Innovative Methods of Teaching Science and Engineering in Secondary Schools

Abstract

This article describes the design of an interactive learning environment to increase student achievement in middle schools by addressing students' preconceptions, and promoting purposeful social collaboration, distributed cognition, and contextual learning. The paper presents the framework that guided our design efforts to immerse all students in a progression of guided-inquiry hands-on activities. Students find compelling reasons to learn by responding to authentic science-based challenges, both in simulations and hands-on activities, based on specific instructional objectives from the national standards.

Keywords

• games
• design-based research
• Simulations
• Collaboration
• Learning