Sensemaking with Digital Models & Data: A Multi-Study Investigation of Learning Across the Geosciences
Restricted (Penn State Only)
- Author:
- Conrath, Brandin
- Graduate Program:
- Curriculum and Instruction (PHD)
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- February 09, 2024
- Committee Members:
- Scott Mcdonald, Program Head/Chair
Jason Griffith, Major Field Member
Scott Mcdonald, Co-Chair & Dissertation Advisor
Heather Zimmerman, Outside Unit & Field Member
Amy Farris, Co-Chair & Dissertation Advisor - Keywords:
- science education
geoscience
digital tools
models - Abstract:
- Current findings of my studies both expand current theories of learning sciences and contribute research into the use of digital learning environments, especially in Science Education. First, my dissertation work illustrates how the openness of the digital curriculum can support students’ agentive work in asking meaningful questions that they can answer using given computational tools, forming conjectures related to testable hypotheses, and revising their initial explanations (Conrath et al., 2022). We argue that the openness supports students’ sensemaking as a kind of journeyed relationship-building with the phenomena, associated data, and with peers, through relational events that we term epistemic excursions (Conrath et al., 2023). Second, digital curriculum of wildfires elicits important sensemaking about wildfires and climate, including the interpretation of trends, working with simulations as a means of scientific investigation, and making meaning across disparate climate maps. Digital curricula and the use of data elicits forms of scientific uncertainty for students, namely the uncertainty of interpretation and that teachers can negotiate moments of collective sensemaking that leverage students’ uncertainties (Conrath, in review). Third, we investigate and attend to the ways in which a teacher enacts a digital rock type curriculum. We highlight adaptations as a core practice in teaching with digital curricula. We argue that: sensemaking talk is a vital component of student learning with digital curricula, material resources can serve as entry points to model-based reasoning, and that building on student experiences inside and outside of the classroom each create more meaningful opportunities for students to learn core geoscience ideas, especially with digital curricula.