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Following is a list of collaborative projects and courses in which the group members are involved as researchers, designers, developers, or teachers. The page has several sections:
Citizen science
Citizen science
Taking Citizen Science to School (TCSS)
A century ago, John Dewey pointed out that connecting school and society is the essence of meaningful learning. In the context of the 21st century networked society, new and exciting opportunities to use technologies such as Web 2.0, social networking platforms, mobile phones, web communities, and the internet-of-things provide the opportunity to fulfill a cutting edge version of Dewey’s vision.
Taking Citizen Science to School (TCSS) capitalizes on affordances of the networked society to break boundaries between traditional silos — students, citizens, and scientists; formal and informal learning; science and data literacies; classrooms and out-of-school environments; physical and online spaces; educational researchers and practitioners; science and science-education. Specifically, by engaging students within citizen science projects, this initiative aims to elucidate how breaking boundaries between traditional silos fosters meaningful STEM learning.
Taking Citizen Science to School is guided by three mutually-enriching goals. These include:
Developing and substantiating a conceptual framework of meaningful STEM learning through student engagement in citizen science.
Generating principled practical knowledge through a network of research-practice partnerships that build school capacity for sustaining the innovation.
Engaging middle and high school students in real and ongoing scientific endeavors through technology-enhanced learning environments.
Building on the design based principles database (DPD, See details bellow) concept that holds a network of design principles that bridge between Principled and practical knowledge, we created a new and advanced infrastructure.
Red interactive helped us to design and develop Insights - a space for amalgamating the collaborative knowledge distributed among the participants and collaborations that take part in the TCSS network of partnerships. It combines and connect school implementation stories with pedagogical principles. Unlike the DPD which was developed mostly for educational researchers, Insights seeks a much more diverse community that invites educators and scientists, scholars and practitioners, policy makers and nature seekers.
Educative material
We are designing and developing as set of units for teachers that seek to integrate citizen science in their teaching. The first phase of this effort provides curricular material around six existing Israeli citizen science projects. The second phase which is still under construction includes an online platform that teachers can use to adapt and generate classroom learning environments for their students
Infrastructure
Infrastructure
The Design Principles Database
The DPD was developed as an infrastructure for designers to publish, connect, discuss and review design ideas. The database was designed to bridge research and design in a communicable and systematic manner. It also enabled designers to build on the successes and failures of others rather than reinventing solutions that others have struggled to develop. The database was built by and served the community of educational software designers. Although the main audience was educational researchers involved in technology-enhanced learning design, other audiences were also involved. The database informs and guides communities harvesting their design knowledge, designers creating new applications, teachers and curriculum developers customizing and tailoring existing instructional materials, as well as graduate students in the learning sciences learning about and contributing to the design field. The database synthesizes findings from multiple research groups and also validates these findings by supporting the process of community-wide peer review of innovations.
Inter-faculty collaborative projects in higher education
Inter-faculty collaborative projects in higher education
Reforming an introductory undergraduate biology course
A three-year-long (2009-2011) gradual intervention that was designed and implemented in a large-scale (250-350 students) undergraduate level biology course at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.
The trigger for the research was a plea from the two instructors who taught the course to assist them in redesigning the course. The syllabus of the course has been overloaded, and delivered through face to face lectures to hundreds of students at a time. Students in the course were mostly passive and had little opportunities for developing ownership regarding their learning process. The instructors felt that the course, in its original design does not provide them with the opportunity to share their expertise as scientists and researchers with the students. This gap, between the way the course was delivered and the instructors’ desire for teaching in a profoundly different manner, called for an innovative intervention.
תוכנית 'נופי ידע' של הפקולטה למדעי הרוח בשיתוף הפקולטה לחינוך באוניברסיטת חיפה מציעה קורסים חדשניים המוכרים במסגרת חובות 'דרך הרוח'. הקורסים יפגישו את הלומדים עם מגוון דיסציפלינות וגישות מתחום מדעי הרוח, תוך שימת דגש על טכנולוגיות למידה חדשניות.
הקורסים בתוכנית עסקו בנושא מרכזי, אשר הוצג בשיעור ממספר נקודות מבט על ידי מרצים מדיסציפלינות שונות בפקולטה. בסדנאות (קבוצות תרגול) המטרה להעמיק בנושא בקבוצות קטנות, אשר הונחו על ידי תלמידי מחקר. הקורסים לוו באתר אינטרנט, שהציע חוויית למידה חדשנית. האתר איפשר לצפות בהרצאות הקורס תוך הוספת תגובות, רעיונות ושאלות. בנוסף, האתר איפשר לעבוד על מטלות הקורס בסביבה מתוקשבת, תוך שמירה על קשר שוטף עם מנחי הסדנאות ותלמידי הקורס
Projects in K-12 education
Projects in K-12 education
A web-based module developed in order to assist middle school students to acquire the spatial abilities required for understanding the formation of the lunar phases.
The pedagogical design of the module is based on a synthesis of the current knowledge in astronomy education and on design principles for computer-based learning environments. This research explores the effect of students’ interaction with the module on the learning processes with a focus on their spatial perception of the moon phases phenomenon. The module was developed using WISE and can be used freely by students and teachers around the world.
With the aim of increasing interest in genetics, we used a Web-based module about simple-inheritance and adapted it for an Israeli context. We increased the relevancy of the module through an anchoring (real) story of fundraising for cystic-fibrosis (CF) patients. We also added interactions with CF patients using two types of interactions: (1) a field-trip to a CF hospital unit; (2)online interaction with a patient.
Higher education courses
Higher education courses
Courses at the University of Haifa:
Design based research: a series of three courses
The series of courses guiding MA students towards a final project (Designing, Implementation, and Writing). In 2010, a new program was launched at the Technologies in Education Program of the University of Haifa, to encourage in-service teachers to complete a two-year Masters degree while continuing their fieldwork in schools so that eventually they would become educational technology leaders in their schools and communities. This was in response to a large initiative of the Israeli ministry of education to adapt the educational system to the 21st century, and specifically, to infuse technology into everyday school learning and teaching. The rationale for the Masters program was that in order for teachers to meaningfully incorporate technology into their everyday practice, and lead other teachers in this direction, they should engage in long term in-depth learning that relates practice to theory trough field-based research.
Courses in the Weizmann institute:
Part of the Rothschild-Weizmann Program (M.Sc. Track in Science Teaching without a thesis). A unique program designed for outstanding Israeli high school teachers of science who hold a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree. This course gives them a glimpse of the way technology can be harnessed to enhance education
Teachers initiating and leading technology enhanced teaching
This course is a result of two programs implemented by the ministry of education in Israel - "the new horizons" program aligning teachers' development with teachers' experience, and "Adapting the Education System to the 21st Century". Course participants are veteran teachers that already took leading roles in integration of technology in their schools or even the district. The course encourages these teachers to take initiatives that harness technology for enhancing education.
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