Concord Consortium

Data science learning experiences for middle school-aged girls in informal gaming clubs fy2023the primary goal of The project is to design and investigate informal, game-based data science learning experiences for middle school-aged girls and gender-expansive youth that promote learning and interest in data science. This project is a collaboration between The Concord Consortium, The university of miami, and fablevision games. Together, we are designing and developing a multiplayer, data-rich virtual world and researching how it supports middle school girls' engagement with data and perceptions of their fit with data and data-rich futures.major activities in The first year focused on co-design and development of The "The isles of ilkmaar" game. This involved creating The game narrative, art assets, playable prototypes, data systems, and learning design documents. The design work was an iterative process incorporating feedback from The target audience, education researchers, and game developers.co-design research was also conducted by recruiting participants, developing research protocols and instruments, analyzing data to inform design, and preparing findings for academic conferences. Specific objectives achieved include: game narrative, art, prototypes, data system, and learning design documents created through collaboration between developers, researchers, and users. Irb exemptions received for studies on participatory design and gaming clubs. Online recruitment system established and surveys conducted, providing feedback and input from over 300 respondents. Interviews and playtests with target audience conducted, totaling over 25 sessions, and data collected from surveys and interviews analyzed. Wrote reports on The design process and research findings, and submitted articles to various conferences, including icls, cscl, seeds, and aera. An article detailing The project and its findings has been published in The @Concord newsletter, contributing to The dissemination of our work to a broader audience.in summary, The project has made significant progress in The collaborative design of a game-based data science learning experience, conducted research to inform The design, and disseminated findings, achieving its goals thus far. Key outcomes include playable game versions, research findings, and design documentation that will inform future project phases.

Leveraging dynamically linked representations in a semi-structured workspace to cultivate mathematical modeling competencies among secondary students (m2studio) fy2023the m2studio project aims to cultivate mathematical modeling competencies among secondary students through a process-oriented pedagogical approach powered by a web-based, integrated modeling environment. Upholding an equity-centered research and development agenda, The project is collaborating with schools serving black, latinx, and native american populations across rural, urban, and suburban settings. Teachers and school leaders are participating as co-designers in all stages of The project, shaping The development of technology and curriculum to serve teacher needs and underrepresented student populations. Technology and curriculum developmentm2studio platform: this year, we enhanced The m2studio platform with features that enable interactive mathematical operations and model visualization. This development phase was characterized by focusing on user experience, ensuring The tool is intuitive and effective for students.curriculum module: we developed and implemented a comprehensive 10-hour curriculum module for algebra and statistics. This module includes detailed teaching guides, assessments, and interactive learning tasks designed to maximize student engagement and learning outcomes. This development process involved integrating insights from co-design teachers, relevant literature, and team experience to create interactive and contextually relevant lessons.assessments: we established a robust framework for evaluating mathematical modeling competencies. This encompasses a range of assessment tools designed to gauge student understanding and progress in a nuanced and comprehensive manner.participatory design and iterative development: The project emphasizes active collaboration with teachers and students in its design and testing phases. This participatory approach ensures that The developed tools and curriculum are responsive to The needs and contexts of The learning community. We completed technology and module improvement based on The experience of 6 students in a laboratory setting, then piloted The full module with 10 teachers and a total of 369 high school students from Oregon and new york. Collected data include students' artifacts, responses to questions and quizzes, and over 100 hours of recorded videos (camera recording videos and computer screen recordings) focusing on students' interactions with The m2studio tools and students' engagement in The learning activities. These recordings provided valuable insights into how students navigate and utilize The modeling environment in real time. Research activitiesdevelopment of analytical frameworks: we developed innovative analytical tools to assess The impact of The m2studio platform on student learning. These tools are crucial for understanding The nuances of technology-mediated learning and for making data-driven decisions to enhance The platform.professional development and trainingpostdoctoral and doctoral training: we engaged with postdoctoral and doctoral researchers, integrating their expertise into The curriculum development and implementation process. These scholars bring fresh perspectives and innovative ideas to The project.teacher professional learning: this year, we offered a 40-hour professional development workshop for teachers. This workshop equipped educators with The necessary skills to implement The m2studio curriculum and provided a platform for exchanging ideas and best practices.

