CONCORD CONSORTIUM INCORPORATED
25 LOVE LANE, CONCORD, MA 01742 www.concord.org

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Organizations Filed Purposes: THE CONCORD CONSORTIUM IS A RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATION DEDICATED TO TRANSFORMING EDUCATION THROUGH TECHNOLOGY. OUR MISSION IS TO IGNITE LARGE-SCALE IMPROVEMENTS IN TEACHING AND LEARNING THROUGH TECHNOLOGY. OUR RESEARCH HAS DEVELOPED FREELY AVAILABLE SCIENCE, MATH, AND ENGINEERING SOFTWARE AND CURRICULUM MATERIALS AND MADE THEM AVAILABLE UNDER OPEN-SOURCE AND OPEN-CONTENT LICENSES. THESE MATERIALS WERE ACCESSED BY OVER 2.3 MILLION UNIQUE USERS FROM 50 STATES AND 125 COUNTRIES. IN FY2020, USERS LAUNCHED OVER 303,000 ACTIVITIES FROM OUR STEM RESOURCE FINDER. OVER 54,000 TEACHERS AND 863,000 STUDENTS USED ALL OF OUR ACTIVITY PORTALS. OUR MOLECULAR WORKBENCH SOFTWARE HAS BEEN DOWNLOADED OVER 1.5 MILLION TIMES IN ITS HISTORY. OUR FREE BIANNUAL NEWSLETTER WAS MAILED TO OVER 6,000 SUBSCRIBERS AND THE ELECTRONIC VERSION WAS SENT TO OVER 53,000 SUBSCRIBERS. WE ALSO PUBLISHED PAPERS IN MULTIPLE PEER-REVIEWED TEACHER PRACTITIONER AND RESEARCH JOURNALS.

TO IGNITE LARGE-SCALE IMPROVEMENTS IN TEACHING AND LEARNING THROUGH TECHNOLOGY.

SMARTCAD: GUIDING ENGINEERING DESIGN WITH SCIENCE SIMULATIONS 2020 THIS PROJECT (HTTPS://CONCORD.ORG/SMARTCAD) CONDUCTS DESIGN-BASED RESEARCH ON SMARTCAD, A GENRE OF COMPUTER-AIDED DESIGN (CAD) SOFTWARE SYSTEMS THAT SUPPORTS SECONDARY ENGINEERING EDUCATION WITH EMBEDDED COMPUTATIONAL ENGINES CAPABLE OF SIMULATING THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT AND ANALYZING THEIR PERFORMANCE. THESE ENGINES ALLOW SMARTCAD TO ANALYZE STUDENT DESIGN ARTIFACTS ON A SCIENTIFIC BASIS AND PROVIDE AUTOMATIC FORMATIVE FEEDBACK IN FORMS SUCH AS NUMBERS, GRAPHS, AND VISUALIZATIONS TO GUIDE STUDENT DESIGN PROCESSES ON AN ONGOING BASIS. THE RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS IS THAT APPROPRIATE APPLICATIONS OF SMARTCAD IN THE CLASSROOM RESULT IN THREE LEARNING OUTCOMES: 1) SCIENCE KNOWLEDGE GAINS AS INDICATED BY A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF THE INVOLVED SCIENCE CONCEPTS AND THEIR INTEGRATION AT THE COMPLETION OF A DESIGN PROJECT; 2) DESIGN COMPETENCY GAINS AS INDICATED BY THE INCREASE OF ITERATIONS, INFORMED DESIGN DECISIONS, AND SYSTEMS THINKING OVER TIME; AND 3) DESIGN PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS AS INDICATED BY A GREATER CHANCE TO SUCCEED IN DESIGNING A PRODUCT THAT MEETS ALL THE SPECIFICATIONS WITHIN A GIVEN PERIOD OF TIME. WHILE MEASURING THESE LEARNING OUTCOMES, THIS PROJECT ALSO PROBES TWO RESEARCH QUESTIONS: 1) WHAT TYPES OF FEEDBACK FROM SIMULATIONS TO STUDENTS ARE EFFECTIVE IN HELPING THEM ATTAIN THE OUTCOMES?; AND 2) UNDER WHAT CONDITIONS DO THESE TYPES OF FEEDBACK HELP STUDENTS ATTAIN THE OUTCOMES? TO