Internet Tools for Facilitating Scientific Inquiry

and

"...the most productive and effective science education applications of the Internet involve teachers and students accessing specific pre-selected sites in order to accomplish pre-determined objectives."

Contrary to a common misconception, effective use of the Internet in K-12 science education has little or nothing to do with surfing the web. Quite the contrary, the most productive and effective science education applications of the Internet involve teachers and students accessing specific pre-selected sites in order to accomplish pre-determined objectives (Huber and Harriett, 1998; Moore and Huber, in press; Watson, 1999). This is not to imply, however, that the Internet should not be used to support relatively open-ended inquiry-based instructional approaches. Such approaches are essential because students learn only by constructing their own conceptualizations -- that is by making their own meaningful connections between what they already know and the new information they encounter (Martin 2000). Fitzgerald, Buie & Cuales (1998) draw upon Tufte's (1983) seminal work on the visual display of quantitative information in a discussion of how "elegant" and "transparent" interfaces of computerized displays of quantitative graphics can facilitate users in drawing such personal meaning from the displayed information. In a similar vein, Huber and Harriett (1998) describe the following three inquiry-based types of Internet-supported science instruction, all of which are constructivist oriented:

(1) the use of daily access sites, which are comparable to "newspaper in the classroom" programs;

(2) virtual field trips; and

(3) Internet-based projects.

All of these approaches, especially Internet-based projects, are highly compatible with the goals of constructivist-oriented inquiry-based science instruction (Moore and Huber, in press).

In this paper we examine another way of using the Internet in inquiry-based middle school science classrooms--using Internet resources that provide relevant databases along with useful and engaging tools for exploring and interpreting the data. Specifically, in this paper we discuss the educational applications of two Internet utilities that use water quality data to facilitate teachers and students developing various science process skills. The resources are particularly useful in helping students build strengths in the areas of

(1) manipulating, visualizing and interpreting data;

(2) making and testing scientific hypotheses; and

(3) practicing scientific inquiry.

Each of the Internet utilities reviewed in this paper provides access to a substantial database. "Water on the Web"
(http://wow.nrri.umn.edu/wow/index.html) contains data on lakes and the "River Run"
(http://www.uncwil.edu/riverrun/) contains data on rivers. Additionally, each utility offers powerful data manipulation and processing tools appropriate for use by middle school students. The tools allow teachers and students to generate animated graphic displays showing relationships among water quality parameters through space and time. These displays use line graphs and color gradients to display data on multiple water quality parameters while also animating the graphs, displaying a sequential series of graphs, in order to show changes through time. The animated graphs function much like a computerized enhanced version of the "small multiples" described by Tufte (1983; 1990) as highly effective means of displaying complex, multi-variable, quantitative information.

Water on the Web
(http://wow.nrri.umn.edu/wow/index.html)

River Run
(http://www.uncwil.edu/riverrun/)