Scaffolding to Increase Agency Among Early Learners Conducting Wearable-Based Scientific Inquiry

• In Event: The Design of Learning Technologies for Diverse Contexts and Audiences

Abstract

Wearable sensors show promise in engaging youth in scientific inquiry by leveraging physical activity and the body as life-relevant inquiry targets. However, prior work has limited evaluations to fifth-grade classrooms or higher. In our work, we explore how to integrate wearable-based inquiry into early-elementary classrooms, including: designing age-appropriate scaffolds, adapting to teacher perspectives, and meeting Next Generation Science Standards. We present a wearable sensor-based inquiry program deployed in four elementary classrooms over two-years (two teachers; 90 children). We found that early learners were active designers of inquiry when complex concepts and procedures were decomposed with age-specific scaffolds (e.g., embodied definitions, question constraints, multimodal worked examples). We describe our scaffolds, which have implications for the emerging area of wearables for learning.

Authors

• Virginia Byrne, University of Maryland - College Park

• Rafael Velez

• Seokbin Kang

• Leyla Norooz, University of Maryland - College Park

• Monica Katzen

• Jon Froehlich, University of Maryland - College Park

• Tamara Lynnette Clegg, University of Maryland - College Park