also created a text document titled 'Steps to success' which contained specific steps for students to follow, including opening the document, saving into their folder, adding photos and text.

The session

At the start of the session the teacher demonstrated Comic Life in front of the class on the digital whiteboard, showing how to open the template, drag photos into panels, and add text boxes. She described adding text to using Microsoft Word, an indication that students had used Word previously.

Most students worked on their own, though some had to pair up since not all laptops were available. Pairs had the option of collaborating on one photo story or two. Even for students working on their own there was a lot of sharing, communication and collaboration, as can be seen in the following images taken from video.

Students received support from the teacher, other students, and the researchers present. For example, one student showed another where to locate the template document. The teacher showed another how to scroll through the pictures and drag them into the document. A student asked one of the researchers how to make speech bubbles without arrows.

The students generally accomplished the task within the allotted time (1 hour) and near the end the teacher told students that anyone who had finished could 'have a fiddle' at making a second photo story of their choosing. This resulted in a good deal of experimentation

At the end of the session students presented their photo stories to the class, as seen below.

Results

Most students' photostories tended to replicate the one the teacher demonstrated at the start of the session. However they demonstrated creativity within this structure, for example using speech bubbles to have pictured students say what they were doing, or giving labels or speech bubbles to inanimate objects such as the whiteboard or the class register.

There were some technical issues. For example, the teacher placed the template on a server, and students were instructed to open the file and save a copy into their own folders. However, when all students simultaneously tried to access the same file this caused severe network delays. To address this during the session, the teacher tried to save a copy into each student's folder herself using her own laptop.

Students generally found the software easy to use. One student, when asked whether using the software was a good way to tell a story, said, 'Yeah, because it's a comic strip!' but then said a story would be easier to understand if it was written down, 'because then you would be able to describe it more, and this is just pictures with a little bit of writing about what's happening,' adding that a written account could include more detail.

Another student said, 'I like when you click on anything, absolutely anything, you can change the style of it and I really love it for that.' The main complaint was that the text boxes were difficult to move around.

What's the score?

2009-03-14T11:23:00.000-07:00

Science inspired the world wide web. Two decades on, the web has repaid the compliment by changing science. more

Charlie Williams (Dr.)

2009-03-12T06:02:00.000-07:00

Topics: African climate, climate change, rainfall variability, climate modelling, remote sensing, GIS

Location, position: Reading, University of Reading

web page

c.j.r.williams@reading.ac.uk (01183) 785 586

Darren Thompson (Dr.)

2009-03-12T05:56:00.000-07:00

Topics: Biochemistry, Structural Biology, Protein Chemistry, Immunology, Drug Design, Degenerative Disease and Chemical Biology

Location, position: Brighton, University of Sussex

web page

D.Thompson@sussex.ac.uk (01273) 876631

Kathy Romer (Dr.)

2009-03-12T05:55:00.000-07:00

Topics: Astronomy: X-ray, optical and microwave observations of clusters of galaxies

Location, position: Brighton, University of Sussex

Previous school collaboration: participation in primary school science weeks, talks to GCSE physics pupils

web page

romer@sussex.ac.uk 01273 877478

Milan Prodanovic (Dr.)

2009-03-12T05:53:00.000-07:00

Topics: Electrical power and control

Location, position: London, Imperial College

web page

milan.prodanovic@imperial.ac.uk 020 7594 6290

Libby John (Dr.)

2009-03-12T05:52:00.000-07:00

Topics: plant nutrition, biodiversity, ecology

Location, position: Brighton, University of Sussex

web page

E.A.John@sussex.ac.uk (01273) 877256

Peter Hobson (Prof.)

2009-03-12T05:51:00.000-07:00

Topics: Particle Physics, holography, radiation-effects

Location, position: London, Brunel University

web site

Peter.Hobson@brunel.ac.uk 01895 266799

Jonathan Hare (Dr.)

