In 2024, we published nine journal articles and four book chapters. Through these publications and our @Concord newsletter, our goal is to share relevant knowledge between the education researcher and practitioner communities.

Read all Concord Consortium articles and book chapters.

Using Multiple, Dynamically Linked Representations to Develop Representational Competency and Conceptual Understanding of the Earthquake Cycle

Research has shown that students have difficulty with moving across, connecting, and sensemaking from multiple representations. We developed a block code-based computational modeling environment with three different representations—a procedural representation of block codes, a geometric representation of land deformation build-up, and a graphical representation of deformation build-up over time—and embedded it within an online activity for students to carry out investigations around the earthquake cycle. In this study, we focus on three representational competencies: 1) linking between representations, 2) disciplinary sensemaking from multiple representations, and 3) conceptualizing domain-relevant content derived from multiple representations.

Lore, C., Lee, H.-S., Pallant, A., & Chao, J. (2024). Using multiple, dynamically linked representations to develop representational competency and conceptual understanding of the earthquake cycle. Computers & Education, 222.

From Experience to Explanation: An Analysis of Students’ Use of a Wildfire Simulation

This study employs the Experiential Learning Theory framework to investigate students’ use of a wildfire simulation. We analyzed log files automatically generated by middle and high school students as they used a wildfire simulation and answered associated prompts in three simulation-based tasks. We first analyzed students’ log files to determine which, if any, measure of simulation use–quantity of runs, variation in runs, or quality of experimentation setup–predicted their scores on responses to observation and explanation questions that followed the simulation experience.

Lord, T., Horwitz, P., Pallant, A., & Lore, C. (2024). From experience to explanation: An analysis of students’ use of a wildfire simulation. Educational Technology Research & Development.

Addressing Design Challenges When Integrating Machine Learning with a Digital Annotation System to Examine Student Proportional Reasoning

This article reports on a novel approach to integrate artificial intelligence into a digital collaborative platform embedded with a problem-based mathematics curriculum. Using design research methodologies, we developed a new “proof-of-concept” design feature called “student proportional reasoning arrows (SPArrows).” SPArrows enable students and teachers to annotate their proportional reasoning through visual notes on their documented work. SPArrows and associated teacher- and researcher-generated tagging will generate data required to train machine learning to analyze students’ proportional reasoning in the digital platform.

Edson, A. J., Fabry, A., Kohar, A. W., Bondaryk, L., & Phillips, E. D. (2024). Addressing design challenges when integrating machine learning with a digital annotation system to examine student proportional reasoning. Digital Experiences in Mathematics Education.

Integrating the Plate Tectonic and Rock Genesis Systems for Secondary School Students

This paper describes how plate tectonics and rock genesis, two topics that are typically addressed separately in secondary Earth science classes, can be taught together as an integrated system. We define the TecRocks Reasoning Framework, developed to support student reasoning about rock formation situated in the context of plate tectonics. We also explain how we leveraged the framework in the designs of a new curriculum, interactive computer simulation, and assessment instrument.

Pallant, A., Lore, C., Lee, H.-S., Seevers, S., & Lord, T. (2024). Integrating the plate tectonic and rock genesis systems for secondary school students. Journal of Geoscience Education.

Framing Geohazard Learning as Risk Assessment Using a Computer Simulation: A Case of Flooding

In order to characterize students’ risk assessment explanations based on the Geohazard Risk Framework, which describes four key elements of risk for high school science education, we investigate whether student explanations include the following risk elements: scientific factors, impacts, human influences, and likelihood. This study uses the Geohazard Risk Framework to analyze how students explain their risk assessments and risk mitigation strategies based on experimentation with an interactive computer simulation designed to model flooding risks and hazards.

Pallant, A., Lee, H.-S., Lord, T., & Lore, C. (2024). Framing geohazard learning as risk assessment using a computer simulation: A case of flooding. Journal of Science Education and Technology.

Using Simulations to Support Students’ Conceptual Development Related to Wildfire Hazards and Risks from an Experiential Learning Perspective

From the experiential learning perspective, this study investigates middle and high school students who used an online module to learn about wildfire hazards, risks, and impacts through computational simulations of wildfire phenomena. We analyzed students’ simulation behaviors captured in log files, responses to an assessment administered before and after the module, and demographic surveys, as well as teachers’ responses to a post-module implementation survey. Using mixed effects generalized linear modeling, we investigated whether students’ simulation experiences, their prior real-world wildfire experience, and the strategies used by their teachers predicted their understanding of wildfire concepts.

