Balancing Between Trade-Offs: Iterative Design of Inquiry Learning Visualizations to Support Sensemaking and Conceptual Understanding

• In Event: 34.058 - Design of Innovative and Active Learning Environments

Abstract

Dynamic visualizations can serve as powerful learning resources for students by providing an interactive experimental space for conducting inquiry investigations and revising conceptual understandings. This paper presents our work on developing Investigating Seasons, a web-based inquiry curriculum for high school students. We focus in particular on discussing our design process for developing and refining the multiple dynamic visualizations embedded as inquiry learning tools in Seasons. We reflect upon some of the difficulties and tensions that we encountered during our development work as a basis for introducing potential guiding design principles (framed as tradeoffs between competing tensions) that we hope will interest other researchers engaged in the design of inquiry learning visualizations for science instruction.

Authors

• Jennifer King Chen, University of California - Berkeley

• Kevin McElhaney, SRI International

• Doug Kirkpatrick, University of California - Berkeley

• Marcia Linn, University of California - Berkeley