The "Name" Project: Learning in a Team of High School Students Addressing a Climate Mitigation Challenge

• In Event: 14.045 - Roundtable Session 2
  In Roundtable Session: 14.045-3 - Engaging Youth Through STEAM Projects

Abstract

The "Name" project designed and conducted a competition for students aged 13-18 to propose and test strategies for mitigating rising levels of greenhouse gases. Using an activity theory approach, this paper explores the scientific inquiry and interdisciplinary learning of a 12th grade high school team over 6 months of participation. An activity-theoretic approach seems promising as a framework for capturing and analyzing the structure of a learning system situated within a science competition, since it provides a lens both for finding and analyzing team learning, and for revealing the process by which learning is mediated by the activity system.

Authors

• Gillian M. Puttick, TERC

• Brian E. Drayton, TERC