TEST THE RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS AND ANSWER THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS, THIS PROJECT HAS DEVELOPED CURRICULUM MODULES BASED ON THE LEARNING BY DESIGN (LBD) FRAMEWORK TO SUPPORT A VARIETY OF DESIGN CHALLENGES RELATED TO ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND RENEWABLE ENERGY. THIS INTEGRATION OF SMARTCAD AND LBD SITUATES THE RESEARCH IN THE LBD CONTEXT AND SHEDS LIGHT ON HOW SMARTCAD CAN BE USED TO ENHANCE ESTABLISHED PEDAGOGICAL MODELS SUCH AS LBD. RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS INCLUDE KNOWLEDGE INTEGRATION ASSESSMENTS, LEARNING ANALYTICS, EMBEDDED ASSESSMENTS, CLASSROOM OBSERVATIONS, PARTICIPANT INTERVIEWS, AND STUDENT QUESTIONNAIRES. THE RESEARCH HAS BEEN CONDUCTED ACROSS NEW ENGLAND AND BEYOND (E.G., MICHIGAN), INVOLVING MORE THAN 1,000 SECONDARY STUDENTS AT A NUMBER OF SOCIOECONOMICALLY DIVERSE SCHOOLS. ANNUAL PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOPS HAVE BEEN PROVIDED TO FAMILIARIZE TEACHERS WITH SMARTCAD MATERIALS AND IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES PRIOR TO THE FIELD TESTS FROM 2016 TO 2019, SERVING MORE THAN 100 TEACHERS FROM SEVEN STATES.ON THE DEVELOPMENT SIDE, THIS PROJECT HAS SUPPORTED THE DEVELOPMENT OF A SMARTCAD IMPLEMENTATION, ENERGY3D (HTTP://ENERGY3D.CONCORD.ORG), WHICH HAS BEEN DOWNLOADED 55,000 TIMES ACCORDING TO GOOGLE ANALYTICS. ENERGY3D IS A SIMULATION-BASED ENGINEERING TOOL FOR DESIGNING GREEN BUILDINGS AND POWER STATIONS THAT HARNESS RENEWABLE ENERGY TO ACHIEVE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT. USERS CAN QUICKLY SKETCH UP A REALISTIC-LOOKING STRUCTURE OR IMPORT ONE FROM AN EXISTING CAD FILE, SUPERIMPOSE IT ON A MAP IMAGE (E.G., GOOGLE MAPS OR LOT MAPS), AND THEN EVALUATE ITS ENERGY PERFORMANCE FOR ANY GIVEN DAY AND LOCATION. BASED ON COMPUTATIONAL PHYSICS AND WEATHER DATA, ENERGY3D CAN RAPIDLY GENERATE TIME GRAPHS (RESEMBLING DATA LOGGERS) AND HEAT MAPS (RESEMBLING INFRARED CAMERAS) FOR IN-DEPTH ANALYSES. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IS ALSO USED TO SUPPORT GENERATIVE DESIGN, ENGINEERING OPTIMIZATION, AND AUTOMATIC ASSESSMENT. AT THE END OF THE DESIGN, ENERGY3D ALLOWS USERS TO PRINT IT OUT, CUT OUT THE PIECES, AND USE THEM TO ASSEMBLE A PHYSICAL SCALE MODEL. ENERGY3D HAS BEEN PRIMARILY DEVELOPED TO PROVIDE A SIMULATED ENVIRONMENT FOR ENGINEERING DESIGN TO SUPPORT SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING EDUCATION AND TRAINING FROM MIDDLE SCHOOLS TO GRADUATE SCHOOLS. AS ITS SIMULATION RESULTS ARE ACCURATE AND ITS USER INTERFACES ARE FRIENDLY, IT MAY ALSO BE USED AS AN ENTRY-LEVEL ENERGY SIMULATION TOOL FOR PROFESSIONALS. A SERIES OF CURRICULUM UNITS HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED AND ARE FREELY AVAILABLE FOR THE GENERAL PUBLIC TO USE.