2009-03-12T05:50:00.000-07:00

Topics: Physics, Earths Electrostatic field (atmospheric electricity), C60, Rough Science TV

Location, position: Brighton, Freelance research scientist, Creative science centre, University of Sussex

Previous school collaboration: numerous UK wide, including Portslade Community College (sec), Hove Park School (sec)

web page

j.p.hare@sussex.ac.uk

Darren Griffin (Prof.)

2009-03-12T05:48:00.000-07:00

Topics: Genetics, Human Genetics

Location, position: Canterbury, University of Kent

web page

D.K.Griffin@kent.ac.uk 01227 827580

Ben Croxford (Dr.)

2009-03-12T05:43:00.000-07:00

Topics: Air pollution, Low Energy Buildings and renewable energy

Location, position: London, Bartlett School of Graduate Studies, University College London

Previous school collaboration: Varndean School (sec)

web page

b.croxford@ucl.ac.uk 020 7679 1890

Science Experts Directory

2009-03-11T05:39:00.000-07:00

This directory is provided to help you find someone to consult or collaborate with on science topics. Scientists can be approached to help you understand a topic, to communicate with your students, or possibly engage in an experiment. Each scientist here has agreed to appear in this directory.

All directory scientists
Biology scientists
Chemistry scientists
Physics scientists

UK scientist search

If the topic you require help on is not listed, try our find a UK science expert for school collaborations search.

Other resources

The Big Question – for learners, teachers and scientists ~ 250 scientists involved in ‘08

Short scientist films of real-world science, created as teaching and learning resource

Suggest a scientist

To grow our expert directory, suggest yourself or another science expert to us here. Email your name, the nominated scientist, and his/her contact details to Hilary Smith.

Impact crater experiments

2009-03-11T03:52:00.000-07:00

See our mobile phone and web 2.0 technology guidelines and ideas on learning about the Impact Crater Experiments blog here.

DIY energy windmill experiments

2009-03-11T03:50:00.000-07:00

Blogger – free software for creating a blog, e.g. around a project or experiment, publish hypotheses, evidence data, research done, findings and conclusions and allow peer review, additions etc. See our DIY Energy blog.

ComicLife for photo-story type activities

2009-03-11T03:48:00.000-07:00

This software is available free on Macs and for a fee from Plasq

A page on ‘how to use ComicLife in the classroom’ is available from here.

Using Web 2.0 applications for learning, sharing, communicating, reporting

2009-03-11T03:32:00.000-07:00

Some Web 2.0 apps we have used are indicated below. The DIY Energy windmill blog was created by presenting feeds from a number of different web tools as a single page. The tools below are freely available unless indicated. Some school networks have filters that may not allow some or all of these tools to work.

Communication software

Skype provides free video, audio and text chat between skype users. Simple to install and use.

TokBox provides free video calling and is used within a browser window so there is nothing to download.

Flickr – free photo upload and share site enabling content tagging, comments etc. to be added

Supporting reflection for learning through photo-stories

2009-03-11T01:20:00.000-07:00

As a learning tool, photo-stories can be selected to create a narrative or snapshot of a concept, experiment, or similar to indicate a level of understanding, draw out results, major findings etc. The following is a suggested lesson outline that describes and introduces a comic-style photo-story and how it may be used in a secondary class activity. Supporting technology can include ComicLife – see later section.

Photo-story Précis Primer

What is Science?
• Science is a story that we tell each other about how the world we live in works.
• The story is based on what we have collectively seen or measured about the world.
• The story is not finished, we are constantly finding ways to improve the process of science and making new discoveries.
• When communicating science there are many different ways we can do this. What ways can you think of? (Television documentaries, books, radio programmes, You tube, new scientist magazine, talks, science festivals, doing and recording experiments…)

What are Comics / Photo-stories?
• Comics are a medium for telling a story that combines both words and pictures.
• Comics are “sequential art” - to read the story multiple panels are “read” in sequence.
• Much of their communication goes on “between” panels
◦ The reader’s brain automatically fills in what has happened in the gap.

