Presentation at INTED.The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community's
Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement N° 318499 - weSPOT project

Firssova, Olga

Janssen, Theo

Rusman, Ellen

Specht, Marcus

English

DSpace at Open Universiteit Nederland

An integrated approach to inquiry 
based science learning in a secondary 
school: 
Designing a colony on Mars
Ellen Rusman1, Olga Firssova1, Theo Janssen2 , Marcus 
Specht1
1) Welten Institute – Open Universiteit (Heerlen)
2) Sint Janscollege, secondary school (Hoensbroek)
3rd of March 2015
INTED conference, Madrid
Pilot-project Sint Jan:
“Design a Colony on Mars”
Atheneum/gymnasium pupils design and create a 
“Colony on Mars” in their tto-Science class (1st year) at St. 
Janscollege (Hoensbroek, the Netherlands) 
Who’s involved?
• Collaboration of various partners:
– Sint Jan College, Hoensbroek, secondary school
– Welten Institute – Center for Learning, Teaching and Technology
– International partners within the 
weSPOT project
– RCE Rhine-Meuse (OPEDUCA)
What are we doing ?(1)
Learning design component Mars Colony pilot Maintained Science set‐up
Task A real‐world, complex and 
extensive task of designing a 
“Mars Colony” . 
A real‐world task, but with 
limited number, variety and 
complexity of perspectives and 
factors that need to be taken 
into account
Duration The Mars‐project lasts the 
complete school year
One class task to be completed 
in 4 weeks.
Lesson schedule Four hours per week in one 
block combining several 
knowledge domains 
(respectively biology, 
chemistry, physics and 
technology).
A specific (e.g. physics) project 
takes a 1 hour lesson. Each 
knowledge domain is studied 
separately at a dedicated time.
What are we doing ?(2)
Learning design 
component
Mars Colony pilot Maintained Science set‐up
Inquiry process to structure 
learning
Learning activities are organized 
and structured according to the 
phases of the weSPOT inquiry 
based learning model. 
Learning activities are 
organized in a project form , 
however the structuring  and 
support of project activities is 
implicit.
Teacher support An interdisciplinary team of 4 
teachers (each from another 
‘science’ discipline) provides 
feedback to students and 
analyzes and discuss student 
progress.
Teachers provide feedback 
individually and give support 
from the perspective of a 
single science domain 
perspective.
External expertise by ‘out 
of school’ and ‘in school’ 
learning:
Field and company trips  are 
combined with lectures and 
counselling sessions of 
professionals  within school
No external visits and 
expertise involved.
What are we doing ?(3)
Learning design 
component
Mars Colony pilot Maintained Science set‐up
Formative 
assessment ‐
feed‐up, feedback, 
feed‐forward
(Hattie & 
Timperley, 2007)
• Feedback forms with rubrics and 
structured recommendations of 
peers and teachers for 21st century 
skills
• Formative use of multiple‐choice 
knowledge domain tests, including 
answer models
Instruments supporting 
formative assessment of 
domain knowledge and 21st
century skills are not 
available
Summative 
assessment
21st century skills are taken into 
account for the final assessment of a 
student: 20% is domain knowledge 
test, 30% is portlog, 20% is a scale 
model and a presentation (PREZI), 10% 
is contribution to collaboration process 
(as assessed by contributions in 
environment and team members) and 
10% is observation of teachers and 
(company) professionals.
Summative assessment was 
expressed 100% in domain 
knowledge.
weSPOT
Inquiry-Based
Learning (IBL) 
Model
Protopsaltis et al. (2014)
http://inquiry.wespot.net/
• Increased attention for
‘generic’ complex skills, so-
called 21st century skills
• Shift in thinking about
complex skills as  ‘enablers’  
to ‘targets’  of school 
programs
• Importance recognized by
teachers, but struggling
with how to implement in 
daily classroom practice
Why are we doing this? (1) 
http://w
w
w.6seconds.org/2013/05/13/educating-change-leaders/
• Faltering motivation of pupils at end of 1st year they entered
secondary education
• Develop, implement and evaluate a learning design with
which pupils:
– Learn and apply domain knowledge (Science)
– Develop a selection of 21st century skills
– Are motivated to engage in 
Science
Why are we doing this? (2)
• How do pupils use weSPOT?
– E.g. Mindmapping, collecting and selecting data, 
communicating
• What activities do they do in the project?
– E.g. Building, cooking, experimenting, discussing, 
listening, watch video-clips
What happens in lessons?