INTEGRATED SCIENCE PRACTICES ENHANCED BY COMPUTATIONAL THINKING (INSPECT) 2020 THE MAJOR GOAL OF THE INSPECT PROJECT (HTTPS://CONCORD.ORG/INSPECT) AT THE CONCORD CONSORTIUM IS TO DEVELOP AND RESEARCH A NEW APPROACH TO LEARNING IN WHICH STUDENTS ENGAGE IN AUTHENTIC SCIENCE PRACTICES THAT INTEGRATE COMPUTATIONAL TOOLS AND DATA INTO BIOLOGY CLASS. STUDENTS AND TEACHERS USE DESIGNED CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES WITH NOVEL INTERNET-OF-THINGS (IOT) SENSORS AND ACTUATORS TO CONDUCT EXPERIMENTS, PRODUCE DATA, AND ENGAGE IN DISCUSSIONS TO IMPROVE THEIR UNDERSTANDING OF BIOLOGICAL PHENOMENA AND THE USE OF SCIENTIFIC PRACTICES. STUDENTS PROGRAM SENSOR HARDWARE TECHNOLOGIES USING A SIMPLIFIED VISUAL PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE CALLED DATAFLOW TO CONTROL AND MONITOR ONGOING EXPERIMENTS, COLLECT AND VISUALIZE DATA, AND WIRELESSLY LINK TO DATA ACROSS DEVICES. INSPECT HAS THREE PRIMARY RESEARCH AND EVALUATION QUESTIONS:1. TESTING FEASIBILITY: TO WHAT EXTENT AND UNDER WHAT CONDITIONS ARE STUDENTS ABLE TO USE THE PROJECT'S COMPUTATIONAL RESOURCES TO UNDERTAKE AUTHENTIC SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS?2. EXAMINING LEARNING GAINS: WHEN STUDENTS ARE ENGAGED IN SCIENCE EXPERIMENTATION MADE POSSIBLE BY THE INSPECT RESOURCES, APPROACH, AND DESIGNED TOOLS, WHAT LEARNING GAINS ARE OBSERVED IN STUDENTS' ABILITIES TO PERFORM SCIENCE PRACTICES, ENGAGE IN COMPUTATIONAL THINKING PRACTICES, AND UNDERSTAND BIOLOGY CONCEPTS?3. IDENTIFYING TEACHER SUPPORT: WHAT KINDS OF BACKGROUND MATERIALS AND ASSISTANCE DO TEACHERS REQUIRE FOR EFFECTIVE ENACTMENTS OF THE INTENDED CURRICULUM? SIGNIFICANT EFFORT HAS BEEN DEDICATED TO THE RESEARCH, TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT, AND CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT BY THE CONCORD CONSORTIUM IN PARTNERSHIP WITH MANYLABS IN SAN FRANCISCO, CA, AND WITH PARTICIPATING TEACHERS IN THE SAN FRANCISCO EAST BAY. CURRICULUM. TWO VERSIONS OF A REVISED DESIGN FOR AN INSPECT CURRICULUM SEQUENCE WERE CREATED. ONE ALIGNS WITH MORE TRADITIONAL HIGH SCHOOL BIOLOGY UNITS (SO TEACHERS COULD MORE EASILY INCORPORATE INSPECT ACTIVITIES INTO THEIR CURRICULAR PLANS), AND ONE IS A REVISED A SEQUENCE OF ACTIVITIES BASED ON ANALYSIS OF CLASSROOM OBSERVATIONS AND TEACHER FEEDBACK ON THE PREVIOUS YEAR'S IMPLEMENTATION. AN ENDURING GOAL IS TO ENHANCE THE "HIGH AGENCY" OF INSPECT CURRICULUM DESIGN WHILE ADDRESSING THE TENSIONS AND TIME CONSTRAINTS IN HIGH SCHOOL CLASSROOMS. IN ADDITION, WE DESIGNED A STORYLINE ABOUT CO2 TO BETTER CONTEXTUALIZE THE STUDY OF THE CARBON CYCLE USING IOT TOOLS AND SOFTWARE AND OTHER MATERIALS. THE SEQUENCE IS FRAMED BY STUDENTS BRINGING THEIR OWN KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE OF CLIMATE CHANGE AND CONNECTING THAT WITH THE CLASSROOM AIR THEY BREATHE. STUDENTS USE SENSORS TO COLLECT DATA ON AIR, AS WELL AS HUMAN AND PLANT RESPIRATION; IN A CAPSTONE ACTIVITY, STUDENTS COMBINE DATA FROM MULTIPLE SENSORS IN A CLOSED CONTAINER IN A TABLETOP BIOSPHERE INVESTIGATION. TEACHERS IMPLEMENT THIS SEQUENCE IN TWO TO FOUR WEEKS. TECHNOLOGY