BioKIDS: Using PADI to do a Cognitive Analysis of Complex Science Reasoning Tasks

1
BioKIDS Using PADI to do a Cognitive Analysis
of Complex Science Reasoning Tasks

• Amelia Wenk Gotwals and Nancy Butler Songer
• The University of Michigan

2
BioKIDS Strand

• Purpose of BioKIDS
• Creation implementation of science inquiry
  curricula
• Measurement of longitudinal learning
• Need assessment system to systematically evaluate
  complex reasoning in science across multiple,
  coordinated curricular units
• Audience Detroit Public Schools (focus 6th
  grade)
• About 95 Minority
• High poverty

3
Design Patterns / Inquiry Skills

• Formulating scientific explanations from relevant
  evidence
• Analysis of scientific data (maps, charts,
  graphs)
• Building hypotheses and predictions based on
  scientific data

4
Map Tasks to Content-Inquiry MatrixFormulating
Scientific Explanations from Evidence
complexity of science content required to perform
task
amount of inquiry scaffold provided
5
Step 1, Simple - Explanations

• A biologist studying birds made the
  following observations about the birds. She
  concluded the birds would not compete for food.
• Bird Food Feeding
  Where they feed
• Bird 1 berries dawn/dusk
  trees, middle
• Bird 2 berries dawn/dusk
  trees, lower
• Bird 3 berries dawn/dusk
  trees, upper
• What evidence supports her conclusion?
• a. insects are plentiful
• b. they feed at different times
• c. they feed in different parts of the trees
• d. they lay eggs at different times

Claim
Evidence
Explanation
6
Step 3 Complex Explanations

• If all the small fish in the pond ecosystem
  died one year from a disease that killed only the
  small fish, what would happen to the algae in the
  pond? Explain why you think so.

Claim
Explanation
Evidence
7
Cognitive Analysis of Item Difficulty

• Unidimensional Rasch Model
• Gather item difficulty information / create item
  maps
• Compare mapped item difficulty (step 1, 2, or 3)
  with empirical item difficulty

8
Cognitive Analysis of Item Difficulty
9
Conflicting Difficulties

• If all the small fish in the pond ecosystem
  died one year from a disease that killed only the
  small fish,

10. What would happen to the algae in the pond?
Explain why you think so. (Difficulty 0.62)
11. What would happen to the large fish? Explain
why you think so. (Difficulty -1.2)
10
Why are these different why do we care?

• Why Different?
• Reasoning energy transfer up down food chain

• Why Care?
• Predictive nature of cognitive assessment system
• Is content more important in difficulty than
  inquiry scaffolding?

11
Conclusions

• Development of complex reasoning skills takes
  time
• PADI system allows for cognitive analysis of
  items
• PADI system helps to tailor tasks tests to
  students ability levels