Precipitating change with Alaskan and Hawaiian schools: bridging indigenous and western science while mitigating coastal erosion project fy2023 The precipitating change with Alaskan and Hawaiian schools project httpsconcordorgprecipitatingchang... at The Concord Consortium is a multi-year collaboration with The university of Montana; university of hawai'iHawaii'i, manoa; The university of Alaska at anchorage including The applied environmental research center (uaa-aerc); and partner middle schools in Alaska and hawai'iHawaii'i. The project goal is to design and test instructional materials and technologies to promote middle school students' capacity to bridge between indigenous and western science through a multi-perspective instructional approach that includes and values indigenous knowledge and culture, and engages students with western science without asking them to abandon or devalue their home culture perspective. The project aims to promote middle school students' ability to apply integrated earth science, mathematics, and computational thinking skills in The context of coastal erosion. The instructional unit is designed with universal design for learning (udl) principles, including a multiple-representation glossary, translations for indigenous languages, and scaffolding to assist students in understanding indigenous and western science terms. The precipitating change: coastal erosion instructional unit targets three main ngss standards.instructional unit. Consistent with a design-based implementation research approach, unit design and instruction reflect collaboration among partners representing diverse areas of expertise including indigenous and western science, and science education research, design, and practice. Unit design and instruction also reflect integration and iterative refinement of multiple instructional elements. In The five-week coastal erosion unit, these elements are infused and organized into The creative process instructional model sequence. There is a focus on stories, learning with elders, community practices and arts for indigenous ways of knowing throughout The lessons. Working with environmental scientists at uaa-aerc, we created coastal erosion scenarios for students to engage with using historical data. Thus, using both embedded phenomena and computational models, students experience erosion events evolving in The same way that The actual events evolved through interactions among variables such as sea level, wave height, substrate material, vegetation, precipitation, and wind speed. Using a variety of methods that build flexibility and can be adjusted for every student's strengths and needs, udl provides all students an equal opportunity to succeed throughout The curriculum. Udl features provide flexibility in information presentation and reduce barriers in instruction. A key udl project feature in The coastal erosion unit is a multi-representational glossary where students can view indigenous and western science terms and symbols hyperlinked, represented, and contextualized through pictures, diagrams, and a short movie. Such opportunities for students to use The glossary to toggle back and forth between english and their native language are especially powerful for place-based and culturally congruent instruction with indigenous students. Technology and software. Three technological tools were developed for The coastal erosion unitembedded phenomena (ep)/ beach profile grapher, classroom wave tank physical model, and netlogo computational modelsto help students answer The following question: "how does coastal erosion affect our lives and what, if anything, should we do about it?" During The coastal erosion investigations students study three driving questions: 1. Has The shoreline changed in The past and is it changing now? How and why? ; 2. If The shoreline keeps changing The way it has been, what will it be like in The future? ; and 3. What could or should be done about The changing shoreline?the ep/ beach profile grapher software provides students The opportunity to explore a large complex dataset kinesthetically to help them visualize a beach profile using The emery method. Each classroom is provided a large wave tank to investigate and conduct physical tests of how water height and wave action impact coasts. Using The wave tank model, students can test different mitigation treatments including seawalls and revetments of different forms, rock armor, and breakwaters to examine The relative effectiveness of these methods for mitigating erosion. Netlogo models complement The ep and wave tank experiences by providing students with a tool that can help them develop and test The rules they build around coastal erosion. Students use this model to make sense of local data represented in maps and visualizations that extend over time; identify patterns and relationships among variables; and make predictions for impacts of sea level rise, storm surge, and coastal erosion on their communities. Research: research on student learning is guided by The following questions: developing multi-perspective learning progression frameworks: what are different ways students make sense of coastal erosion? How do students' ways of making sense reflect personal and cultural (including indigenous) funds of knowledge as well as western stem perspectives reflective of ngss- aligned three-dimensional science knowledge and practice? Examining learning: how do culturally congruent, multi-perspective learning experiences thatvalue both students' home culture and western science perspectives relate to changes in students' science knowledge and practices integrating coastal erosion and computational thinking? Examining preparation for future learning: how do multi-perspective learning experiences influence The approaches to learning students describe when they encounter a new socioscientific issue?

The Concord Consortium produced technology-based curriculum materials for science, math, and engineering for students in elementary school through college. Our major programs produced dozens of curricular units and activities supporting learning in physics, physical science, earth and environmental science, chemistry, biology, mathematics, data science, and engineering. Aside from our major programs, we gathered and investigated research data from 40 additional programs that inform The development and refinement of curriculum materials, and benefit other researchers and organizations developing educational technology.