Collaborative Design-Based Science Learning Among Rural Youth Enhanced by Social Networking Forums

• In Event: 75.020 - Social-Mediated Learning, Intelligent Tutoring, and Knowledge-Building Discourse

Abstract

[The STEM Club] is an afterschool program targeting rural middle-school-age youth to provide integrative STEM education in a free-choice setting. The inquiry-driven curriculum, generically referred to as Save the Animals, promotes an iterative process of design, testing, and redesign to derive solutions to open-ended challenges related to energy security, and alternative energy resources. This proposal explores contributions made to the social networking forum (SNF), Edmodo, as a knowledge-building platform to extend the design space. Evidence suggests that the affordances of SNFs could encourage youth to collaborate and provide feedback to one another in an environment guided by more knowledgeable facilitators. We report that youth frequently appropriated Edmodo for reporting design progress, seeking or providing assistance, and articulating emergent understandings.

Authors

• Michael A. Evans, North Carolina State University

• Samantha Won, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University