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Problem Solving in the Sciences: An Innovative Software Approach Ronald H.
Stevens, PI, 02/95-07/00. Award Number 9453918.
This Teacher Enhancement Grant provided nearly 400 teachers 120+ hours of
technology training where they developed software that could be implemented in
their classrooms. As a result of these efforts over 100 IMMEX problem sets
were created that span middle to high school and across different disciplines
(Palacio-Cayetano et al, 2000, Kanowith Klein et al, 2001, Underdahl et al,
2002). Many problem sets have modified for web delivery (http://www.immex.ucla.edu)
and over 150,000 problem-solving performances have been logged during the past
2 years. Evaluations (Chen et al, 2001) and research studies (Vendlinski &
Stevens, 2002, Chung et al, 2002), have shown that IMMEX provides a rich
cognitive environment for problem solving. As expected from the format of
IMMEX, students and teachers perceive this system more as a tool for reasoning
and integrating information than as a system for learning new facts.
Development of Technology Based Assessments in Chemistry DUE Award 0126050
Melanie Cooper, PI, Ron Stevens, Co-PI 03/02 – 02/05. Construction of IMMEX
cases aligned with undergraduate and high school curricula began with the
three-year goal of providing comprehensive problem-solving coverage for an
introductory undergraduate chemistry course. New IMMEX problems, on topics
such as periodic trends, kinetics and mechanisms, colligative properties,
structure and property relationships, separations and stoichiometry are being
developed, and are being tested for usability. These problems are case based
and offer a wide range of opportunities for student progress through the
problem. In addition we have been using established IMMEX problems to identify
the interventions that will bring about a positive change in student’s problem
solving strategies. We have preliminary evidence from over 400 students
showing that collaborative learning groups improve success and strategy
selection, and this improvement persists when students then work individually
(Case et al, 2003).
Predictively Improving the Problem Solving of Science Students Ronald H.
Stevens PI, Melanie M. Cooper Co-PI Award Number NSF-ROLE 0231995 01/01/03 –
12/31/05
This three-year study will investigate how undergraduate and high school
students make and use strategic choices as they engage in complex problem
solving in chemistry. The researchers will then use this to develop effective
collaborative approaches for modifying unproductive strategies. IMMEX software
will sequentially capture the students' actions while they perform a series of
related chemistry cases, and extract common strategies using artificial neural
network technologies. These strategies will be aggregated into strategy types
using evidence of the quality of student understanding, related to student
ability, by Item Response Theory analysis. These analyses will suggest
directed case delivery sequences for audiences with different abilities and
provide an organizing framework for linking ability, and preferred
problem-solving approaches.
Steady state models of the development and persistent usage of particular
strategies and strategy types within classrooms of students with different
abilities (i.e. regular high school, AP, undergraduate) will then be developed
through Hidden Markov Modeling. These models will provide baseline
probabilities that students will transit from one strategy type to another on
a subsequent series of IMMEX cases. Collaborative learning activities will
then be constructed around these models to perturb these steady states. The
most refined interventions will use the Intelligent Collaborative Learning
System that will relate the interaction sequence details of student's
communication behaviors/skills with the effectiveness of these activities in
modifying strategic approaches. The research will be used to develop
practical, yet effective classroom interventions that teachers can use in
conjunction with IMMEX performance data to accelerate the acquisition of their
students' problem-solving skills. While targeted to chemistry, the studies may
be applicable to many scientific educational activities.
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