About TIDeS
What is Investigation
and Design?Teaching with Investigation and Design in Science (TIDeS) is funded by the National Science Foundation's Division of Undergraduate Education through grant #2013338. The work brings together two projects with complementary missions: InTeGrate pioneered a rigorous curriculum development process that produced materials for undergraduate faculty, and Visionlearning creates versatile, accessible open educational resources directed towards undergraduate students. Together, we are focusing our efforts on faculty who teach disciplinary science courses that enroll future teachers and on the introductory science courses that they teach that provide future teachers' primary engagement with science.
Project goals
Goal 1: Engage and support undergraduate faculty in developing, testing, and implementing high-quality instructional materials that put investigation and design at the center of introductory science courses.
In order to catalyze transformation of introductory undergraduate science courses, we will develop new curricular materials focused on [link investigation and design that are freely available and broadly adaptable for courses in biology, chemistry, Earth science, and physics, and to support faculty in teaching with these new materials.
Goal 2: Assess the impact of the use of the materials and the development process.
What does teaching with investigation and design really look like at the college level? Through our research, we will explore this question, leading to insights about how to effectively engage faculty in teaching with investigation and design and the impact they can have on students.
Our guiding principles
The materials we produce and the support we provide for faculty all follows these four guiding principles:
Students will engage in scientific investigation and engineering design to deepen their understanding of core ideas.
Most simply, engaging in investigation and design means learning science and engineering by doing science and engineering. Through a holistic learning process, students will ask questions about a natural phenomenon or real-world engineering challenge, gather evidence to construct explanations or iteratively design engineering solutions, and communicate their reasoning to themselves and others. Learn more about investigation and design »
Faculty and the curricular materials they use will cultivate an equitable learning environment where all students have equal access to learning and feel valued and supported in their learning.
In an equitable learning environment, instruction builds on students' lived experiences and values students' knowledge, intentionally connecting them with core science and engineering concepts. There is an emphasis on making meaning that includes hearing and integrating the contributions of others, and communicating ideas in a common effort to build understanding of natural phenomena or engineering solutions.
Students will engage in addressing questions and solving problems that are relevant to their lives.
Interest is a key catalyst for both short-term engagement and long-term learning. TIDeS materials will connect phenomena and challenges in ways that pique student curiosity, build a sense of wonder, and allow students to make connections to their everyday experiences, and provide guidance in the ways instructors can adapt or modify the phenomena and challenges to their own settings to reach their students.
Students will engage in authentic and meaningful scenarios that make use of real data and models and reflect the actual practice of science and engineering.
A key aspect of investigating a phenomenon or solving a design challenge is making sense of it through the collection and analysis of evidence involving the use of real data and models and the tools used by scientists and engineers. TIDeS materials will provide the structure needed to support students in developing their data collection, analysis, and interpretation skills (including computational and visualization skills) to build usable knowledge.