Over the last two decades, there has been an increasing focus on spatial technologies in teaching and learning, revealing the potential to support new forms of youth sensemaking across varied settings and modalities. Recent scholarship has shown the possibilities of participatory digital mapping technologies, enabling young people to collect data…

This paper connects the technological practice of activity monitor gaming to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) science and engineering practice of "analyzing and interpreting data," and to the foundational constructionist idea of personal meaning. In our larger study, eighth-grade students, ages 12-14, wore physical activity…

Following their participation in a guided-inquiry unit, 129 seventh-graders from five diverse urban middle schools were asked about their perceptions of specific inquiry tasks, from an expectancy-value framework. Students were asked to rate the interest value, utility value, and task difficulty of (a) data collection design; (b) explanation; (c)…

Despite a rise in the use of handheld computers in classrooms, meaningful learning with personal digital assistant (PDA) technology remains poorly studied. This article reports results from an evaluation of customized handheld data collection software, the BioKIDS Sequence, which was used during an 8-week biodiversity curriculum unit by 5th and…

The science education community has been challenged to develop curricula that offer science educators and students a variety of experiences that highlight the advances of technologies. Although many approaches have been suggested for using technologies in school, there has been little research on its use as a tool with middle school students.…