Science Classroom Inquiry (SCI) Simulations: A Novel Method to Scaffold Science Learning

Science education is progressively more focused on employing inquiry-based learning methods in the classroom and increasing scientific literacy among students. However, due to time and resource constraints, many classroom science activities and laboratory experiments focus on simple inquiry, with a step-by-step approach to reach predetermined outcomes. The science classroom inquiry (SCI) simulations were designed to give students real life, authentic science experiences within the confines of a typical classroom. The SCI simulations allow students to engage with a science problem in a meaningful, inquiry-based manner. Three discrete SCI simulations were created as website applications for use with middle school and high school students. For each simulation, students were tasked with solving a scientific problem through investigation and hypothesis testing. After completion of the simulation, 67% of students reported a change in how they perceived authentic science practices, specifically related to the complex and dynamic nature of scientific research and how scientists approach problems. Moreover, 80% of the students who did not report a change in how they viewed the practice of science indicated that the simulation confirmed or strengthened their prior understanding. Additionally, we found a statistically significant positive correlation between students’ self-reported changes in understanding of authentic science practices and the degree to which each simulation benefitted learning. Since SCI simulations were effective in promoting both student learning and student understanding of authentic science practices with both middle and high school students, we propose that SCI simulations are a valuable and versatile technology that can be used to educate and inspire a wide range of science students on the real-world complexities inherent in scientific study

SCI simulations were successful at helping students gain content knowledge while promoting a more sophisticated understanding of authentic science practices.

<p>SCI simulations were successful at helping students gain content knowledge while promoting a more sophisticated understanding of authentic science practices.</p

Description of five groups who utilized SCI simulations.

<p>Description of five groups who utilized SCI simulations.</p

Student ratings of difficulty, thought needed, and learning efficacy are impacted by simulation and setting, but not grade.

<p>(A) No statistically significant differences were observed between simulations in regards to difficulty (One-way ANOVA, p > 0.05). However, students reported that the <i>Unusual Mortality Events</i> simulation required much greater thought to complete that the <i>Seizing Sea Lions</i> simulation (One-way ANOVA, <i>p</i> = 0.001). (B) The setting (<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0120638#pone.0120638.t001" target="_blank">Table 1</a>) where the SCI simulations were used did not have an effect on the amount of thought needed to complete the simulation or how much the simulation helped the student to learn (One-way ANOVA, p > 0.05). However, the students in Setting 2 had an easier time completing the simulation than students in Setting 1 or 3 (One-way ANOVA, <i>p</i> = 0.004 and <i>p</i> = 0.014 respectively). (C) Analysis of middle school and high school students across all three settings indicated no statistically significant differences in difficulty, thought required to complete the simulation, or the amount the simulation helped them to learn (Independent samples t-test, <i>p</i> > 0.05). Graphs represent the average score on a 5-point Likert scale where 5 represents a high and 1 a low rating and error bars represent SEM.</p

SCI simulations are effective at changing student’s perceptions of authentic science practices.

<p>(A) Of the 88 students who used the SCI simulations, 67% reported that use of the simulation altered their perceptions of the nature of authentic science practices. 28% of students indicated no change in perception of authentic science practices and 5% of students did not respond and were excluded from additional analyses. (B) All simulations were successful at changing students’ perceptions of authentic science practices, although no single simulation was more successful in this regard. (C) Regardless of setting, students reported changes in their perceptions of authentic science practices. (D) Grade level had no impact on whether students’ perceptions of authentic science practices changed, and students of both groups had a higher percentage of yes than no responses.</p

Schematic of SCI simulation architecture.

<p>After logging into the appropriate simulation, students read pertinent background information and are introduced to problem (i.e. unexplainable deaths of a certain animal species) and generate a hypothesis to explain the cause. Students are then asked to pick a hypothesis from a list of pre-generated hypotheses (<i>Seizing Sea Lions</i> and <i>Neural Tube Defects</i>) or to come up with their own hypothesis (<i>Unusual Mortality Events</i>) and then asked to give their rationale for their hypothesis. Students are then taken to the tests section of the simulation where they are given the option to try a variety of tests, in any manner of their choosing. After the student has completed a previously determined number of tests, a link appears (shown as Link 5 in the diagram) which allows the student to move forward in the simulation.</p

Donor statin treatment protects against severe acute graft-versus-host disease after related allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation

We retrospectively analyzed outcomes among 567 patients with hematologic malignancies who had hematopoietic cell transplantation from human leukocyte antigen-identical sibling donors between 2001 and 2007 for a correlation between statin use and risk of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). Compared with allografts where neither the donor nor recipient was treated with a statin at the time of transplantation (n = 464), statin use by the donor and not the recipient (n = 75) was associated with a decreased risk of grade 3-4 acute GVHD (multivariate hazard ratio, 0.28; 95% confidence interval, 0.1-0.9). Statin use by both donor and recipient (n = 12) was suggestively associated with a decreased risk of grade 3 or 4 acute GVHD (multivariate hazard ratio, 0.00; 95% confidence interval, undefined), whereas statin use by the recipient and not the donor (n = 16) did not confer GVHD protection. Risks of chronic GVHD, recurrent malignancy, nonrelapse mortality, and overall mortality were not significantly affected by donor or recipient statin exposure. Statin-associated GVHD protection was restricted to recipients with cyclosporine-based postgrafting immunosuppression and was not observed among those given tacrolimus (P = .009). These results suggest that donor statin treatment may be a promising strategy to prevent severe acute GVHD without compromising immunologic control of the underlying malignancy

U-BIOPRED clinical adult asthma clusters linked to a subset of sputum omics

Background: Asthma is a heterogeneous disease in which there is a differential response to asthma treatments. This heterogeneity needs to be evaluated so that a personalized management approach can be provided. Objectives: We stratified patients with moderate-to-severe asthma based on clinicophysiologic parameters and performed an omics analysis of sputum. Methods: Partition-around-medoids clustering was applied to a training set of 266 asthmatic participants from the European Unbiased Biomarkers for the Prediction of Respiratory Diseases Outcomes (U-BIOPRED) adult cohort using 8 prespecified clinic-physiologic variables. This was repeated in a separate validation set of 152 asthmatic patients. The clusters were compared based on sputum proteomics and transcriptomics data. Results: Four reproducible and stable clusters of asthmatic patients were identified. The training set cluster T1 consists of patients with well-controlled moderate-to-severe asthma, whereas cluster T2 is a group of patients with late-onset severe asthma with a history of smoking and chronic airflow obstruction. Cluster T3 is similar to cluster T2 in terms of chronic airflow obstruction but is composed of nonsmokers. Cluster T4 is predominantly composed of obese female patients with uncontrolled severe asthma with increased exacerbations but with normal lung function. The validation set exhibited similar clusters, demonstrating reproducibility of the classification. There were significant differences in sputum proteomics and transcriptomics between the clusters. The severe asthma clusters (T2, T3, and T4) had higher sputum eosinophilia than cluster T1, with no differences in sputum neutrophil counts and exhaled nitric oxide and serum IgE levels. Conclusion: Clustering based on clinicophysiologic parameters yielded 4 stable and reproducible clusters that associate with different pathobiological pathways