This study introduces Chemation, a handheld application developed for middle school students learning chemistry concepts. We report on an initial study to examine the impact of Chemation on classroom activities and determine the added value over physical ball-and-stick models. Six teachers and their seventh grade students participated in this study. Data collected include classroom videos and observations, teacher and student interviews, and reviews of student artifacts (e.g., chemical models). The results of this study provide insight into future revisions for Chemation and the affordances and constraints of handheld tools for classroom activities.

Chemation, a simple 2-D modeling and animation tool for handhelds (e.g., PalmOS computers), was developed to help teach important chemistry concepts, such as chemical reaction, conservation of mass, and the particulate nature of matter (as specified in national standards). Users build 2-D molecular models of substances and then, through a process of copying and modifying the model, create flipbook-style animations to illustrate various processes. Chemation is currently being piloted by teachers using a standards-based, inquiry-oriented 7th grade chemistry curriculum. The tool is intended to be an alternative or a supplement to current hands-on activities in which students build physical (ball-and-stick) models to represent various chemical phenomena. In this demonstration, we will show the basic functions of Chemation highlighting its important features---modeling and animation of chemical processes on a handheld tool. We will also show example student models of various chemical processes.

A challenge for HCI researchers and designers involves developing software tools for learners to support them in mindfully doing and learning complex new work practices. Such "learner-centered" tools incorporate scaffolds-software features that address the cognitive obstacles learners face so they can engage in the work in an educationally productive manner. However, designers still lack specific scaffolding design guidelines for developing effective scaffolded tools. The HCI contribution of this paper is a set of scaffolding guidelines distilled from an empirical case study. The study evaluated Symphony, a scaffolded environment for high school students learning science inquiry. The study evaluated the "effects with" the Symphony scaffolds, which described how students worked with the scaffolds to do their science work. The scaffolds were evaluated using several usability and learner-centered criteria, and the resulting information was correlated with structural characteristics of the scaffolds to distill a set of structural scaffolding guidelines

Learner-centered design is an evolving design perspective focusing on the design of software scaffolds to support novice learners in using software to do and learn previously unknown work practices. Scaffolding evaluation is necessary to see how well learners can perform new work activity using the scaffolded software. However, scaffolding evaluation is challenging because of the need to address several issues resulting from the interplay between user-centered and learner-centered perspectives. Scaffolding evaluation methods need specific criteria to address learner-centered concerns, traditional usability measures to address user-centered concerns, and considerations of the instances when usability conflicts with the learning goals of scaffolded tools. The authors discuss these learner-centered evaluation issues and a scaffolding evaluation method to assess, not just the usability of the software, but also the effectiveness of the scaffolds in terms of the learning goals behind the software.

Article Free Access Share on The design of guided learner-adaptable scaffolding in interactive learning environments Authors: Shari L. Jackson College of Engineering, School of Education, School of Information, University of Michigan, 1101 Beal Ave., Ann Arbor, MI College of Engineering, School of Education, School of Information, University of Michigan, 1101 Beal Ave., Ann Arbor, MIView Profile , Joseph Krajcik College of Engineering, School of Education, School of Information, University of Michigan, 1101 Beal Ave., Ann Arbor, MI College of Engineering, School of Education, School of Information, University of Michigan, 1101 Beal Ave., Ann Arbor, MIView Profile , Elliot Soloway College of Engineering, School of Education, School of Information, University of Michigan, 1101 Beal Ave., Ann Arbor, MI College of Engineering, School of Education, School of Information, University of Michigan, 1101 Beal Ave., Ann Arbor, MIView Profile Authors Info & Claims CHI '98: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing SystemsJanuary 1998 Pages 187–194https://doi.org/10.1145/274644.274672Published:01 January 1998Publication History 75citation1,984DownloadsMetricsTotal Citations75Total Downloads1,984Last 12 Months181Last 6 weeks13 Get Citation AlertsNew Citation Alert added!This alert has been successfully added and will be sent to:You will be notified whenever a record that you have chosen has been cited.To manage your alert preferences, click on the button below.Manage my AlertsNew Citation Alert!Please log in to your account Save to BinderSave to BinderCreate a New BinderNameCancelCreateExport CitationPublisher SiteeReaderPDF

Article ARTEMIS: learner-centered design of an information seeking environment for K-12 education Share on Authors: Raven Wallace University of Michigan, School of Education, 610 East University, Ann Arbor, MI University of Michigan, School of Education, 610 East University, Ann Arbor, MIView Profile , Elliot Soloway University of Michigan, School of Information, 550 East University, Ann Arbor, MI University of Michigan, School of Information, 550 East University, Ann Arbor, MIView Profile , Joseph Krajcik University of Michigan University of MichiganView Profile , Nathan Bos University of Michigan University of MichiganView Profile , Joseph Hoffman University of Michigan University of MichiganView Profile , Heather Eccleston Hunter University of Michigan University of MichiganView Profile , Dan Kiskis University of Michigan University of MichiganView Profile , Elisabeth Klann University of Michigan University of MichiganView Profile , Greg Peters University of Michigan University of MichiganView Profile , David Richardson University of Michigan University of MichiganView Profile , Ofer Ronen University of Michigan University of MichiganView Profile Authors Info & Claims CHI '98: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing SystemsJanuary 1998 Pages 195–202https://doi.org/10.1145/274644.274673Online:01 January 1998Publication History 27citation726DownloadsMetricsTotal Citations27Total Downloads726Last 12 Months13Last 6 weeks2 Get Citation AlertsNew Citation Alert added!This alert has been successfully added and will be sent to:You will be notified whenever a record that you have chosen has been cited.To manage your alert preferences, click on the button below.Manage my AlertsNew Citation Alert!Please log in to your account Save to BinderSave to BinderCreate a New BinderNameCancelCreateExport CitationPublisher SiteGet Access