What are Comics Good For?
• Comics can be used to quickly tell a story (they can be read more quickly than text on its own).
• Comics are often used when working out how best to tell a story since they are easy to edit
◦ You can quickly add or remove panels, or rearrange the order that panels are placed in.
◦ You can add narration if the panels miss important stages in the process being conveyed
◦ You may have seen “storyboards” for TV shows or films before they have been shot.
• Comics can be used to tell any story - including the truth and evidence base of science reporting by communicating science work or concepts to others, helping others understand what was done in an experiment to give them enough knowledge to repeat what was done reliably.

Today's workshop will focus on using sequential art to précis a story – that is, using a comic to simplify a story by stripping out some of the less important details. The session is split into two halves. The first half introduces the cartoon précis with a humorous example story, the second half develops the skills with the creation of a science based narrative.

[Example from Scott McCloud]

Participatory science learning design prompts

2009-03-10T16:10:00.001-07:00

Experimentation -Does your idea involve learners in:
Hypothesis formation? Experimental design? Data collection?
Data analysis? Reporting & reflecting on their experimental activity?
Sharing
Do learners share data, methods, tools, opinions, reports?
Is this sharing motivated & significant? How? Why?
Is the amount of sharing enabling learning (by students and/or teachers
and/or scientists) beyond what would usually be possible?
Connections -Does the activity link:
school science to science in the real world?
to the learner's world and interests?
to other learning across the curriculum?
to informal and/or out of school learning?
to prior and future learning opportunities?
Collaboration
Are learners motivated to collaborate?
Are other learners, not normally accessible within the school, involved?
Are outside experts involved? Are out of school people (zoo keepers,
museum workers, parents/friends/etc…) involved?
Are these collaborations motivated? Are the collaborators motivated?
Participation -Are learners:
participating in real world science research?
engaging with current issues in science?
contributing to the learning of others (e.g. Scientists, other learners)?
Is ICT use motivated and appropriate?e.g:
Handheld and remote devices and sensors used to facilitate data capture?
Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality/Simulation tools used to make the
invisible visible or to represent difficult concepts?
Collaboration tools enabling larger scale data sharing, communication
beyond the classroom, etc.
Is technology enabling otherwise difficult or impossible learning activity?

Participatory science learning design checklist

2009-03-10T16:08:00.000-07:00

Aim, learning objectives and/or other motivations for the activity

What age ranges/kinds of learners is the activity suitable for?

How does the activity build on learners' current knowledge/other learning?

How will learners be assessed?

How does the activity fit curriculum requirements?

What time period will the activity take place over? How many sessions, etc..

Where will the activity take place (may be multiple locations)?

What are the constraints imposed by these locations? (e.g. School and other institutional rules and regulations, health and safety, noise, restrictions on: access to Internet, equipment, behaviour etc…)

What equipment and other resources are required for the activity?

Where and how can these resource can be accessed/acquired?

Who needs to be involved in the activity? (teachers, technicians, outside experts, others)

How can these people be recruited/involved/motivated to participate?

What are the desired relationships between the people and learners involved in your design and how can the formation of these relationships be supported?

What other practical difficulties can you see in implementing your activity plan - e.g. training requirements, cost, ethics, risk assessment, discipline, etc...? How might these be overcome?

How will you assess the success of your activity?

Technology used for Impact Crater Experiments

2009-03-10T12:07:00.000-07:00

• Online spreadsheet (Google Doc or similar) used to collect together, share and compare experiment results
• Mobile devices used to capture visual/audio-visual data and evidence from experiments.
• Flickr and YouTube (or similar) used to share evidence and data.
• Shozu on mobile phone used to upload rapidly to Flickr, YouTube etc.
• Blog used to tie-together experimental reports, results (on spreadsheet) and evidence of method and data (on Flickr and YouTube).

