Integrating Handheld Computers in a Middle-School Science Curriculum Jason M. Williams Georgia Institute of Technology Solution description: This work is the result of a Master’s Project begun in Spring The goal has been to design a tool to help middle-school science students “in the field” when they are conducting experiments. The approach taken has been to design, develop, and evaluate handheld software which provides students with the right help and tools at the right time. The handheld platform used is Microsoft Pocket PC Development has been done using Microsoft’s C#.NET with the.NET Compact Framework. 1. Students enter data (e.g. their testing procedure, experiment / design plan) using SMILE on a desktop PC. 2. After synchronization the plan data is available on the handheld for the student while she is running her experiment. This data reminds her of the procedure her group planned. 3. When students are ready to record experiment data, they create their data table using a wizard which asks them to answer questions using language they understand and providing hints where students need them. 4. A data table is created by the students with the wizard. As many students at this age-level do not understand how to create and use a data table, this screen lends structure to their data that they would otherwise not have. 5. This measurement detail screen allows the user to change the value of the measurement, enter a text note, or even enter a drawing to be associated with this measured value. 6. Users may view the data as a table or as a bar graph. In this screenshot the blue bar represents the average of the data and the black tick marks represent individual trials. This can be used, for example, to gain a qualitative understanding of standard deviation. Evaluation: Three evaluations have been done over the course of a year (the third evaluation is still in progress). Each evaluation involved putting the handhelds in front of middle-school students and seeing where the software helps them and where it could be improved to help them even more. After each evaluation there were aspects of the design which had to be re-examined and the software was modified accordingly. Overall the results have shown that the software can be used by middle-school students and that it can help students, assuming it is integrated appropriately into the classroom activities. Motivation: In an inquiry-based science curriculum, learners are expected to develop driving questions which they try to answer by designing and conducting experiments. Many students unfamiliar with inquiry-based science will have difficulty designing and conducting a valid experiment as well as with analyzing the results. Computer tools can be used to provide help. However, desktop computers are not practical to take into “the field” where the experiment is run. Consider students testing the quality of the water in a local stream or moving to the hallway to race vehicles that they have designed. Handheld computers have affordances which make them a great tool for helping students while conducting experiments. 7. Data from the handheld is then uploaded back to SMILE to be analyzed and then shared with other students. After initial conversations with teachers and our own evaluations, it seems that students may need the following help when they are running experiments / design tests: 1. Constructing and using data tables. 2. Reminders of what procedures they are supposed to follow. 3. Analyzing the results of their experiments in order to draw conclusions about the results.