Tamar Fuhrmann - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Tamar Fuhrmann

Research paper thumbnail of Fostering Wonderment: Improving Students' Question-Asking Practice in Science Using Computer Models Connected to Experiments

Proceedings of the 2020 AERA Annual Meeting

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Research paper thumbnail of MoDa: Designing a Tool to Interweave Computational Modeling with Real-world Data Analysis for Science Learning in Middle School

Interaction Design and Children

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Research paper thumbnail of After the Study Ends: Developing Heuristics To Design for Sustainable Use of Learning Technologies in Classrooms

Interaction Design and Children

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Research paper thumbnail of Making Students' Ideas Visible through Coding a Scientific Computational Model

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Research paper thumbnail of Professional Development of Science Teachers in Underserved Communities: an Initial Report from the Field

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Research paper thumbnail of Teaching to design educational technologies

International Journal of Learning Technology, 2011

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Research paper thumbnail of Engaging graduate students in design as means for enhancing their epistemological understanding of learning

annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL, 2007

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Research paper thumbnail of DIY liquid handling robots for integrated STEM education and life science research

PLOS ONE

Automation has played a key role in improving the safety, accuracy, and efficiency of manufacturi... more Automation has played a key role in improving the safety, accuracy, and efficiency of manufacturing and industrial processes and has the potential to greatly increase throughput in the life sciences. However, the lack of accessible entry-point automation hardware in life science research and STEM education hinders its widespread adoption and development for life science applications. Here we investigate the design of a low-cost (~$150) open-source DIY Arduino-controlled liquid handling robot (LHR) featuring plastic laser-cut parts. The robot moves in three axes with 0.5 mm accuracy and reliably dispenses liquid down to 20 μL. The open source, modular design allows for flexibility and easy modification. A block-based programming interface (Snap4Arduino) further extends the accessibility of this robot, encouraging adaptation and use by educators, hobbyists and beginner programmers. This robot was co-designed with teachers, and we detail the teachers’ feedback in the context of a quali...

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Research paper thumbnail of How can the design of educational technologies affect graduate students‘ epistemologies about learning

Abstract: This paper describes a course in which graduate students learn practical and theoretica... more Abstract: This paper describes a course in which graduate students learn practical and theoretical aspects of educational-design. The course was enacted with 14 students in education. Outcomes illustrate tensions between students' professed beliefs about learning and their actual design practices in four dimensions that characterize the technologies they designed: Learner-activity, Collaboration, Autonomy, and Content-accessibility. By peer-negotiating of these tensions, students developed their skills to design educational-technologies and increased the coherence of their epistemological understanding.

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Research paper thumbnail of 1 Meta-Modeling Knowledge: Comparing Model Construction and Model Interaction in Bifocal Modeling

In this paper we will examine students ’ meta-modeling knowledge in the context of their particip... more In this paper we will examine students ’ meta-modeling knowledge in the context of their participation in a Bifocal Modeling activity. Bifocal Modeling is an inquiry-based approach for science learning, which incorporates both physical experimentation and virtual modeling. The current study combines three separate case studies of students participating in different implementation modes of the Bifocal Modeling process. Different implementation methods require different modeling practices, and we will examine the consequences of these practices for students ’ meta-modeling knowledge. The concern of our investigation will be the ways that students critically evaluate scientific models and their understanding of the limitations of those models. Data suggest that model construction (as opposed to simple interaction) lead to deeper meta-modeling knowledge.