Lord, T., Horwitz, P., Lee, H.-S., Pallant, A., & Lore, C. (2024). Using simulations to support students’ conceptual development related to wildfire hazards and risks from an experiential learning perspective. Journal of Science Education and Technology.

Multidimensional Science Assessment: Design Challenges and Technology Affordances

Contemporary views on what students should learn increasingly emphasize that students need to acquire more than a base of knowledge; they need to acquire the skills and abilities to use such knowledge in dynamic and flexible ways. To be most effective, learning environments need assessments that are aligned to these perspectives. In this paper, we describe three challenges (conflict between multiple dimensions of science proficiency, authentic data, and grade-appropriate graphing tools) that we faced when designing for a specific Next Generation Science Standard, and the theoretical and design principles that guided us as we ideated design solutions.

Gane, B.D., Gaur, D., Arnold, S., & Damelin, D. (2024). Multidimensional science assessment: Design challenges and technology affordances. Educational Designer, 16.

A Roadmap for Virtual Professional Learning: Bringing Inquiry Science Practices to Life Through Teacher Professional Community

Teaching inquiry science takes time and hard work. It also requires collaborative professional learning communities that support teachers in overcoming typical classroom challenges. This article describes an effective approach for facilitating professional learning that supports inquiry science teaching. Since the COVID pandemic, more teachers are familiar with videoconferencing and may even have initiated or expanded their use of asynchronous text-based discussion. A hybrid combination of these platforms provides an effective, two-fold strategy for facilitating a teacher professional learning community that engages teachers in deepened reflection and sustained collaboration with colleagues.

Haavind, S. (2024). A roadmap for virtual professional learning: Bringing inquiry science practices to life through teacher professional community. School Science and Mathematics.

From Graphs as Task to Graphs as Tool

This study investigates student interactions with digital data graphs and seeks to identify what might prompt students to shift toward using their graphs as thinking tools in the authentic activity of doing science. Drawing from video screencast data of three small groups engaged in sensor-based and computer simulation-based experiments in high school physics classes, exploratory qualitative methods are used to identify the student interactions with their graphs and what appeared to prompt shifts in those interactions. Analysis of the groups revealed that unexpected data patterns and graphical anomalies sometimes, but not always, preceded deeper engagement with the graphs.

Stephens, A. L. (2024). From graphs as task to graphs as tool. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 61(5), 1206–1233.

Uses of Artificial Intelligence in STEM Education

Chapter 10, “Supporting simulation-mediated scientific inquiry through automated feedback,” describes the design of an effective feedback system that functions in real-world classrooms. Using a conjecture map, we delineate the design research process related to an AI-enabled automated feedback system called HASbot, focusing on whether and how automated feedback on scientific argument artifacts can improve students’ simulation-mediated scientific inquiry.

Lee, H.-S., Gweon, G.-H., & Pallant, A. (2024). Supporting simulation-mediated scientific inquiry through automated feedback. In X. Zhai & J. Krajcik (Eds.), Uses of artificial intelligence in STEM education. Oxford University Press.

Creating and Using Instructionally Supportive Assessments in NGSS Classrooms

This book empowers science teachers to create tasks that guide students to use their knowledge, not just memorize facts. The Next Generation Science Assessment design process transforms assessments into valuable classroom tools that teachers can use to chart how students’ learning builds with instruction over time. This step-by-step approach provides a pathway for creating tasks that will support, engage, and encourage students in Next Generation Science Standards classrooms. Concord Consortium senior scientist Dan Damelin coauthored two chapters: Chapter 6: “Attending to Equity and Inclusion in the Assessment Design Process” and Chapter 9: “Reflections and Implications: Creating and Using Three-Dimensional Assessment Tasks to Support NGSS Instruction.”

Harris, C., Krajcik, J. & Pellegrino, J. (Eds.) (2024). Creating and using instructionally supportive assessments in NGSS classrooms. NSTA Press, National Science Teaching Association.

Ways of Thinking in STEM-based Problem Solving: Teaching and Learning in a New Era

Chapter 7, “Students’ systems modeling: A classroom of the future,” describes a systems modeling tool called SageModeler that was designed with students’ needs in mind. The classroom of the future is envisioned through an extended scenario of three modeling modules in which students use SageModeler to investigate global warming. Descriptions are provided of the systems thinking and computational thinking aspects students engage in as they build, evaluate, and revise their models.

Roderick, S., Damelin, D., & Stephens, A. L. (2024). Students’ systems modeling: A classroom of the future. In L. D. English & T. Lehmann (Eds.). Ways of thinking in STEM-based problem solving: Teaching and learning in a new era. Routledge.