«Le Monde de Darwin»«Le Monde de Darwin»

Michel AubéUniversité de Sherbrooke

Québec, Canada

maube@courrier.usherb.ca

Fostering Scientific ThinkingWith Hypermedia TechnologyFostering Scientific ThinkingWith Hypermedia Technology

Three Basic PrinciplesUnderlying the Approach

• Science involves Social CommitmentScientists are socially responsiblefor the knowledge they produce(facts, theories and technologies)

• Science is a Collective EndeavourScientific rigor emerges throughexchanging between peer experts

• Scientific progress stems from questionsScientists do not only look for answers, they crave for good questions as unique toolsto probe and decipher the real world

But this would require:

• significant things to talk about• a stimulating community to talk with• a commitment as to credibility

TENTATIVE HEURISTICS

Could scientific rigor and practicebe learned just as kids

learn natural language?

http://darwin.cyberscol.qc.ca

Adoption Rules:

• choose an animal from the local surroundings which has not been adopted yet;

• create the best possible card-file on the Web

with at least one good photograph of the species

which is free of copyrights;

• find as scientific advisor an expert on the species and find also a good linguistic corrector;

• commit to act as experts about incoming questions and continually correct and update the card-file.

Three Basic PrinciplesUnderlying the Approach

• Science involves Social CommitmentScientists are socially responsiblefor the knowledge they produce(facts, theories and technologies)

• Science is a Collective EndeavourScientific rigor emerges throughexchanging between peer experts

• Scientific progress stems from questionsScientists do not only look for answers, they crave for good questions as unique toolsto probe and decipher the real world

Multi-level Guiding tools:

• On-line support (computer forms, examples, help prompters…)

• Suggestions for teachers and experts (adoption guidelines, card -file examples, validation protocols, commentaries…)

• People (students teams, teacher, other classrooms, specialized Web sites, species experts…)

• On-line support (from the «Atelier du Chercheur»)

• Adoption guidelines (from the «Pavillon de l’Éducation»)

• People (face to face, or on line...)

Three Basic PrinciplesUnderlying the Approach

• Science involves Social CommitmentScientists are socially responsiblefor the knowledge they produce(facts, theories and technologies)

• Science is a Collective EndeavourScientific rigor emerges throughexchanging between peer experts

• Scientific progress stems from questionsScientists do not only look for answers, they crave for good questions as unique toolsto probe and decipher the real world

Kids are systematically incited to...

• Look for curiosities and surprising things (the «aha» effect)

• Check constantly for the validity and soundness of their sources

• Compare and exchange information between teams and classrooms

• Try raise new, significant and challenging questions about their species

Biodiversity is intriguingand stimulating...

Source 1: Source 2: Source 3:

Information 1:

Information 2:

Information 3:

A simple tool...

De : Pete Ducey <duceyp@snycorva.cortland.edu>À : Claude’s Class <sa602@csvdc.qc.ca>Date : 5 may, 1999 12:35Objet : Re: Question from the class...

Claude’s Class wrote:

> My name is Geof Tinkler, with my class, > we are studying the Spotted salamander. > We have a few questions for you. > > We have read that during the period of reproduction, > there is often ten males for one female in the marsh. > We also found out that not all females reproduct at every year. > > Here is our question: > > If there are more more males than females in the marsh, > is it because there are more males at birth > or because there are just a certain number of females > that reproduct at every year.

What an excellent question!  The answer actually has three parts: 1. females do not breed every year 2. males remain in the ponds for a longer time than the females 3. males often breed at an earlier age.

Therefore, on any single night of the breeding season, most of the males of the population are present in the pond and the females can be divided into four categories:

- mature females, breeding this year, present in pond - mature females, breeding this year, not yet in pond - mature females, not breeding this year - immature females

Pete Ducey Department of Biological Sciences SUNY at Cortland, Cortland, NY 13045 www.cortland.edu/herp/

De : Pete Ducey <duceyp@snycorva.cortland.edu>À : Claude’s Class <sa602@csvdc.qc.ca>Date : 5 may, 1999 12:35Objet : Re: Question from the class...

Claude’s Class wrote:

> Hi David,> > Last Friday, we made some observations on 4 specimens of Spotted> Salamander; we wanted to take some measures so as to establish> some proportions among body parts. Here is what we found:> > # Specimen total length length from nose to cesspool number of spots>> 1 17,7 cm 9,0 cm 24> 2 17,2 cm 8,5 cm 26> 3 17,5 cm 8,2 cm 31> 4 14,6 cm 7,3 cm 25> > Results: In all our salamanders, the nose-to-cesspoll length was almost> exactly half the total length, except for specimen #3, which had a longer tail;> but its tail wasn’t only longer, we also noticed that it had some kind of> swelling at two different places. This made us think that the tail may have> been cut off, and have then grown again. Moreover, this specimen> also yielded a larger number of yellow spots. > > Q1- Could it be that there are more spots on regrown tails?

Date: Tue, 25 May 1999 16:03:20 -0400From: Ecomuseum <ecomus@total.net>To: Claude’s Class <sa602@csvdc.qc.ca>Subject: Re: Questions from the class...

> Q1- Could it be that there are more spots on regenerated tails?

Although I don’t know of any published work on this subject, it does seem indeed that that there is a larger number of spots on regenerated members in Spotted Salamanders, not only in the case of the tail, but also for any of the four legs.

This conclusion stems from personal as well as colleagues’ observations. But these data have not been scientifically validated yet, and it remains hard to explain why the regenerated colored spots would come out more numerous. It might be some kind of artifact resulting from the way the color pigments are assembled when new tissue gets formed in the regenerated member...

Date: Tue, 25 May 1999 16:03:20 -0400From: Ecomuseum <ecomus@total.net>To: Claude’s Class <sa602@csvdc.qc.ca>Subject: Re: Questions from the class...

Three Basic PrinciplesUnderlying the Approach

• Science involves Social CommitmentScientists are socially responsiblefor the knowledge they produce(facts, theories and technologies)

• Science is a Collective EndeavourScientific rigor emerges throughexchanging between peer experts

• Scientific progress stems from questionsScientists do not only look for answers, they crave for good questions as unique toolsto probe and decipher the real world

In summary...

Responsibilitycommitment

Rigorousthinking

Cooperative learning

Computer literacy

Motivation

Long-termedproject-based

Learningfor transfer

Situatedlearning