Technology used for DIY energy experiments

2009-03-10T12:05:00.000-07:00

• Blogger website as main web page and collecting blog posts
• Flickr to collect and provide photos to feed into blog site
• YouTube to collect and feed video clips to blog site
• Google spreadsheets to collect and calculate power data, and provide cumulative battery level display
• Mobile phones to gather experiment evidence
• Shozu software on mobile phone to upload media to Flickr, YouTube
• Laptop(s) to upload blog posts and link in (via assigned tags) the photos and video media related to each blog post.

More photo story examples

2009-03-10T01:27:00.000-07:00

Example 2

I) Show 5 minute footage of us doing experiment (or could use actual “Brainiacs” TV show)
II) provide students with 50-or so still photos from the footage
III) Provide students with a bubble-budget for speech bubbles, annotations, etc.
IV) Task is to create a photo-story that

1. Explains what was done so that it could be reproduced by someone else
2. Conveys the finding of the experiment
3. Discusses any general principles shown

Future:

After this primer, in the next session students could conduct experiments and record their work using a video camera/phone/etc. and would be in a good position to use the ComicLife software to create a photo-story to describe their work.

Example 3:

As for example 2, but instead the teacher demonstrates the experiment etc. and the media taken at the time is used for photo-story creation in ComicLife. This eliminates a quantity of student work in lesson. The photo-story is then created using ComicLife in the next ICT lab slot or as homework.

Craters

2009-03-09T11:17:00.001-07:00

Online spreadsheet (Google Doc or similar) used to collect together, share and compare experiment results, mobile devices used to capture visual/audio-visual data and evidence from experiments. Flickr and you tube (or similar) used to share evidence and data. Blog used to tie-together experimental reports, results (on spreadsheet) and evidence of method and data (on Flickr and you tube).

Wind energy

2009-03-09T11:16:00.000-07:00

Mobile treasure hunt

2009-03-09T10:57:00.000-07:00

Mobiles and SMS used to supply treasure hunt clues to structure outdoor learning activities/tasks. Other mobile devices used to record activity and capture images and descriptions related to solving the treasure hunt. Mobile used to submit answers to treasure hunt clues and progress to next clue

Bibliography

2009-03-06T07:26:00.000-08:00

Running list of relevant research in e-science

Aanensen DM, Huntley DM, Feil EJ, al-Own F, Spratt BG. EpiCollect: Linking Smartphones to Web Applications for Epidemiology, Ecology and Community Data Collection. PLoS ONE 4(9): e6968. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0006968

Atkinson, A., Fergusson, D. and Vander Meer, E. (2009) Curricula Development for e-Science: Meeting the Challenges. IEEE Intelligent Systems, Mar. 2009.

Stewart, K. Mobile learning: Designing the learning context. mLearn 07 proceedings

Wiseman, R. (1996) `MegaLab UK': participatory science and the mass media. Public Understanding of Science 5(2), 167-169.

About this site

2009-02-10T14:48:00.000-08:00

This web site presents outputs from the two-year e-Science Usability project – a collaboration between researchers at the University of Sussex, London Knowledge Lab and University of Nottingham, UK. The project investigated the potential for available web and media tools for engaging teachers and learners in exploratory learning science sessions.

The tools and activities were used in a variety of ways to engage teachers and learners to think about science teaching and learning in novel ways, and explore their potential for introducing new ways to collaborate, engage in critical thinking around their science, and report on, reflect, share, re-use, visualise and discuss their science with others.

It is intended these guidelines form a valuable and developing resource for teachers and learners, and we value feedback and new ideas.

A galaxy of helpful people

2009-01-15T05:16:00.000-08:00

An Oxford scientist has harnessed the power of the web to create a massive citizen-science project that is truly collaborative. more

Research

2009-01-08T00:26:00.000-08:00

Relevant projects, publications, sources, information.

Wald, David J. (2007) Did you feel it? Participatory science on the web. GSA Denver Annual Meeting (28–31 October 2007).