|dc.contributor.author||de la Chica, Sebastian
Final doctoral research paper presented at JCDL 2005 Inaugural Doctoral Consortium, 7 June 2005, Denver, Colorado, USA.
The widespread deployment of ubiquitous communication technologies, including
growing Internet access, in the early 21st century has resulted in a growing number of
information sources available for educational purposes. These online information sources
contribute to an educational landscape increasingly capable of near real-time access to
news coverage, scientific data, and critical analyses about earthquakes, volcanic
eruptions, tsunamis, and similar Earth system science (ESS) events. By contrast,
traditional science textbooks provide sanctioned quality educational content, but require
content updating cycles several orders of magnitude longer than online information
sources. Lacking meaningful context, scientific information in traditional textbooks often
leads to disconnected rote learning and limited understanding of scientific concepts.
Lacking the appropriate cognitive skills, learners often fail to recognize and connect the
salient scientific concepts and social issues underlying news coverage of significant ESS
events with their existing scientific knowledge.
Nationally-recognized science education standards have addressed the importance of
learning how to be a scientist through learning goals related to science inquiry and critical
thinking skills in authentic settings, including topics derived from current events
(National Research Council, 1996; Project 2061, 1993). While real-world ESS events
may support authentic integration of science in the classroom with science in the world,
learners require appropriate cognitive skills to adequately process and integrate scientific
content from diverse sources in the context of their immediate science curriculum
The proposed research addresses the following research questions:
• How does the introduction of real-world Earth system science events change
learners’ existing scientific understandings and their comprehension of the social
relevance of the science curriculum content?
• What are the cognitive skills and strategies required for meaningful learning from
multiple sources in an online science research environment?
• How can concept maps be integrated with educational digital libraries to scaffold
the development of these cognitive skills and strategies in an online science
Department of Computer Science, UCB 430, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, USA 80309-0430
This item is shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license.
earth system science events
science curriculum learning goals
educational digital libraries
online science research
scaffolding of digital libraries
Contextualizing Science Education via Earth System Science Events for Meaningful Lifelong Learning
de la Chica, Sebastian. (2005). "Contextualizing Science Education via Earth System Science Events for Meaningful Lifelong Learning." http://hdl.handle.net/1911/5106.