HARDWARE. PARTNER MANYLABS HAS BEEN DESIGNING, BUILDING, AND TESTING THE THIRD GENERATION OF HARDWARE FOR COLLECTING SENSOR DATA AND CONTROLLING ACTUATORS. THE SENSORS AND ACTUATORS CONNECT TO A MICROPROCESSOR HUB DEVICE THAT PROVIDES A WIFI CONNECTION TO THE INTERNET AND A BLUETOOTH CONNECTION FOR SETUP AND CONFIGURATION. THE REVISED HUB DESIGNS NOW USE A LOW-COST MICROCONTROLLER AND EXCHANGE MESSAGES WITH A SERVER USING A STANDARD IOT PROTOCOL. THE SENSORS AND ACTUATORS CONNECT TO THE HUBS USING AUDIO CABLES THAT PROVIDE BOTH POWER AND DATA INPUT/OUTPUT. MANYLABS HAS BUILT A CLASSROOM HARDWARE SET THAT INCLUDES SENSORS FOR CO2, O2, TEMPERATURE, HUMIDITY, AND LIGHT. TECHNOLOGY SOFTWARE: THE ORIGINAL DATAFLOW PROTOTYPE PREVIOUSLY DEVELOPED IN PYTHON AND A VARIETY OF HOMEGROWN WEB FRONT-END PACKAGES WAS REFACTORED USING REACT, SASS, AND AWS IOT. THE MODERN AND INDUSTRY-STANDARD TOOLSET WAS CHOSEN SO THAT MORE DEVELOPERS COULD EASILY PARTICIPATE IN PRESENT AND FUTURE FEATURE DEVELOPMENT AND MAINTENANCE, AND TO EXTEND THE SET OF SUPPORTED FUNCTIONALITY (CLOUD DATA STORAGE AND SHARING). TECHNICAL AND USABILITY CHALLENGES UNCOVERED BY PREVIOUS DATAFLOW CLASSROOM TESTING LED TO DESIGN IMPROVEMENTS TO THE FRONT END AND BACK END OF THE SOFTWARE. DATAFLOW NOW USES AND COMMUNICATES WITH AN AWS MANAGED CLOUD SERVICE, A STANDARD IOT PROTOCOL FOR MESSAGING AND CONTROLLING HARDWARE, AND USER/DEVICE AUTHENTICATION. A SIGNIFICANT INVESTMENT IN SOFTWARE AND TECHNICAL DEVELOP, TESTING, AND QUALITY ASSURANCE WAS ACCOMPLISHED IN THE PAST YEAR. A NEW DATAFLOW WEB INTERFACE WAS CREATED TO MAKE PROGRAMMING NODES MORE EXPLICIT IN THEIR FUNCTION AND OVERALL MORE USER FRIENDLY TO STUDENTS NEW TO DATAFLOW PROGRAMMING. RESEARCH: CLASSROOM RESEARCH DATA COLLECTED TO DATE CONTINUES TO BE ANALYZED AND PREPARED FOR PUBLICATIONS. THIS DATA INCLUDES SURVEYS, ASSESSMENTS, AND INTERVIEWS WITH STUDENTS ABOUT THEIR LEARNING WITH THE CURRICULUM. THE RESULTS OF THE RESEARCH HAVE BEEN PUBLISHED IN A SPECIAL ISSUE OF THE JOURNAL OF LEARNING SCIENCES, THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION ON RESEARCH IN SCIENCE, AND THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE LEARNING SCIENCES 2020. TWO PUBLICATIONS ARE UNDER REVIEW IN THE IEEE TRANSACTIONS IN LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES JOURNAL AND THE NSTA SCIENCE TEACHER. DATA CONTINUES TO BE ANALYZED FROM STUDENTS WHO USED THE INSPECT CURRICULUM AND ENGAGED IN USING DATAFLOW. TEACHER AND STUDENT INTERVIEWS, WRITTEN RESPONSES, AND SCREENCAST VIDEOS COLLECTIVELY INFORM RESEARCH ON STUDENTS' INTERESTS, UNDERSTANDING OF BIOLOGY CONCEPTS, AND SOPHISTICATED ENGAGEMENT IN PRACTICES OF SCIENTIFIC DATA LITERACY AND UNDERSTANDING. DISSEMINATION: PROJECT STAFF GAVE PRESENTATIONS AT MAJOR CONFERENCES AND SUBMITTED PAPERS TO JOURNALS. A PROJECT WEBSITE WAS UPDATED WITH PUBLICATIONS. ALL SOFTWARE DEVELOPED BY THE PROJECT HAS BEEN DISSEMINATED ON GITHUB, AN OPEN SOFTWARE REPOSITORY. A DISSEMINATION WEBSITE TO SHARE RESEARCH PRODUCTS INCLUDING INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS AND PROJECT DOCUMENTATION IS UNDER DEVELOPMENT.

