Inquiry and Collaboration Project (ICP) Dr. Merryellen Towey Schulz AAUW May 11, 2011

Goals To encourage young women and girls to develop positive attitudes toward math and science and to become motivated to take courses in middle and high school that will enable them to pursue careers not previously open to women and individuals from low socio-economic and/or minority populations..

Objectives of Project Enable preservice teachers and 5 th and 6 th grade girls to use social media Enable preservice teachers and 5 th and 6 th grade girls reflect on their learning

Handheld Computers

Preservice Teachers Learn…

… and Teach Each Other

Preservice Goals for the Inquiry Project Write a complete plan for an inquiry investigation using technology. Help children identify inquiry questions and see the importance of these questions to the topic being studied. Help children learn how to plan a project or method of problem solving and/or data collecting in response to their questions.

Preservice Goals for the Sketchy Project: Write a complete plan for a service learning lesson that involves using Sketchy to post animations to help other children understand mathematical processes. Teach children to use Sketchy Help students post animations to Teacher Tube ( ) Reflect on entire process through Twitter (

Help children learn to summarize and present the results of the project using Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint. Assess what children have learned. Reflect on the entire process through Twitter (

5 th -6th Girls Learn InquiryDesign studiesCollect dataReport findingsPowerPoint PresentationsSketchy

2 nd grade weather 6 th graders water system and water cycle

Challenges Original plan was to allow the girls to keep the handhelds and also use them to work on their projects and lessons at Girls, Inc.; however, because of a staffing change at Girls, Inc., no one was available to manage the handhelds at there. Handhelds remained at CSM during ICP, where the girls had full access to them, and when at Girls, Inc. the girls utilized computer labs to work on their projects. CSM also encountered a glitch in posting animations to the ICP Project website, so no animations are posted.

Sharing The girls displayed their projects to younger girls in Operation SMART and parents in November and May at Open Houses on the last evening of the program at the end of each term. Post projects to NING and reflect on Twitter

Results Young girls and future teachers learned to integrate pictures, video, audio, graphics and social messaging in the learning process and then share that information with others. ICP has made participating girls excited about learning and CSM students confident in teaching in the digital age.

Results continued Interest and competence in math and science have improved since they began the program. Students conducted parent interviews/surveys and also inquired about the girls' interest and competence in social media. Best rate of participation in the parent survey with over 50% of parents participating and offering feedback.

Additional results CSM student reflections discussed their plans and intended learning objectives for themselves and the girls. They also reflected on what went well and what did not work so well to determine what they would do differently.

Outcomes The girls successfully demonstrated understanding of social media as a tool for learning as they created animations and graphics to share with one another through Ning. The girls improved their attitudes toward studying science and technology. Their enthusiasm level increased significantly, which makes ICP exciting for everyone.

The girls also displayed increases in confidence, competence and interest in science and technology as indicated by results from Operation SMART pre- and post-tests. CSM students successfully explored safe social media and safe websites for children. CSM students' reflections indicated increased confidence in their ability to teach science and math, as well as increased skills and effective teaching techniques in teaching through technology and social media.

Children today’s teachers will be teaching !