Research Project

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6-12 Science Education

Education Research > Science Education

CENS's technology provides opportunity to promote authentic inquiry into science.

Utilizing embedded networked sensors, students remotely observe complex systems in nature. We realize that providing real data to middle and high school students is, in itself, no guarantee that good learning will occur. Indeed, students have several difficulties when initially trying to conduct their own inquiry into rich scientific problems, including asking un-testable questions, designing undiscriminating experiments, incorrectly interpreting data, and so on. Also, the data representations professional scientists use are usually too cryptic for students to comprehend.

CENS brings together the combined expertise of teachers, educational reserachers, information scientists, and natural scientists into a collaborative model to address these issues. The result of this collaboration are CENS Activities that transfer data collected from embedded networked sensors into the classroom effectively and efficiently. Activities are developed by focused, collaborative teams including domain experts, grade-level teachers with experience developing  and studying inquiry-based learning environments, and information scientists experienced in integrating complex  data and interactive tools into curricula.