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Research paper thumbnail of Printed in U.S.A. Copyright © 1998 by The Endocrine Society Spatio-Temporal Expression Patterns of Steroidogenic Acute Regulatory Protein (StAR) During Follicular Development in the Rat Ovary*

The steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR) is a vital mitochondrial protein that is indisp... more The steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR) is a vital mitochondrial protein that is indispensable for the synthesis of steroid hormones in the steroidogenic cells of the adrenal cortex and the gonads. Recent studies have shown that StAR enhances the conversion of the substrate for all steroid hormones, cholesterol, into pregnenolone, probably by facilitating cholesterol entry into the inner compartment of the mitochondria where the steroidogenic cytochrome P450scc complex resides. To study the potential of StAR to affect ovarian steroidogenesis during follicular development, we examined the time-dependent expression of StAR protein and messenger RNA in PMSG/human CG (hCG)-treated immature rats. Western blot analyses and immunohistochemical and RT-PCR methodologies have revealed a biphasic expression of StAR in the ovaries responding to hormones. The first peak of StAR expression was generated by

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Research paper thumbnail of Identifying Discrepant Events as a Strategy to Improve Critical Thinking About Scientific Models in a Heat Transfer Unit in Middle-School

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Research paper thumbnail of Helping Education Students Understand Learning through Designing

Educational Technology archive, 2008

This article describes a course in which graduate students in education learn practical and theor... more This article describes a course in which graduate students in education learn practical and theoretical aspects of educational design by creating technologies for learning. The course was built around three themes: Analyzing technologies, in which students study state­ of-the-art technologies and interview their designers; design studio, in which students design their own technologies using an instructional model that was developed in this study; and theory, in which literature is reviewed. Outcomes illustrate tensions between students' professed beliefs about learning and their actual design practices in four dimensions that characterize the technologies they designed: Learner activity, Collaboration, Autonomy, and Content accessibility. Via peer-negotiating of these tensions in each of the course themes, students have developed their skills to design educational technologies and increased the coherence of their epistemological understanding of how people learn.

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Research paper thumbnail of How to design educational technologies?: the development of an instructional-model

The potential of design to support learning has been documented for a wide range of ages. In this... more The potential of design to support learning has been documented for a wide range of ages. In this research we explore the added value of engaging learners in a design process, with a target audience that received little attention in the learning-by-design literature, namely, graduate students in education. Our exploration of student learning is conducted as a design-based research study, with students who participated in national and international, multiinstitutional design-courses. Findings indicate that by integrating approaches from the Learning Sciences and the Instructional Systems Design worlds, the instructional model developed in this study supported students to design pedagogically sound educational technologies. An "anchoring stage", in which students shift from philosophical to practical design was found as a crucial stage in student learning. Interpreting the findings in terms of the novice-expert literature, we found that as we refined our instructional model,...

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Research paper thumbnail of The Link Between Physical Experiment and Computer Model in a Science Classroom

The Bifocal Modeling Framework (BMF) is an inquiry-based approach for science learning that links... more The Bifocal Modeling Framework (BMF) is an inquiry-based approach for science learning that links students’ physical experimentation with their use of computer modeling. Our study is among the first implementations of a BMF approach in a science class. The study consisted of three conditions implemented with a total of 75 9th grade high-school students. The first and second conditions were assigned two different implementation modes of BMF: BMF-with-model-design and BMF-without-model-design. Both groups conducted a physical experiment, utilized a virtual-model, and compared the results between the two. However, only the BMF-with-design participated in the design-module, which consisted of developing an on-paper model of the scientific phenomenon under investigation. The third condition, employed as a control, received instruction in the school’s traditional approach. Our results indicate that students who participated in both implementations demonstrated better understanding of the ...

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Research paper thumbnail of Bifocal Biology: The Link between Virtual and Real Experiments

In this paper we describe a pilot study of an approach to STEM inquiry learning called Bifocal Mo... more In this paper we describe a pilot study of an approach to STEM inquiry learning called Bifocal Modelling (Blikstein, 2010) with a group of high school students studying bacterial growth. Students grew and measured real bacteria, and then collaboratively designed a conceptual agent-based model of bacteria. Observations and student notes suggest that the activity helped students demonstrate their knowledge of bacterial growth by formalizing it from a list of unorganized facts into an accurate pseudo-computational model. In the process of completing their task, they also critically reflected on the assumptions built into the modelling activity itself, and demonstrated familiarity with some core principles of complex systems.

