Habitat Tracker: Learning About Scientific Inquiry Through Digital Journaling in Wildlife Centers

• In Event: Poster Session 4
  In Poster Session: Science Curriculum and Instructional Interventions

Abstract

Teachers have difficulties creating inquiry based classrooms that develop student understandings of scientific inquiry and nature of science. Our Habitat Tracker project has developed an intervention supporting student scientific inquiry through data collection in a habitat museum utilizing: 1) Habitat Tracker, a Digital journaling application created for the iPad. Students record observations, collect data, and answer questions about natural science; 2) the Habitat Tracker Community Website, an interactive forum. To test the effectiveness of this intervention, 4 and 5th grade science teacher’s participated in a summer workshop to improve their understanding of NOS and scientific inquiry while learning about the intervention. Initial data show that teachers developed an increased understanding of NOS with more data to come.

Author

• Amanda N. Clark, Florida State University