• Motivation (Deci & Ryan, 1985) still decreases
in all groups
– changes in “interest/enjoyment” and “readiness 
to invest effort” are significant
– no significant changes in the perception of “task 
usefulness” are manifested.
– no significant differences in motivation between 
groups 
What are the results? (1)
What are the results? (2)
What are the results? (3)
• Motivation still decreases in the pilot group
• Students in pilot setting appreciate the core 
of the learning design: diversity of learning 
tasks, real life contexts, combining research & 
design activities, learning and constructing 
knowledge actively themselves
• Critical remarks concern the chosen topic, 
organization and logistics and technology 
use
Conclusions
• Tackle planning and communication problems, 
complexity of set-up, multiple login-ins & 
diversity of electronic tools 
• Continue collaboration (practitioners, 
researchers and developers) and iterative 
design approach
• Future evaluations: performance on knowledge 
domain tests, cognitive load, (system)usability 
and motivation
What’s next?
Thank you for your interest 
and attention!!
Contacts
Ellen.Rusman@ou.nl (weSPOT )
Olga.Firssova@ou.nl (weSPOT)
Welten Institute, Open Universiteit
t.janssen@sintjan-lvo.nl (pilot ‘Colony on Mars’)
Sint Janscollege
Contacts –weSPOT project
Project Coordinator
Prof. Dr. Marcus Specht
Welten Institute, Open Universiteit
marcus.specht@ou.nl
Web portals
wespot-project.eu (project)
inquiry.wespot.net (environment)


An integrated approach to inquiry based science learning in a secondary school:  Designing a colony on Mars

This paper describes the learning design and the first phase evaluation results of a pilot with a technology-enhanced inquiry based approach (weSPOT) to Science learning in a secondary school. By piloting this learning design, the school strives to increase students’ motivation for the Science domain, in combination with developing several 21st century skills and applying domain knowledge to real world problems. This paper reports the first experiences with and effects on motivation of the pilot

