EcoMOBILE - Can mobile devices support development of ecological observation skills across temporal and spatial scales?

Background/Question/Methods

Observing patterns, processes and relationships across temporal and spatial scales is fundamental to eoclogical science, but is extremely hard to learn and practice during a single visit to an ecosystem. EcoMOBILE, a middle school science curriculum using mobile broadband devices and augmented reality to support learning during ecosystem science field trips, was used to examine the development of student’s observational skills. We hypothesized that mobile technologies could support development of observational skills by providing students with just-in-time, contextualized information and meta-cognitive prompts that highlight good observational practices. The devices also allow students to capture geo-tagged digital pictures, notes, and audio recordings that can be carried back to the classroom and used as persistent observational artifacts to connect classroom learning with real world experiences. These affordances were combined with pedagogical practices that focus on scaffolding students’ transition between observations at different temporal (monthly, yearly, decadal) and spatial (individual organism, quadrat and landscape) scales. We designed two EcoMOBILE experience, the first focused student observations on the individual and short time scales, and the second focused on observation at the quadrat and longer time scales. In both cases, classroom activities following the field trip used observational artifacts students had collected to guide transition between their initial scale of observation and larger scale views of the ecosystem. Each experience was implemented with 2 classrooms of 6th grade students (total n ~ 120 students) during a single ecosystem science field trip, with supporting instruction before and after the field trip. We collected video footage documenting student use of mobile devices during field activities, conducted a pre- and post-survey assessing students’ observational skills, and conducted targeted interviews with selected students.

Results/Conclusions

We will present details of a t-test conducted on the differences between post- and pre-survey scores to assess differences in the change in observational skills between the two treatments. Emergent coding techniques will be used to identify trends in student behaviors within the video data collected during field trip activities, with a focus on how the mobile devices support observational practices. Finally, we will analyze student interviews to better understand the role of technology in supporting observational practices from an individual perspective. Such targeted qualitative analyses will contextualize the quantitative analysis of the survey data. Our findings will provide insight into the utility of mobile devices to cultivate observational skills and support conceptual transition among ecological scales of observation.