In this paper, we describe an effort to develop and evaluate an innovative formative assessment to gather evidence about middle school students' argumentation skills. Specifically, this game-enhanced scenario-based assessment (Seaball--Semester at Sea) includes a series of argumentative reasoning activities in the context of an extended scenario…

With the growing emphasis on developing 21st century skills among today's youth, there is continued optimism about the possibilities granted by increasing access to networked technologies, particularly for encouraging youth to pursue their interests and take ownership of their learning. Yet, research demonstrates the importance of adult support in…

Lack of motivation and of real-world relevance have been identified as reasons for low interest in science among children. Game-based learning and storytelling are prominent methods for generating intrinsic motivation in learning. Real-world relevance requires connecting abstract scientific concepts with the real world. This can be done by…