"Using River City to teach Scientific Method to At Risk Students" by David Callihan
1. What is a descriptive title of your best practice
Using River City to teach Scientific Method to at risk students
2. Organization/Institution Name
DeSoto Middle School
3. Project Name
River City Project
4. Names of project lead(s) at your organization
David Callihan
5. Names of best practice author (if different from leads)
Harvard University - National Science Foundation
6. Funder for project
National Science Foundation
7. In which of the following settings does your project take place
K-12
8. Which of the following will your best practice explore?
Tools
Outcomes
Skill development
9. Which virtual world(s) or gaming environment are you utilizing in the program being described?
ActiveWorlds
10. Why did you choose that specific platform or community for your project?
This project was developed by Harvard University in Second Life to teach students who otherwise are not engaged in learning science and mathematics. It also introduces students to Virtual Worlds in Second Life. It was a safe environment because it was developed in Teen Second Life. I obviously could trust Harvard and NSF to provide a high quality learning opportunity.
11. What are the learning objectives of your project?
• To teach good inquiry skills in science learning.
• To teach with technology to expose students to new opportunities for learning.
• To develop skills in analyzing and drawing conclusions from prior knowledge.
• To build logic and reasoning skills.
• To gather information and use that information to make informed decisions.
• To determine independent and dependent variables in a science experiment and manipulate them properly to answer scientific questions.
12. Please write a description of your project and how it leverages virtual worlds for learning.
Students logged in to River City. They followed through 6 levels of learning using avatars to learn about the people of River City and their environment. They explored areas of the city, viewed pictures, took scientific samplings, recorded in notebooks, developed a scientific experiment with independent variables to evaluate a theory from a working hypothesis. From this information they made a recommendation as to what was causing the people in River City to be sick. They reported on this information to the Mayor, giving recommendations of what should be done to assist the city in alleviating the illness of their community.
13. Best Practice: Please describe one key element of your program's success that you learned during the process and would like to share with the RezEd community.
We live in a low income community. DeSoto County is one of the five poorest counties in Florida. Students are generally apathetic about mathematics and science learning. My goal was to stimulate their interest in learning the scientific method in a mathematics rich educational environment. The River City Project seemed to provide the ideal opportunity to test this approach. Several of my students are low performing testers. They do not test well on Florida's standardized tests. However, when they were invited to participate in River City, they seemed to be engaged in learning. All of the students participated and moved through the seven levels rather continuously with very little coaxing or looking over their shoulders. They learned about gathering data, keeping notes, the difference between an observation and an inference, independent and dependent variables in a scientific experiment, developing a hypothesis and testing it to prove or disprove a theory, and working together in a team to gather data. They learned how to act and interact as scientific researchers in an unknown environment where they had to make observations, ask relevant questions, and reach conclusions. The best thing about the River City experience for me was that the students were engaged and couldn't wait to continue to participate every day. They were involved in teams of 3 or 4 students together in the project. Each student had an avatar that they were able to manipulate during the project. The students seemed to enjoy learning how to move the avatar around the community. They were challenged to figure out how to move the avatar, especially how to make the avatar fly and run in the River City community. They also had to communicate through chatting with each other (no talking was allowed between students) as well as with the citizens of River City. Traveling back in time to the late 1800s allowed the students to feel as if they had gone back in time to a distant world that was much different from their current life. They had to learn how to appreciate being somewhere else that they had never been before, where the people didn't have the same understanding of things that they did scientifically or culturally. Another aspect of the experience that I attempted to do that wasn't even part of River City directly was to teach the students how to better work with mathematics in doing scientific research. I required the students to use Microsoft Excel to record and post their numerical data. They had to then develop graphs from their charted data and evaluate that data in determining their answers to the scientific research they had to perform in River City. Some of the students struggled with this because it was definitely hard for them doing it for the first time. However, many of them were really interested in the mathematical manipulation that they attempted to accomplish. Then they were able to gain a much better picture of their experiments and reach their conclusions much more easily since they could see the results in their graphs. It worked out well for a number of the students. I believe that this experience also kept my students focused in learning. I did the River City project during the final 8 weeks of school. Many of the students are ready to "tune out" as we get to the end of the school year. With River City, I was able to keep the students engaged right up to the very last day of school. In other classes in the 8th grade building the students were goofing off and distracted. In my classes, I had students working on River City right up to the last day of the school year. They had an interest in finding out the results of their experiments. They also just liked to participate in the virtual world. I believe this is a main reason that they participated through the project. I also believe that it made the study realistic and engaging. I am doing River City again this year in my new job in a high-risk high school in Southwest Georgia. I would recommend River City to any science teacher who is interested in a simple, yet engaging way to teach the scientific method to their students.
