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1. Aqualab: Establishing Validity of an Adventure Game for Middle School Science

   Kim, Y J; Metcalf, S J; Scianna, J; Perez, G; Gagnon, D (January 2022, Proceedings of the 30th International Conference on Computers in Education. Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education)

   Iyer, S (Ed.)

   In this work-in-progress poster, we will present how a team including game designers, learning scientists, and assessment scientists collaborated on an online adventure game, Aqualab, with the goal of creating a comprehensive long-format game that can be used across multiple classroom sessions to support development science inquiry practices as well as assess different learning pathways within the game. In this work-in-progress poster, we discuss how the team approached design and development of the game to ensure validity of the game, and how we are planning to further investigate validity evidence of the game as a whole. 

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2. Aqualab: Establishing Validity of an Adventure Game for Middle School Science

   Kim, YJ; Metcalf, S; Scianna, J; Perez, G; Gagnon, D (January 2022, Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education (APSCE))

   In this work-in-progress poster, we will present how a team including game designers, learning scientists,and assessment scientists collaborated on an online adventure game, Aqualab, with the goal of creating a comprehensive long-format game that can be used across multiple classroom sessions to support development science inquiry practices as well as assess different learning pathways within the game. In this work-in-progress poster, we discuss how the team approached design and development of the game to ensure validity of the game, and how we are planning to further investigate validity evidence of the gameas a whole. 

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3. The Instructor’s Role in a Model-Based Inquiry Laboratory: Characterizing Instructor Supports and Intentions in Teaching Authentic Scientific Practices

   https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.21-07-0177  

   Cooper, A. C.; Southard, K. M.; Osness, J. B.; Bolger, M. S. (March 2022, CBE—Life Sciences Education)

   Andrews, Tessa C. (Ed.)

   Limited access to undergraduate research experiences for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics students has led to creation of classroom-based opportunities for students to participate in authentic science. Revising laboratory courses to engage students in the practices of science has been shown to have many benefits for students. However, the instructor’s role in successful implementation of authentic-inquiry curricula requires further investigation. Previous work has demonstrated that navigating an instructional role within the open-ended format of an inquiry curriculum is challenging for instructors. Little is known about effective strategies for supporting students in authentic scientific practices. To address this challenge, we investigated instructors with prior experience teaching Authentic Inquiry through Modeling in Biology (AIM-Bio) in order to reveal strategies that are likely to help students succeed in this context. We took a unique approach that uncovered how instructors supported students and how they intended to support students in the scientific practices of modeling and experimental design. Analysis included in vivo recordings of instructor–student interactions paired with instructor interviews over the course of a semester. Findings detail the ways in which instructors flexibly responded to students through their in-the-moment actions. Additionally, the instructor intentions provided crucial explanatory power to explain the rationale behind teaching choices made. 

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4. Using Sequence Mining to Analyze Metacognitive Monitoring and Scientific Inquiry based on Levels of Efficiency and Emotions during Game-Based Learning

   Taub, M.; Azevedo, R. (December 2018, Journal of educational data mining)

   Self-regulated learning conducted through metacognitive monitoring and scientific inquiry can be influenced by many factors, such as emotions and motivation, and are necessary skills needed to engage in efficient hypothesis testing during game-based learning. Although many studies have investigated metacognitive monitoring and scientific inquiry skills during game-based learning, few studies have investigated how the sequence of behaviors involved during hypothesis testing with game-based learning differ based on both efficiency level and emotions during gameplay. For this study, we analyzed 59 undergraduate students’ (59% female) metacognitive monitoring and hypothesis testing behavior during learning and gameplay with CRYSTAL ISLAND, a game-based learning environment that teaches students about microbiology. Specifically, we used sequential pattern mining and differential sequence mining to determine if there were sequences of hypothesis testing behaviors and to determine if the frequencies of occurrence of these sequences differed between high or low levels of efficiency at finishing the game and high or low levels of facial expressions of emotions during gameplay. Results revealed that students with low levels of efficiency and high levels of facial expressions of emotions had the most sequences of testing behaviors overall, specifically engaging in more sequences that were indicative of less strategic hypothesis testing behavior than the other students, where students who were more efficient with both levels of emotions demonstrated strategic testing behavior. These results have implications for the strengths of using educational data mining techniques for determining the processes underlying patterns of engaging in self-regulated learning conducted through hypothesis testing as they unfold over time; for training students on how to engage in the self-regulation, scientific inquiry, and emotion regulation processes that can result in efficient gameplay; and for developing adaptive game-based learning environments that foster effective and efficient self-regulation and scientific inquiry during learning. 

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5. Comparing the Use of Two Different Approaches to Assess Teachers’ Knowledge of Models and Modeling in Science Teaching

   https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13040405  

   Carroll, Grace; Park, Soonhye (April 2023, Education Sciences)

   Science teacher knowledge for effective teaching consists of multiple knowledge bases, one of which includes science content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge. With the inclusion of science and engineering practices into the national science education standards in the US, teachers’ content knowledge goes beyond subject matter knowledge and into the realm of how scientists use practices for scientific inquiry. This study compares two approaches to constructing and validating two different versions of a survey that aims to measure the construct of teachers’ knowledge of models and modeling in science teaching. In the first version, a 24-item Likert scale survey containing content and pedagogical knowledge items was found to lack the ability to distinguish different knowledge levels for respondents, and validation through factor analysis indicated content and pedagogical knowledge items could not be separated. Findings from the validation results of the first survey influenced revisions to the second version of the survey, a 25-item multiple-choice instrument. The second survey employed a competence model framework for models and modeling for item specifications, and results from exploratory factor analysis revealed this approach to assessing the construct to be more appropriate. Recommendations for teacher assessment of science practices using competence models and points to consider in survey design, including norm-referenced or criterion-referenced tests, are discussed. 

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