School-Related Apathy in 8th- and 10th- Grade Students: A Mixed-Method Exploration of Definitions, Construct Independence, Correlates, and Grade-Level Differences

Research-based and folk conceptualizations of school-related apathy were explored in 309 8th- and 10th- grade Catholic school students and their teachers. Definitions, construct independence, and relation to select individual and group differences including grade level were examined. Findings indicated that while some independence exists among the set of five constructs assessed--adolescent apathy, amotivation, apathy syndrome, disengagement, and work avoidance--substantial overlap is present that can inform development of a more parsimonious conceptualization of students' lack of school motivation centered on perceived relevance and a general attitude of interest. Results also demonstrated only moderate levels of agreement between research-based and teacher identification of students low on school-related motivation; however, both approaches indicate that approximately 1 in 4 students manifests markedly low school-related motivation. Relations of several individual and group differences to conceptualizations of school-related apathy were documented in expected directions. Implications of the findings for educational research and practice are discussed

Empowering Educators: Supporting Student Progress in the Classroom with Digital Games (Part 2)

PART 2: Case Studies of Game Features Used to Support Formative Assessment PracticesThere is growing interest in the use of digital games as part of K-12 teachers’ classroom instruction. For example, in Washington State, legislation 1 is being considered to create a pilot program for integrating games into the school curriculum. And in the fall of 2014, the White House and U.S. Department of Education hosted a game jam 2 to encourage and promote the development of learning games. As with all educational technologies, the most frequently asked question is, “Do they work?” The answer — and the question itself is complex. Work for what purpose? To help students learn? Learn what? Core content knowledge or 21st century skills? Or is the purpose to engage students? In comparison to what? As with all educational technologies, the real answer to any of these questions is, “It depends.” It depends on lots of factors, including the features of the game and, most importantly, what teachers do with those features as part of their instruction. The A-GAMES project (Analyzing Games for Assessment in Math, ELA/Social Studies, and Science), a collaboration between the University of Michigan and New York University, studied how teachers actually use digital games in their teaching to support formative assessment.The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundationhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/192498/1/A-GAMES Part II Case Studies.pdf4ae71d2a-01c0-4084-84c3-c32ce960e81cDescription of A-GAMES Part II Case Studies.pdf : PART 2: Case StudiesSEL

Empowering Educators: Supporting Student Progress in the Classroom with Digital Games (Technical Appendix).

Technical AppendixThere is growing interest in the use of digital games as part of K-12 teachers’ classroom instruction. For example, in Washington State, legislation 1 is being considered to create a pilot program for integrating games into the school curriculum. And in the fall of 2014, the White House and U.S. Department of Education hosted a game jam 2 to encourage and promote the development of learning games. As with all educational technologies, the most frequently asked question is, “Do they work?” The answer — and the question itself is complex. Work for what purpose? To help students learn? Learn what? Core content knowledge or 21st century skills? Or is the purpose to engage students? In comparison to what? As with all educational technologies, the real answer to any of these questions is, “It depends.” It depends on lots of factors, including the features of the game and, most importantly, what teachers do with those features as part of their instruction. The A-GAMES project (Analyzing Games for Assessment in Math, ELA/Social Studies, and Science), a collaboration between the University of Michigan and New York University, studied how teachers actually use digital games in their teaching to support formative assessment.The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundationhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/192499/1/A-Games Technical Appendix.pdf4ae71d2a-01c0-4084-84c3-c32ce960e81cDescription of A-Games Technical Appendix.pdf : Technical AppendixSEL

Assessing model-based reasoning using evidence-centered design: a suite of research-based design patterns

This Springer Brief provides theory, practical guidance, and support tools to help designers create complex, valid assessment tasks for hard-to-measure, yet crucial, science education standards. Understanding, exploring, and interacting with the world through models characterizes science in all its branches and at all levels of education. Model-based reasoning is central to science education and thus science assessment. Current interest in developing and using models has increased with the release of the Next Generation Science Standards, which identified this as one of the eight practices of science and engineering. However, the interactive, complex, and often technology-based tasks that are needed to assess model-based reasoning in its fullest forms are difficult to develop. Building on research in assessment, science education, and learning science, this Brief describes a suite of design patterns that can help assessment designers, researchers, and teachers create tasks for assessing aspects of model-based reasoning: Model Formation, Model Use, Model Elaboration, Model Articulation, Model Evaluation, Model Revision, and Model-Based Inquiry. Each design pattern lays out considerations concerning targeted knowledge and ways of capturing and evaluating students’ work. These design patterns are available at http://design-drk.padi.sri.com/padi/do/NodeAction?state=listNodes&NODE_TYPE=PARADIGM_TYPE. The ideas are illustrated with examples from existing assessments and the research literature

Barcoding Life's Matrix: Translating Biodiversity Genomics into High School Settings to Enhance Life Science Education

Barcoding Life's Matrix: Translating Biodiversity Genomics into High School Settings to Enhance Life Science Educatio

Barcode of Life Data Systems Student Data Portal (BOLD-SDP).