14. What would need to be in place (in terms of skills, staffing, infrastructure, systems, etc.) for someone else to reproduce your best practice?
The River City curriculum is very well documented. A science and math teacher who has a good working knowledge of best practices in these subjects would have no problem reproducing my results. The program is very well written and documented.
15. Please write a short anecdote that reflects this best practice.
One student in particular who had a difficult time even getting along with other students in the classroom, and who was a very low level learner was immediately engaged in River City. He ended up becoming so involved and participatory in the program that I could ask him for assistance in helping other students who had problems manipulating in the virtual world of Second Life. When this student first became involved in River City, he was very apathetic and apprehensive, as was his normal state of mind in my classroom. However, we had developed a level of trust so he was willing to give the project a shot. He was a bit reluctant initially because there was a pre-test that he had to complete that was rather academic. I thought I had lost him at that point. But then he entered the virtual world of Second Life in River City and it didn't take much time to see that he was "hooked." He wanted to make his avatar fly and spent several days just learning how to manipulate his person around the community. He explored everything. I encouraged him to not just "play the game," but to do the assignments. He wasn't really interested in that, but as I "encouraged" him by sharing that this was required to continue to participate, he decided to follow the rules. He took notes, did the assignments, took samples of the instruments, and worked through the scientific method as instructed. I could see that he was actually learning good science concepts. Although I would have liked to have seen him do better, what he did do was certainly more than would have been expected in a normal classroom situation. River City definitely taught this young man more about science than he had ever learned in a science class before. I am convinced that this type of learning environment is beneficial to these high-risk students who struggle in "normal" learning settings.
16. Please include the URLs of any photo(s), video(s), or sound file(s) that are specific to the program you are describing.
http://muve.gse.harvard.edu/rivercityproject/
Using River City to teach Scientific Method to at risk students
2. Organization/Institution Name
DeSoto Middle School
3. Project Name
River City Project
4. Names of project lead(s) at your organization
David Callihan
5. Names of best practice author (if different from leads)
Harvard University - National Science Foundation
6. Funder for project
National Science Foundation
7. In which of the following settings does your project take place
K-12
8. Which of the following will your best practice explore?
Tools
Outcomes
Skill development
9. Which virtual world(s) or gaming environment are you utilizing in the program being described?
ActiveWorlds
10. Why did you choose that specific platform or community for your project?
This project was developed by Harvard University in Second Life to teach students who otherwise are not engaged in learning science and mathematics. It also introduces students to Virtual Worlds in Second Life. It was a safe environment because it was developed in Teen Second Life. I obviously could trust Harvard and NSF to provide a high quality learning opportunity.
11. What are the learning objectives of your project?
• To teach good inquiry skills in science learning.
• To teach with technology to expose students to new opportunities for learning.
• To develop skills in analyzing and drawing conclusions from prior knowledge.
• To build logic and reasoning skills.
• To gather information and use that information to make informed decisions.
• To determine independent and dependent variables in a science experiment and manipulate them properly to answer scientific questions.
12. Please write a description of your project and how it leverages virtual worlds for learning.
Students logged in to River City. They followed through 6 levels of learning using avatars to learn about the people of River City and their environment. They explored areas of the city, viewed pictures, took scientific samplings, recorded in notebooks, developed a scientific experiment with independent variables to evaluate a theory from a working hypothesis. From this information they made a recommendation as to what was causing the people in River City to be sick. They reported on this information to the Mayor, giving recommendations of what should be done to assist the city in alleviating the illness of their community.
13. Best Practice: Please describe one key element of your program's success that you learned during the process and would like to share with the RezEd community.