Open University of the Netherlands Research Portal

Open Universiteit www.ou.nl An integrated approach to inquiry based science learningin a secondary school: designing a colony on MarsCitation for published version (APA):Rusman, E., Firssova, O., Janssen, T., & Specht, M. (2015). An integrated approach to inquiry based sciencelearning in a secondary school: designing a colony on Mars. In L. Gómez Chova, A. López Martínez, & I. CandelTorres (Eds.), INTED2015 Proceedings: 9th International Technology, Education and Development ConferenceMarch 2nd-4th - Madrid, Spain (pp. 4438-4492). IATED Academy. INTED ProceedingsDocument status and date:Published: 01/03/2015Document Version:Peer reviewed versionDocument license:CC BY-NC-NDPlease check the document version of this publication:• A submitted manuscript is the version of the article upon submission and before peer-review. There can be important differences betweenthe submitted version and the official published version of record. People interested in the research are advised to contact the author for thefinal version of the publication, or visit the DOI to the publisher's website.• The final author version and the galley proof are versions of the publication after peer review.• The final published version features the final layout of the paper including the volume, issue and page numbers.Link to publicationGeneral rightsCopyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright ownersand it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.• Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research.• You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain• You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal.If the publication is distributed under the terms of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act, indicated by the “Taverne” license above, pleasefollow below link for the End User Agreement:https://www.ou.nl/taverne-agreementTake down policyIf you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us at:pure-support@ou.nlproviding details and we will investigate your claim.Downloaded from https://research.ou.nl/ on date: 16 Jul. 2023AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO INQUIRY BASED SCIENCE LEARNING IN A SECONDARY SCHOOL: DESIGNING A COLONY ON MARS  Ellen Rusman1, Olga Firssova1, Theo Janssen2 , Marcus Specht1  1Welten Institute for Learning, Teaching and Technology, Open Universiteit, Heerlen (NETHERLANDS)  2Sint-Janscollege, Hoensboek (NETHERLANDS) Abstract This paper describes the learning design and the first phase evaluation results of a pilot with a technology-enhanced inquiry based approach (weSPOT) to Science learning in a secondary school. By piloting this learning design, the school strives to increase students’ motivation for the Science-domain, in combination with developing several 21st century skills and applying domain knowledge to real world problems. This paper reports the first experiences with and effects on motivation of the pilot. Keywords: Inquiry based learning, STEM education, 21st century skills, cyclic (agile) development, technology-enhanced education, educational design, motivation 1 INTRODUCTION  Societal and technological changes have also led to changes in the perception of educational objectives for primary and secondary schools. In the not so far away past, stress was predominantly on achieving knowledge (of the world surrounding students, e.g. about traffic rules) and basic skills, such as language and mathematical skills. This knowledge and skills, defined in curriculum objective plans, were seen as the main targets, and although other complex skills, such as collaboration, problem solving and digital literacy, were sometimes seen as a means to achieve them, they were not seen as objectives themselves. However, increasing awareness of the fast pace in which the world around us changes, have let to more stress on skills which are seen as instrumental to cope with these changes, and which are therefore increasingly seen as learning objectives themselves. These skills, enclosing critical thinking, creativity, problem-solving, communication, collaboration, digital literacy, social and cultural skills and self-regulation, are called ‘21st century skills [1, 2, 11, 12]. The importance of the so called 21st century skills is recognized by both policy makers as well as by teachers and school managers, and frameworks with these skills are defined at national and international policy levels [1][2]. However, implementation of 21st century skills at school or classroom level is seldom, as a link to approaches to implement them is currently missing [12]. Few countries have developed implementation plans and assessment policies for these skills. While teachers in primary and secondary schools may want to introduce learning activities supporting the achievement of these skills’ in their class, they are struggling with how to do so. Teachers experience a lack of practical, implementable educational models and instruments, ICT-tools or guidelines for implementing learning activities and assessment practices. Furthermore, teachers experience this lack of educational methods as a drawback, while they are still actively searching for good practices, tools and instruments that they could use [3]. In this paper we describe one ‘translation’ of 21st century skills-objectives into an educational scenario that is implemented and evaluated in practice. We report about the design, implementation and evaluation results of the first phase of a pilot conducted within the context of the Science domain in a secondary school. In this pilot domain knowledge acquisition, application of this knowledge to real world problems and developing 21st century skills were integrated, based on a technology-enhanced inquiry approach to science learning. We were interested in whether this alternative learning design would impact the motivation of students and also whether it would impact the acquisition of domain knowledge. However, in this paper the focus is on perceived task value and motivation of students. In the first section we describe the background, objectives and learning design of this pilot, compared to the maintained set of learning activities for Science classes as they were implemented before. Then we describe the evaluation methodology, including the instruments used. We report the results of the evaluation of the first phase 

An integrated approach to inquiry based science learning in a secondary school: designing a colony on Mars