<p>BOLD-SDP is a public-access data repository, data management tool, and analytical workbench for educational users that consists of five customized consoles. The Explore console of BOLD-SDP provides students and teachers with a gateway to the BOLD Taxonomy Browser (where they can determine the barcoding status of specific taxa) and the BOLD Public Data Portal (where they can access and download data generated by professional iBOL scientists and researchers). Through this console, students and teachers can also access the Integrated Taxonomic Information System and US National Center for Biotechnology Information Taxonomy Database (where they can obtain the scientific name and accepted taxonomy of a specimen from its common name; not shown in figure). The Teacher Admin console was designed for educators to register their class, compile a roster of student contributors, create a destination folder for specimen and sequence data, monitor student progress, and inspect student-generated data for accuracy. The Data Management console of BOLD-SDP permits student users to upload specimen data and collection event details, images of specimens and lab results, forward and reverse trace files generated from their amplicons, and edited nucleotide sequence data. The Sequence Analysis console of BOLD-SDP contains an integrated suite of analytical tools that enables students to (1) visualize the relatedness of specimens by building a genetic distance-based phenogram or tree (Taxon ID Tree), (2) compare sequence data obtained from their specimens against barcode records contained in the BOLD data repository (to confirm their specimen identifications; ID Engine), and (3) calculate the differences among nucleotide sequences generated from their specimens (from species to class levels; Distance Summary). The Submission console of BOLD-SDP allows project leaders and members of the scientific community to vet student-generated barcode records before moving them to the BOLD researcher workbench and submitting corresponding nucleotide sequences for publication in GenBank/INSDC (refer to <a href="http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001471#pbio-1001471-g004" target="_blank">Figure 4</a> for additional details).</p

Meeting the Barcode Data Standard.

<p>Reference barcode sequences are linked to collateral data associated with the source specimen and collection event within biphasic records. Given their importance in ensuring the accuracy of species identifications through BOLD, reference barcode records are subject to a variety of formal data standards established by the scientific community. Through the Submission console of BOLD-SDP, project leaders and researchers review student-generated barcode records for their compliance with current data standards. Required data elements minimally include a species name assigned by an expert taxonomist (or a provisional name), a unique specimen identifier, information related to the voucher specimen (including the name of the institution storing the voucher), a collection record (e.g., collector, collection date, collection location, and geospatial coordinates), a CO1 sequence (for animals) of at least 500 nucleotides with fewer than 1% ambiguous base calls (Ns), the sequence of PCR primers used to generate the CO1 amplicon, and trace files. Student-generated records that satisfy these criteria are moved from BOLD-SDP to the BOLD researcher workbench and published in INSDC with the BARCODE designation.</p

Reference DNA barcode records generated by project participants.

<p>(A) As of October 2012, students and teachers have generated and submitted complete reference DNA barcode records from 716 unique individuals representing four animal phyla, eight orders, 18 families, 26 genera (not shown), and 53 species (not shown). 716 records are currently published in GenBank (see <a href="http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001471#pbio.1001471.s002" target="_blank">Text S2</a> for the accession numbers corresponding to each published record). GenBank accession numbers, specimen and collection data, nucleotide sequences, trace files, and primer details are also available within the Barcoding Life's Matrix project folder, which is accessible through the BOLD Public Data Portal (<a href="http://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/Public_BINSearch?searchtype=records" target="_blank">http://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/Public_BINSearch?searchtype=records</a>; use search term “BLM”). (B) Quality statistics for edited and unedited CO1 nucleotide sequence data. CO1 sequences edited by project participants from raw trace files contain no ambiguous base calls (Ns), stop codons, contaminating sequences, or insertions or deletions. Each amplicon was sequenced bidirectionally to yield at least one forward and one reverse trace file for each barcode record. Of the 1,444 trace files generated, 94.46% are categorized as high quality (mean Phred quality score >40 <a href="http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001471#pbio.1001471-Ewing1" target="_blank">[28]</a>), 4.43% are categorized as medium quality (mean Phred quality score = 30–40), and 1.11% are categorized as low quality (mean Phred quality score <30). (C) Nucleotide length distribution of CO1 sequences generated for each specimen. All 716 sequences generated by project participants exceeded the minimum barcode length of 500 nucleotides, with a minimum sequence length of 502 nucleotides, a maximum sequence length of 1,152 nucleotides, and a mean sequence length of 720 nucleotides.</p