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Pets are beloved family members in many cultures. Companionship with pets motivates and positions humans as inquirers as they find out their pets' experiences with them. With the need to advance science education from dualist notions of the world and the learner as separate entities, our research team conducted a two-week online summer camp to engage teens and their pets in investigations around pets' senses. Following a qualitative analysis of participants' talk and projects at the workshop, we found that teens engaged in science learning practices while investigating aspects of their pets' lives and designing experiences for them. Additionally, participants adopted an ecological and relational approach to science learning that positioned themselves and their pets as subjects. We discuss implications for future work with pets, and for the design of other STEM learning environments that engage perspective-taking, empathy, and care. 

Teachers often find it challenging to learn computational thinking (CT) and integrate it with classroom learning. In this systematic review, we focus on how professional learning experiences have supported K-12 teachers to integrate CT into their classrooms. The findings suggest some effective strategies for building professional learning experiences but highlight the need for more agreement about the nature of CT. 

Ecologists construct physical microcosms that exemplify mechanisms and relations in ecosystems. This poster describes how a 7th-grade classroom complemented field study of an intertidal ecosystem with design of classroom microcosms. Initial designs appeared constrained by literal resemblance. As students’ inquiry increasingly focused on interactions among organisms, they configured microcosms to facilitate observation of these interactions. Microcosms became sites for studying processes that could be inferred from field data but rarely observed directly. 

Socio-ecological histories of places are political, contested, and intimately linked with ways of knowing and being in the world. Supporting students in perspective taking and reasoning through contested histories of places are equity practices that allow for multiple and diverse stories to be told, honored, and incorporated in science learning. In this paper, we describe an approach to teaching about socio ecological systems from the Learning in Places project using a framework called Socioecological Histories of Places. We first describe the framework and its design within the Learning in Places project. We then analyze one teacher’s implementation of this approach and discuss implications for understanding issues of power, historicity, and ethical decision-making in field-based science learning and teaching. 

Learners’ choices as to whether and how to use visual representations during learning are an important yet understudied aspect of self-regulated learning. To gain insight, we developed a choice-based intelligent tutor in which students can choose whether and when to use diagrams to aid their problem solving in algebra. In an exploratory classroom study with 26 students, we investigated how learners choose diagrams and how their choice behaviors relate to learning outcomes. Students who proactively chose to use diagrams achieved higher learning outcomes than those who reactively used diagrams when they made incorrect attempts. This study contributes to understanding of self-regulated use of visual representations during problem solving. 

Computational thinking (CT) is ubiquitous in modern science, yet rarely integrated at the elementary school level. Moreover, access to computer science education at the PK-12 level is inequitably distributed. We believe that access to CT must be available earlier and implemented with the support of an equitable pedagogical framework. Our poster will describe our Accessible Computational Thinking (ACT) research project exploring professional development with elementary teachers on integrating computational thinking with Culturally Responsive Teaching practices. 

From a design-based research study investigating rural families’ science learning with mobile devices, we share findings related to the intergenerational exploration of geological time concepts at a children’s garden at a university arboretum. The team developed a mobile augmented reality app, Time Explorers, focused on how millions of years of rock-water interactions shaped Appalachia. Data are recorded videos of app usage and interviews from 17 families (51 people); videos were transcribed, coded, and developed into qualitative case studies. We present results related to design elements that supported sensory engagement (e.g., observation, touch) through AR visualizations related to geological history. This analysis contributes to the literature on informal learning environments, theory related to learning-on- the-move, and the role of sensory engagement with AR experiences in outdoor learning. 

The work of ecologists entails structuring variability by parsing random and directed variability. Middle-grade students are often introduced to ideas about probability and statistics in mathematics, but these ideas are rarely employed in science investigations. This paper reports on a design study in one 7th-grade science classroom that participated in a citizen-science project investigating changes in invasive crab populations. Students surveyed crab abundance at one field site, contributing observations to a citizen-science database. Finding an unexpected atio between male and female crabs in their sample, students compared the ratio obtained in the field to a simulated sampling distribution of ratios in light of an equiprobable assumption. Finding that their sample’s sex ratio was improbable yet consistent with samples in the larger database instigated a search for ecological mechanism. Evidence of student thinking in classroom conversations point to seeds of distinguishing random from directed variability. 

Higher education institutions around the globe have increasingly made the commitment to diversity. Instructors play an integral role in creating inclusive learning environments. Guided by sociopolitical perspectives on learning, we ask: How do higher education instructors conceptualize diversity? How do these conceptions inform curriculum and instruction? Interview data from 30 instructors teaching at minority-serving institutions in the United States revealed three distinct conceptions of diversity defined by variations in five aspects: student identities, intelligence mindset, pedagogical motivation, learning environment, and legitimized membership. The essentialist conception is based on students having inherently determinate traits described by preexisting universal categories. The functionalist conception differentiates students by academic performance. The existentialist conception acknowledges that students have unique experiences that impact the learning process. Our results indicate that while instructors acknowledge different student features and have varying understanding for why diversity is important, some conceptions of diversity do not necessarily suggest an inclusive culture.