Building Learning Communities 2011

The Innovative Technology in Science Inquiry (ITSI) project prepares diverse students for careers in information technologies by engaging them in exciting, inquiry-based science projects that use computational models and real-time data acquisition. ITSI has produced dozens of activities in middle school earth, physical and life sciences and high school physics, chemistry and biology using a range of commercial sensors as well as open source or research-based software, including Molecular Workbench, NetLogo, Physics Education Technology (PhET) and Seismic Eruption. 

ITSI activities are embedded in software that allows students to read the activity, answer questions, make predictions and collect data, analyze results, run a computer-based model, take and annotate snapshots of that model and save their work within one application. It also allows the collection of formative and summative assessment data, which is available to the teachers. The software is not specific to any sensor manufacturer or platform. It is designed to work with whatever curriculum, computers and sensors schools may have or adopt.