Daniel C. Edelson
Danny Edelson is Associate Professor of Learning Sciences and Computer Science.
He conducts research on Earth and environmental science education reform. An important component of his work is the
development of computational tools that enable students to participate in the
authentic data analysis practices of Earth and environmental scientists. He has
developed scientific investigation tools for learners, computer-supported
collaborative learning (CSCL) environments, and case-based teaching
environments. He is also engaged in research on the design of
inquiry-based science curriculum and professional development for teachers.
Dr. Edelson has faculty appointments in the Learning Sciences Program in the
School of Education and Social Policy and the Computer Science Department in the
McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. From 2001-2004, he
served as the Coordinator of the Learning Sciences Program. He teaches
graduate courses on the design of curriculum and educational software and
teaching with technology. He has
taught undergraduate courses on cognitive science approaches to learning and
understanding and computer programming. He serves on the editorial boards
of the Journal of the Learning Sciences and the International Journal of Computers for Mathematical
Learning, and he is on the board of
the International Society of the Learning Sciences.
Dr. Edelson received his B.S in Engineering
Sciences (Electrical) from Yale University and his Ph.D. in Computer Science
from Northwestern University.
Dr. Edelson's curriculum vitae (as of 9/04) is available here.
The following are some of Dr. Edelson's current and recent research projects:
Current Projects
The Geographic Data in Education (GEODE)
Initiative (formerly known as the
WorldWatcher Project) is dedicated to the improvement of Earth and
environmental science education through the use of data visualization and
analysis tools to support inquiry-based pedagogy. Through an integrated program
of research and development, the GEODE Initiative is advancing our
understanding of learning in the Earth and environmental sciences, design of
curriculum and educational software, and teacher professional development.
Equally important, the GEODE Initiative is creating useful and useable products
for students and teachers at levels ranging from middle school through college.
Current research and development efforts of
the GEODE Initiative includes:
·
My World GIS, a Geographic Information
System (GIS) designed for educational settings;
·
Looking at the Environment, a one-year high school environmental science
curriculum that makes extensive use of geographic data visualization and
analysis tools;
·
Planetary Forecaster, a middle school curriculum unit on the relationship
between physical geography and climate.
Planetary Forecaster was originally developed as part of the Center for
Learning Technologies in Science and is being revised for publication as part
of the Problem-Based Inquiry project.
·
Earth Structures and
Processes, a middle school curriculum
unit on plate tectonics. Earth
Structures was originally developed as part of the Center for Learning
Technologies in Science and is being revised for publication as part of the
Problem-Based Inquiry project.
·
Investigating and Questioning our World through
Science and Technology (IQWST)
is a research and development project
developing comprehensive middle school science curriculum. The GEODE Initiative is leading the
development of the Earth/Space science strand of IQWST.
Previous research and development included:
·
WorldWatcher,
a visualization and data analysis environment for gridded geographic data
designed specifically for educational use;
·
the Global Warming Project, an 8-10th grade curriculum unit on the science and
policy of global climate change.
The Center for Curriculum Materials
in Science (CCMS) is an NSF-funded Center for Learning and Teaching. CCMS is dedicated to preparing the next
generation of science curriculum materials developers and researchers. The Center is developing and pursuing a
research agenda on the development, implementation, and evaluation of science
curriculum. CCMS is a partnership
of researchers at AAAS Project 2061, the University of Michigan, Michigan State
University and Northwestern.
Recent Projects
The Center
for Learning Technologies in Urban Schools (LeTUS) is a collaboration involving
Northwestern, the University of Michigan, and the Chicago and Detroit Public
School systems. The goal is to effect systemic reform through a set of
curriculum and professional development activities that lead to the
introduction of learning technologies and project-based pedagogies into middle
school science education. The Center is developing a three-year
project-based, technology-integrated middle school science curriculum.
The Analyzing Scaffolding Software in
Educational Settings for Science (ASSESS) Project is a conducting empirical studies of the impact
of supportive software in science learning.
The Engineering Scaffolded Work
Environments (SWEets) for Science Education Project is a multi-university collaboration developing an
integrated suite of tools for conducting inquiry in science classrooms.
It incorporates investigation tools as well as inquiry support tools for
planning, reflection, collaboration, argumentation, and presentation.
The SIBLE
(Supportive Inquiry-Based Learning Environments) Projectis looking at how to foster reflective inquiry.
The SIBLE project has developed the Progress Portfolio,
an inquiry support environment, that allow students to record and organize the
intermediate products of a scientific investigation.
The Designing to Learn Project is exploring the use of design tasks to provide a
contexor learning fundamental principles. As part of that research, we
are developing an architecture for self-contained, simulation-based learning
environments that allow students to learn fundamental science principles by
designing everyday devices that rely on those principles. Goin' Up? is the first example of a Designing To Learn
simulation teaches force and motion concepts for introductory college physics
through a scenario in which students design an elevator.
The Living Curriculum
Project is creating a performance
support system to help teachers learn to implement the project-based curriculum
units developed in the Center for Learning Technologies in Urban Schools.
The Living Curriculum is a web site that enables teachers to access video cases
of teachers enacting Center curricula in their classrooms.
The SSciVEE (Supportive Scientific Visualization Environments for
Education) Project was an NSF-sponsored project that investigated the use of
scientific visualization to support inquiry-based science learning. This
project led to the development of WorldWatcher, a visualization and data
analysis tool for geographic data that has been used in a wide range of Earth
science, geography, and environmental science curricula.
The Collaboratory NotebookProject is investigating the role technology can play
in supporting collaborative learning. The Collaboratory Notebook is a shared
hypermedia database that provides a structure to assist learners engaged in
open-ended projects or discussions. This Internet-based environment allows
participants to collaborate from different locations at different times. The
development of the Collaboratory Notebook was supported by Northwestern
University and by the National Science Foundation through the CoVis Project .
Prior to his current appointment, Dr. Edelson
was the project manager of the Learning through Collaborative Visualization (CoVis) Project where he oversaw
the development of visualization and collaboration environments, as well as the
design and installation of the first K-12 educational network using ISDN
service to support both data networking and desktop videoconferencing. As
project manager of the CoVis project, he supervised the development of the
Collaboratory Notebook and three visualization environments, the Weather Visualizer,
the Climate Visualizer, and the Greenhouse Effect Visualizer.
For his dissertation research, he developed Creanimate,
a case-based teaching system that draws on a library of video clips of animals
in the wild to help elementary school students learn about animal adaptation.