PITA Element Addressed

This proposal directly addresses Initiative #2, The Implementation of Instructional Enhancements. Neither this proposal, nor any variations of it, have been submitted to any other granting agency, either within or outside of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Project Overview and Explanation

Learning and teaching activities across K-12 classrooms are changing as teaching institutions gain Internet connectivity and incorporate web-based materials and tools into teaching activities. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) and the Beckman Center for Advanced Studies have collaboratively served as the development sites of a number of nationally renowned web-based education initiatives.

EduPortal, NCSA Education Division's newest initiative, is a collaborative effort that will serve as a web-based educator's toolkit for searching, submitting, collaborating, designing and evaluating curriculum. The EduPortal prototype is currently in its initial development stages. NCSA has assembled a focus group comprised of group of a Principal Investigator, a Lead Interface Designer, a Graphical User Interface Designer, a Lead Programmer, a Project Coordinator and eleven local teachers with experience in web-based education initiatives. The group first met on October 17, 2000 to begin efforts involving design of one component, the EduPortal Lesson Planner interface. It was decided that the project would begin with the development of six demonstration instructional modules.

University Laboratory High School will play a pivotal role in the EduPortal initiative. My specific role in Eduportal instructional module development is to lead the development of a biology-related module that has interdisciplinary teaching potential, and includes a genetic data analysis component using Biology Workbench. Biology Workbench is a web-based molecular biology software tool which allows users to analyze protein and nucleic acid sequence information residing in numerous protein and nucleic acid databases located on computers throughout the world.

The biology module will focus on problem-solving that involves identification of blood relatives using current genetic testing technologies. Students will be presented with an historical situation that occurred during Argentina's 1973-80 military regime, during which an estimated 40,000 people disappeared. Known as "The Disappeared," this group included large numbers of students, teachers, professors and others who opposed the military regime. The whereabouts of many of these individuals is no longer in question since the discovery of numerous mass grave sites throughout Argentina. It has become clear that a number of pregnant abducted women were allowed to give birth before being murdered. Infants were given up for adoption or sold, often to military families and their associates. It is estimated that 210 infants were born in this situation. Records show that mothers whose capture was imminent handed off their infants to passerbys so that the infants' lives would be spared. Many of these children have now reached an age when they are questioning where they came from and are expressing interest in being reunited with their original families. The solution to the problem posed becomes one of matching children to surviving grandparents. After an introduction to the topic through readings of online articles and Argentine political and historical web sites for background information, students will work in groups to learn about different genetic testing methodologies and their viability for use in matching these children to their surviving grandparents.

Two University Laboratory High School students and I will be involved in the development of the module. NCSA will provide graphical interface developers and other technology support specialists to support moduledevelopment. Project development will be divided into the following stages, anticipated dates of development follow:

1. Write web pages providing background to the political situation at that time and the series of events that led to the disappearance of so many Argentinans. January 2001.
2. Develop web pages of student activities to be performed. February 2001.
3. Develop hyperlinked information regarding various possible genetic technologies with potential for use in matching children with possible relatives (e.g. HLA typing, blood groups, genomic DNA polymorphisms, mitochondrial DNA polymorphisms). February 2001.
4. Develop a Biology Workbench Education Enhancements tutorial that will familiarize students with the use of Biology Workbench tools so that students can use those tools for later activities. March 2001.
5. Obtain actual mitochondrial DNA sequences for student analysis using Biology Workbench. March 2001.
6. Present outline with developed pages to the NCSA staff and the focus group for feedback. Late March 2001.
7. Develop an evaluation instrument for field testing of the initial prototype at three selected schools (Champaign Central High School, University Laboratory High School, and Urbana High School). March 2001.
8. Perform prototype activities at the three selected schools. April 2001.
9. Evaluate prototype activities. April 2001.
10. Modify activities as needed based on evaluation. Begin obtaining video clips or filming video of the different genetic testing methodologies, as well as video footage of interviews of scientists involved in this activity (e.g. Mary Claire King). May 2001.
11. Incorporate above-stated film clips into the module. June 2001.
12. Develop a web page which specifically designates how specific components of "The Disappeared of Argentina" tie in to curriculum reform as enunciated by organizations such as the American Association of the Advancement of Science. June 2001.
13. Add video interviews of individuals who have performed the actual Argentine testing. July 2001.
14. Add video and/or written accounts of individuals who have been reunited with their relatives as a result of using specific genetic technologies. July 2001.
15. Present the module and other aspects of EduPortal at state and national science- and education technology-related teaching conferences. Fall 2001.

Project Justification and Intended Outcomes

"The Disappeared of Argentina" will be key in establishing and publicizing of the NCSA EduPortal project. "The Disappeared" will serve as a model for the development of low cost, meaningful, real-world scientific activities that allow students access to the same tools used by practicing scientists.

Required Resources and Budget

University Laboratory High School will supply six Power Macintosh 5400/120 machines, software including Adobe PageMill and MS Word, and server space required for web page production. NCSA will provide personnel required for development of the graphical user interface. NCSA and the Beckman Institute will provide film-editing equipment and facilities.

Project Implementation

Project implementation will be straightforward. University Laboratory High School teacher David M. Stone will begin working with students in the development of materials in early January 2001. He will play lead role in coordination of development activities and writing of the majority of the online materials. He will meet regularly with NCSA EduPortal staff throughout the module's development. The entire focus group will meet three to four times during the Spring 2001 semester and several times during Summer 2001.

Expected Outcomes

Expected outcome of the development activities is a fully completed EduPortal module prototype that integrates information regarding a real world problem that can only be solved using current genetic analysis techniques. This module will serve as a template for development of future EduPortal modules.

Evaluation Procedures

Materials developed during the Spring 2001 semester will be formatively evaluated as they are produced and summatively evaluated after field-testing in three Illinois high school classrooms. Dr. Umesh Thakkar (NCSA), Dr. Bertram Bruce (Library and Information Science), and David Stone will collaborate in the development the evaluation instrument. At this point, we anticipate the evaluation instrument will be online, consisting of Likert-scale evaluation questions as well as a several short free-response questions. Questions will be a mix of questions from the Instructor and Course Evaluation Survey (ICES) and special questions focusing specifically on "The Disappeared" activities. The online evaluation instrument will serve as a prototype evaluation instrument for the EduPortal project.

Project Contributions to the Department and Campus

Funding of "The Disappeared of Argentina" activities will contribute significantly to several different departments and programs on campus. First, the project will be key in the development of NCSA's EduPortal, and will serve as a prototype in terms of both content and format of subsequent modules. Second, Biology Workbench Education Enhancements, a Beckman Center-based initiative, will profit by the addition of a module aimed at high school audiences, a goal of the U of I-associated Biology Workbench staff for the past three years. Third, various components of "The Disappeared of Argentina" will serve as excellent demonstration and evaluation components for the current College of Education's Curriculum, Technology and Education Reform (CTER) online M.Ed. program participants. Finally, "The Disappeared" will serve as an outstanding resource for outreach activities based at NCSA, the Beckman Center, the College of Education, and University Laboratory High School.