We live in a low income community. DeSoto County is one of the five poorest counties in Florida. Students are generally apathetic about mathematics and science learning. My goal was to stimulate their interest in learning the scientific method in a mathematics rich educational environment. The River City Project seemed to provide the ideal opportunity to test this approach. Several of my students are low performing testers. They do not test well on Florida's standardized tests. However, when they were invited to participate in River City, they seemed to be engaged in learning. All of the students participated and moved through the seven levels rather continuously with very little coaxing or looking over their shoulders. They learned about gathering data, keeping notes, the difference between an observation and an inference, independent and dependent variables in a scientific experiment, developing a hypothesis and testing it to prove or disprove a theory, and working together in a team to gather data. They learned how to act and interact as scientific researchers in an unknown environment where they had to make observations, ask relevant questions, and reach conclusions. The best thing about the River City experience for me was that the students were engaged and couldn't wait to continue to participate every day. They were involved in teams of 3 or 4 students together in the project. Each student had an avatar that they were able to manipulate during the project. The students seemed to enjoy learning how to move the avatar around the community. They were challenged to figure out how to move the avatar, especially how to make the avatar fly and run in the River City community. They also had to communicate through chatting with each other (no talking was allowed between students) as well as with the citizens of River City. Traveling back in time to the late 1800s allowed the students to feel as if they had gone back in time to a distant world that was much different from their current life. They had to learn how to appreciate being somewhere else that they had never been before, where the people didn't have the same understanding of things that they did scientifically or culturally. Another aspect of the experience that I attempted to do that wasn't even part of River City directly was to teach the students how to better work with mathematics in doing scientific research. I required the students to use Microsoft Excel to record and post their numerical data. They had to then develop graphs from their charted data and evaluate that data in determining their answers to the scientific research they had to perform in River City. Some of the students struggled with this because it was definitely hard for them doing it for the first time. However, many of them were really interested in the mathematical manipulation that they attempted to accomplish. Then they were able to gain a much better picture of their experiments and reach their conclusions much more easily since they could see the results in their graphs. It worked out well for a number of the students. I believe that this experience also kept my students focused in learning. I did the River City project during the final 8 weeks of school. Many of the students are ready to "tune out" as we get to the end of the school year. With River City, I was able to keep the students engaged right up to the very last day of school. In other classes in the 8th grade building the students were goofing off and distracted. In my classes, I had students working on River City right up to the last day of the school year. They had an interest in finding out the results of their experiments. They also just liked to participate in the virtual world. I believe this is a main reason that they participated through the project. I also believe that it made the study realistic and engaging. I am doing River City again this year in my new job in a high-risk high school in Southwest Georgia. I would recommend River City to any science teacher who is interested in a simple, yet engaging way to teach the scientific method to their students.
14. What would need to be in place (in terms of skills, staffing, infrastructure, systems, etc.) for someone else to reproduce your best practice?
The River City curriculum is very well documented. A science and math teacher who has a good working knowledge of best practices in these subjects would have no problem reproducing my results. The program is very well written and documented.
15. Please write a short anecdote that reflects this best practice.
One student in particular who had a difficult time even getting along with other students in the classroom, and who was a very low level learner was immediately engaged in River City. He ended up becoming so involved and participatory in the program that I could ask him for assistance in helping other students who had problems manipulating in the virtual world of Second Life. When this student first became involved in River City, he was very apathetic and apprehensive, as was his normal state of mind in my classroom. However, we had developed a level of trust so he was willing to give the project a shot. He was a bit reluctant initially because there was a pre-test that he had to complete that was rather academic. I thought I had lost him at that point. But then he entered the virtual world of Second Life in River City and it didn't take much time to see that he was "hooked." He wanted to make his avatar fly and spent several days just learning how to manipulate his person around the community. He explored everything. I encouraged him to not just "play the game," but to do the assignments. He wasn't really interested in that, but as I "encouraged" him by sharing that this was required to continue to participate, he decided to follow the rules. He took notes, did the assignments, took samples of the instruments, and worked through the scientific method as instructed. I could see that he was actually learning good science concepts. Although I would have liked to have seen him do better, what he did do was certainly more than would have been expected in a normal classroom situation. River City definitely taught this young man more about science than he had ever learned in a science class before. I am convinced that this type of learning environment is beneficial to these high-risk students who struggle in "normal" learning settings.
16. Please include the URLs of any photo(s), video(s), or sound file(s) that are specific to the program you are describing.
http://muve.gse.harvard.edu/rivercityproject/
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Nancy Davis on -
David: Congrats on sharing your learning with this community. I wonder how you add this a line in your CV?
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