Search for: All records

Understanding bias and ethics in research is critical for both researchers and consumers of research. It facilitates sound decision-making, builds public trust in research, and ensures that research contributes positively to society. Authentic research opportunities can be critical for developing these skills, but are lacking in high school contexts. We designed and implemented MindHive, a curriculum and online platform for students to design and conduct online human behavior studies. Qualitative analysis of 98 student-generated research proposals and 21 individual interviews with students from across 6 high schools, identified various ways that students engaged with bias and ethical issues within their projects. Engaging in research about personally relevant questions and contexts may support students in shuttling between personal experiences and data, and taking on perspectives that help to reveal and address assumptions. Findings contribute to an understanding of how curriculum can meaningfully engage students in reasoning about research bias and ethics. 

With the emergence of self-tracking devices that collect and produce real-time personal data, it is becoming increasingly necessary to innovate data literacy frameworks and student curricula to address new competencies in data handling, visualization, and use. We examine the evolution of data literacy frameworks across the past 7 years, specifically focusing on the inclusion of self-data competencies. We analyzed existing data literacy frameworks to identify common phases of data engagement. A scoping review of published data literacy frameworks was conducted, and 23 studies were included for analysis. Results from this scoping review demonstrate the existence of at least eight sequential phases of data engagement to develop data literacy. Two of these phases address personal or self-data competencies. We then describe a curriculum that addresses these eight phases of data engagement by pairing biometric devices with online tools and educational materials to scaffold self-data knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Based on this, we conclude with the need to propose holistic data literacy education programmes, considering the curriculum as a model to guide similar materials aimed at fostering emerging data competencies. 

As a creative endeavor, scientific research requires inspiration, innovation, exploration, and divergent thinking. Yet, in K-12 settings, it is often viewed as rigid and formulaic. MindHive is a web-based platform designed to facilitate student-teacher-scientist partnerships in research on human behavior. Features support research phases (e.g., question finding, study design, peer review, iteration), and their creative dimensions, including exploration, expressiveness, collaboration, and enjoyment. Interviews with teachers and students who used MindHive show how learners describe their experiences as creative agents. This work illustrates how educational technologies can broaden STEM participation by being authentic to methodical and creative aspects of STEM research. 

As a creative endeavor, scientific research requires inspiration, innovation, exploration, and divergent thinking. Yet, in K-12 settings, it is often viewed as rigid and formulaic. MindHive is a web-based platform designed to facilitate student-teacher-scientist partnerships in research on human behavior. Features support research phases (e.g., question finding, study design, peer review, iteration), and their creative dimensions, including exploration, expressiveness, collaboration, and enjoyment. Interviews with teachers and students who used MindHive show how learners describe their experiences as creative agents. This work illustrates how educational technologies can broaden STEM participation by being authentic to methodical and creative aspects of STEM research. 

Citizen science programs offer opportunities for K-12 students to engage in authentic science inquiry. However, these programs often fall short of including learners as agents in the entire process, and thus contrast with the growing open science movement within scientific communities. Notably, study ideation and peer review, which are central to the making of science, are typically reserved for professional scientists. This study describes the implementation of an open science curriculum that engages high school students in a full cycle of scientific inquiry. We explored the focus and quality of students’ study designs and peer reviews, and their perceptions of open science based on their participation in the program. Specifically, we implemented a human brain and behavior citizen science unit in 6 classrooms across 3 high schools. After learning about open science and citizen science, students (N = 104) participated in scientist-initiated research studies, and then collaboratively proposed their own studies to investigate personally interesting questions about human behavior and the brain. Students then peer reviewed proposals of students from other schools. Based on a qualitative and quantitative analysis of students’ artifacts created in-unit and on a pre and posttest, we describe their interests, abilities, and self-reported experiences with study design and peer review. Our findings suggest that participation in open science in a human brain and behavior research context can engage students with critical aspects of experiment design, as well as with issues that are unique to human subjects research, such as research ethics. Meanwhile, the quality of students’ study designs and reviews changed in notable, but mixed, ways: While students improved in justifying the importance of research studies, they did not improve in their abilities to align methods to their research questions. In terms of peer review, students generally reported that their peers' feedback was helpful, but our analysis showed that student reviewers struggled to articulate concrete recommendations for improvement. In light of these findings, we discuss the need for curricula that support the development of research and review abilities by building on students’ interests, while also guiding students in transferring these abilities across a range of research foci.