Scientifically Thinking…

Originally posted 5-23-06 in my first blog 

My sophomores are currently doing a research/presentation project on an element. Looking for a way for them to share good sources & information on how to do the project, I asked a few students if they would use a blog or wiki if I set it up. They said yes, so I created a PBWiki, private to the class. (I deliberately decided against a blog, because the format of a blog seems all wrong for research — I want them to be continually editing/adding notes on several different subtopics, not rewriting drafts of them.) This was well after we’d begun the project — kind of a last minute experiment for how this would work with students. It’s not a required part of the project. 

At first, I made the “FrontPage” be a general page, with a link to the project page. Students started editing the frontpage instead of the project page, so I combined them.

I showed students how to make a page using a default research template, but several had trouble with that, and the default research template doesn’t really fit the project well. For some students that wanted to work with the wiki later, I made the initial page, with sections for the pieces important to this project’s research…by letting them focus just on the information they’re adding, I’m hoping they’ll be more willing to us it.

I found twiki software that we can hopefully install on our own webserver — PBWiki doesn’t have WYSIWYG editing, which is very difficult for students — they’ve never worked with an interface as “primitive” as PBWiki. What do you mean **means bold??? Why does it look all messed up?

Students aren’t really doing much with the “good resources” or “helpful hints” sections of the “FrontPage.” They mostly focus on their own pages. I like the ability to offer feedback comments as they work. I hope that as they add information & become more comfortable with the concept, they’ll begin to examine one another’s pages for more ideas about how they should be proceeding with their research. Maybe that will trigger more peer feedback, like we see in the classroom.

Having a bunch of separate student research pages really highlights the fact that there isn’t much collaboration involved in this project. I was sick of the “one partner does it all” issues… Why isn’t my grade the same? It’s the SAME project – we’re partners!!! However, I’ve toyed with having collaborative groups based on element family — though maybe grouping by similar type of focus area would make more sense. (Argon’s use in fire suppression systems, crafting gold jewelry, how a horse’s body uses selenium… finding genuine commonalities might be difficult…)

**One of my students really GOT the concept of the wiki — and decided the wikipedia article on her element was missing an important item under applications. When she used the “edit” link & then saw her change appear online, her first reaction was I’m gonna go home and delete the encyclopedia! Yes, I teach some juvenille delinquents. Pointing out how easy it is to undo a change deflated those sails a bit. Silver lining — suddenly the reasons for verifying information found online made so much more sense to all the students! …and it was a very empowering moment for her.

classroom research w/ wiki use