Open Universiteit www.ou.nl An integrated approach to inquiry based science learningin a secondary school: designing a colony on MarsCitation for published version (APA):Rusman, E., Firssova, O., Janssen, T., & Specht, M. (2015). An integrated approach to inquiry based sciencelearning in a secondary school: designing a colony on Mars. In L. Gómez Chova, A. López Martínez, & I. CandelTorres (Eds.), INTED2015 Proceedings: 9th International Technology, Education and Development ConferenceMarch 2nd-4th - Madrid, Spain (pp. 4438-4492). IATED Academy. INTED Proceedingshttps://iated.org/archive/inted2015Document status and date:Published: 01/03/2015Document Version:Other versionDocument license:CC BY-NC-NDPlease check the document version of this publication:• A submitted manuscript is the version of the article upon submission and before peer-review. There can be important differences betweenthe submitted version and the official published version of record. People interested in the research are advised to contact the author for thefinal version of the publication, or visit the DOI to the publisher's website.• The final author version and the galley proof are versions of the publication after peer review.• The final published version features the final layout of the paper including the volume, issue and page numbers.Link to publicationGeneral rightsCopyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright ownersand it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.• Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research.• You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain• You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal.If the publication is distributed under the terms of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act, indicated by the “Taverne” license above, pleasefollow below link for the End User Agreement:https://www.ou.nl/taverne-agreementTake down policyIf you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us at:pure-support@ou.nlproviding details and we will investigate your claim.Downloaded from https://research.ou.nl/ on date: 23 Jan. 2023AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO INQUIRY BASED SCIENCE LEARNING IN A SECONDARY SCHOOL: DESIGNING A COLONY ON MARS  Ellen Rusman1, Olga Firssova1, Theo Janssen2 , Marcus Specht1  1Welten Institute for Learning, Teaching and Technology, Open Universiteit, Heerlen (NETHERLANDS)  2Sint-Janscollege, Hoensboek (NETHERLANDS) Abstract This paper describes the learning design and the first phase evaluation results of a pilot with a technology-enhanced inquiry based approach (weSPOT) to Science learning in a secondary school. By piloting this learning design, the school strives to increase students’ motivation for the Science-domain, in combination with developing several 21st century skills and applying domain knowledge to real world problems. This paper reports the first experiences with and effects on motivation of the pilot. Keywords: Inquiry based learning, STEM education, 21st century skills, cyclic (agile) development, technology-enhanced education, educational design, motivation 1 INTRODUCTION  Societal and technological changes have also led to changes in the perception of educational objectives for primary and secondary schools. In the not so far away past, stress was predominantly on achieving knowledge (of the world surrounding students, e.g. about traffic rules) and basic skills, such as language and mathematical skills. This knowledge and skills, defined in curriculum objective plans, were seen as the main targets, and although other complex skills, such as collaboration, problem solving and digital literacy, were sometimes seen as a means to achieve them, they were not seen as objectives themselves. However, increasing awareness of the fast pace in which the world around us changes, have let to more stress on skills which are seen as instrumental to cope with these changes, and which are therefore increasingly seen as learning objectives themselves. These skills, enclosing critical thinking, creativity, problem-solving, communication, collaboration, digital literacy, social and cultural skills and self-regulation, are called ‘21st century skills [1, 2, 11, 12]. The importance of the so called 21st century skills is recognized by both policy makers as well as by teachers and school managers, and frameworks with these skills are defined at national and international policy levels [1][2]. However, implementation of 21st century skills at school or classroom level is seldom, as a link to approaches to implement them is currently missing [12]. Few countries have developed implementation plans and assessment policies for these skills. While teachers in primary and secondary schools may want to introduce learning activities supporting the achievement of these skills’ in their class, they are struggling with how to do so. Teachers experience a lack of practical, implementable educational models and instruments, ICT-tools or guidelines for implementing learning activities and assessment practices. Furthermore, teachers experience this lack of educational methods as a drawback, while they are still actively searching for good practices, tools and instruments that they could use [3]. In this paper we describe one ‘translation’ of 21st century skills-objectives into an educational scenario that is implemented and evaluated in practice. We report about the design, implementation and evaluation results of the first phase of a pilot conducted within the context of the Science domain in a secondary school. In this pilot domain knowledge acquisition, application of this knowledge to real world problems and developing 21st century skills were integrated, based on a technology-enhanced inquiry approach to science learning. We were interested in whether this alternative learning design would impact the motivation of students and also whether it would impact the acquisition of domain knowledge. However, in this paper the focus is on perceived task value and motivation of students. In the first section we describe the background, objectives and learning design of this pilot, compared to the maintained set of learning activities for Science classes as they were implemented before. Then we describe the evaluation methodology, including the instruments used. We report the results of the evaluation of the first phase 

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An integrated approach to inquiry based science learning in a secondary school: designing a colony on Mars

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