My Kitchen Chemistry talk at the International Conferences of the Learning Sciences 2012 in Sydney, Australia.

1. Kitchen
Chemistry
Supporting Learners’ Decisionsin
Jason C. Yip, Tamara Clegg, Elizabeth
Bonsignore, Helene Gelderblom, Becky
Science
Lewittes, Mona Leigh Guha, and Allison Druin

2. “Science for all” (AAAS, 1990)

3. Traditional science learning can
be
ALIEN
BORING
DISCONNECTED
Lee &Fradd, 1998
Basu& Barton, 2007 Brickhouse & Potter, 2001

4. 4

5. Kitchen Chemistry
Clegg et al., 2006; 2010; 2011

6. Kitchen Chemistry
Facilitation
Semi-structure activities
Whole group discussions
Mobile technologies
6

7. Story Kit
Bederson et al., 2009

8. Mobile Technologies
Semi Structured Activities
Choice Day
Whole Group Discussions
Facilitation

9. NO EASY TASK!

10. Forgetthe purpose
Endinvestigations
prematurely
Fail to
recognizeimportance
of scientific situations
Need help
pursuinginterests and
goals
Gleason &Schauble, 1999 Quintana et al., 2004

11. How can we
support informed
decision making ?

12. Question #1
What decisions
learners make in
the development
of their own
investigations?

13. Question #2
How do learners
come to make
such decisions?

14. Question #3
What aspects of
the learning
environment
support these
choices?

15. Methods
Yin’s (2003) comparative case
studies
Context: A one week
implementation of KC with learners
between the ages of 9 to 13.
Case selection: Three Choice Day
groups

16. Videos of Interviewed Field notes StoryKit
all activities learners entries

17. Data analysis
Initial examination
Emerging patterns
Triangulation
Chain of evidence
Validity
Cross case analysis

18. Lisa & “ Togo ” Cakes

19. Denise , Lily , and Meg
& Red Velvet Cakes

20. Choice Day Synopsis
“Togo” cakes – Pancakes with syrup in
the middle
Engineering tasks: Enough fluffiness
and how to get the syrup in the middle
of the syrup

21. Q1: What decisions were made?
Decision #1: Chose to use baking powder as
a leavener and determined the amount to
use with an experiment.
Decision #2: Chose to freeze different syrups
to as the way to insert the liquid into the
middle

22. Q2: How were the decisions made?
Decision #1: Looked for heights of the foam
generated from specific quantities of baking
powder, water, and time in the microwave

24. Q2: How were the decisions made?
Decision #2: She developed an experiment
to test out whether honey, corn syrup or
maple syrup would freeze well enough to be
inserted into the middle.

27. Q3: What aspects of KC helped?
Facilitators
Semi-structured experiments
Whole group discussions
Technology

28. Choice Day Synopsis
Red velvet cake – Denise wanted to make
this because her aunt made this style of
cake.
Denise initially did not think of this as a
science investigation; she just wanted to
make the cake.

29. Q1: What decisions were made?
Decision #1: Comparison cake and a
regular cake.
Decision #2: The regular cake uses one
egg and baking soda + vinegar.
The comparison cake uses two eggs and
baking powder.

30. Q2: How were the decisions made?
Decision #1: The adult facilitators worked
with the girls to figure out what their goals
were for the cake.

32. Q2: How were the decisions made?
Decision #2: The girls wanted a “cakey” and
“moist” cake.

35. Q3: What aspects of KC helped?
Facilitators
Semi-structured experiments
Whole group discussions
Technology

36. Learners and Choice
Science is not just about
the content knowledge and
the social practices.
Learners may need a
sense that making
informed decisions
matter.
We attempted to use the
four aspects of KC to
explore the notion that
learners can make viable
decisions.

38. # 1
Early Decision Making
Matters

39. Mobile Technologies
Semi Structured Activities
Choice Day
Whole Group Discussions
Facilitation

40. # 2
&
Guidance Organization
Matters

41. Alignment Tension in decisions

42. # 3
Reflection Matters

43. Slow Down Reflect

44. acknowledgements
We want to thank the CI Fellows program for funding this
work.
Ben Bederson& Alex Quinn (StoryKit)
We acknowledge our participants and the local school
community that partnered with us for this work.

45. @ ebonsign
@ tlclegg
@ jasoncyip