INQUIRYSPACE 2 2020 THE MAJOR GOAL OF THE INQUIRYSPACE 2 PROJECT (HTTPS://CONCORD.ORG/INQUIRYSPACE) AT THE CONCORD CONSORTIUM (CC) IS TO MAKE IT POSSIBLE FOR ANY SCHOOL TO OFFER STUDENTS THE CHANCE TO EXPERIENCE THE EXCITING PRACTICE OF SCIENCE AS AN INTEGRAL PART OF SCIENCE LEARNING. THE PROJECT SET THREE GOALS TO (1) REDUCE BARRIERS TO IMPLEMENTATION AND INCREASE EQUITABLE PARTICIPATION IN SCIENCE BY DEVELOPING TECHNOLOGIES THAT SUPPORT ENGAGEMENT IN EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN, DATA COLLECTION, AND ANALYSIS IN HIGH SCHOOL BIOLOGY, PHYSICS, AND CHEMISTRY CLASSES, (2) DEVELOP CURRICULAR MATERIALS THAT COHERENTLY SCAFFOLD STUDENTS IN DEVELOPING THE NECESSARY KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES TO EXPLORE NATURAL PHENOMENA, AND (3) DEVELOP TEACHER MATERIALS TO SUPPORT A PEDAGOGICAL APPROACH THAT FACILITATES STUDENT LEARNING THROUGH INDEPENDENT EXPERIMENTATION. SIGNIFICANT EFFORT HAS BEEN DEDICATED TOWARD CURRICULUM, RESEARCH, AND TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT DURING THE FOURTH PROJECT YEAR BY CC IN COLLABORATION WITH OUR PARTNER AT PHYSICS FRONT IN SANTA CRUZ, CA.CURRICULUM. DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE CURRICULUM FOR INQUIRYSPACE 2 REACHED THREE SIGNIFICANT MILESTONES DURING YEAR 4 OF THE PROJECT: (1) UPDATING THE PHYSICS CURRICULUM MODULE BASED ON TEACHER FEEDBACK, (2) SIGNIFICANT REWRITE AND REVISION OF THE BIOLOGY MODULE, AND (3) REFINEMENT OF PROTOTYPE ACTIVITIES FOR THE CHEMISTRY MODULE. SIGNIFICANT EFFORT ALSO WENT INTO RECRUITING TEACHERS AND PLANNING FURTHER CURRICULUM PILOT TESTING FOR THE 2020-2021 SCHOOL YEAR. WE RAN A FIVE-DAY ONLINE TEACHER TRAINING IN JULY 2020 FOR 13 TEACHERS. WE ALSO COMPLETELY UPDATED THE STEM RESOURCE FINDER COLLECTIONS PAGE FOR DISSEMINATING THE CURRICULAR MATERIALS AND OTHER SUPPORT MATERIALS. RESEARCH. DURING YEAR 4, ADDITIONAL INQUIRYSPACE 2 MILESTONES IN RESEARCH OCCURRED: (1) TWO PAPERS WERE ACCEPTED FOR THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR RESEARCH IN SCIENCE TEACHING (NARST) CONFERENCE. ANOTHER PAPER WAS ACCEPTED AT ICLS 2020. AN ARTICLE WAS PUBLISHED IN SCIENCE TEACHER AND WAS THE COVER STORY FOR THAT EDITION OF THE JOURNAL. IN ADDITION, WE HAD PLANNED TO DO TWO WORKSHOPS AT NSTA 2020 (WHICH WAS CANCELED DUE TO COVID-19). (2) THE PROJECT COLLECTED AND ANALYZED SCREENCAST VIDEO DATA FROM PHYSICS IMPLEMENTATIONS AND A CHEMISTRY IMPLEMENTATION BEFORE THE PANDEMIC FORCED SCHOOLS TO GO REMOTE. BIOLOGY DATA COLLECTION HAD TO BE SUSPENDED BEFORE IT COULD START. (3) THE PROJECT'S REVISED INQUIRYSPACE 2 MODULES WERE FIELD TESTED IN FIVE PILOT CLASSROOMS (THREE IN ME, TWO IN CA, AND ONE IN RI). CLASSROOM OBSERVATIONS, TEACHER FEEDBACK, AND CONTINUED ANALYSIS OF DATA COLLECTED BY CC RESEARCHERS WILL INFORM IMPROVEMENTS TO BOTH THE CURRICULUM AND THE TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPED AT CC. TECHNOLOGY. MOST OF THE TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT IS COMPLETE FOR YEAR 4. SOME MINOR CHANGES AND BUG FIXES WERE MADE TO CODAP (THE DATA ANALYSIS ENVIRONMENT), LARA (THE ACTIVITY AUTHORING AND DELIVERY TOOL), AND THE SENSOR INTERACTIVE (WHICH INTERFACES WITH SENSORS FOR DATA COLLECTION).

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