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Research paper thumbnail of A Tale of Two Worlds: Using Bifocal Modeling to Find and Resolve "Discrepant Events" Between Physical Experiments and Virtual Models in Biology

In this paper we demonstrate an approach to supporting students’ engagement in combined physical ... more In this paper we demonstrate an approach to supporting students’ engagement in combined physical experimentation and virtual modeling. We present a study that utilizes a scientific inquiry framework which links students’ physical experimentation with their use of computer modeling in real time, which we call “Bifocal Modeling.” In the case of the Bifocal Modeling activities discussed here, a group of high-school students designed computer models of bacterial growth through reference to a physical experiment they were conducting, and they were able to validate the effectiveness of their model against the results from their experiment. Our findings suggests that as students compare their virtual models with physical experiments, they encounter “discrepant events” that contradict their existing conceptions and elicit a disequilibrium. This experience of conflict encourages students to further examine their ideas and hypothesis, seek more accurate explanations of the observed natural ph...

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Research paper thumbnail of Bifocal Biology: Combining Physical and Virtual Labs to Support Inquiry in Biological Systems

In this paper we describe a pilot study of an approach to STEM inquiry learning called Bifocal Mo... more In this paper we describe a pilot study of an approach to STEM inquiry learning called Bifocal Modeling (Blikstein, 2010) with a group of high school students studying bacterial growth. Students grew real bacteria, and then collaboratively designed a conceptual agent-based model of bacteria to mimic the observed growth. Observations and student notes suggest that the activity helped students demonstrate their knowledge of bacterial growth by formalizing it from a list of unorganized facts into an accurate pseudo-computational model. In completing their task, they also critically reflected on the assumptions built into the modeling activity itself, and demonstrated familiarity with some core principles of complex systems.

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Research paper thumbnail of Session details: Workshops

Proceedings of the 2017 Conference on Interaction Design and Children, 2017

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Research paper thumbnail of Introducing Bifocal Modeling Framework in Elementary School: Learning Science Using Tangible Modeling Tools

In this study, we implemented a Bifocal modeling unit on diffusion with physical models instead o... more In this study, we implemented a Bifocal modeling unit on diffusion with physical models instead of computational models, using two different tools: 1. Paper modeling, 2. Modeling with micro-robot toy. We worked with 5th grade students for a period of 5 hours. After running experiments, students developed physical models and then interacted with a virtual model. Using either tool, students significantly improved their conceptual understanding of diffusion, but engaged differently in the modeling processes.

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Research paper thumbnail of Fostering Wonderment: Improving Students' Question-Asking Practice in Science Using Computer Models Connected to Experiments

Proceedings of the 2020 AERA Annual Meeting

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Research paper thumbnail of MoDa: Designing a Tool to Interweave Computational Modeling with Real-world Data Analysis for Science Learning in Middle School

Interaction Design and Children

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of After the Study Ends: Developing Heuristics To Design for Sustainable Use of Learning Technologies in Classrooms

Interaction Design and Children

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Research paper thumbnail of Making Students' Ideas Visible through Coding a Scientific Computational Model

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Professional Development of Science Teachers in Underserved Communities: an Initial Report from the Field

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Teaching to design educational technologies

International Journal of Learning Technology, 2011

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Engaging graduate students in design as means for enhancing their epistemological understanding of learning

annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL, 2007

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of DIY liquid handling robots for integrated STEM education and life science research

PLOS ONE

Automation has played a key role in improving the safety, accuracy, and efficiency of manufacturi... more Automation has played a key role in improving the safety, accuracy, and efficiency of manufacturing and industrial processes and has the potential to greatly increase throughput in the life sciences. However, the lack of accessible entry-point automation hardware in life science research and STEM education hinders its widespread adoption and development for life science applications. Here we investigate the design of a low-cost (~$150) open-source DIY Arduino-controlled liquid handling robot (LHR) featuring plastic laser-cut parts. The robot moves in three axes with 0.5 mm accuracy and reliably dispenses liquid down to 20 μL. The open source, modular design allows for flexibility and easy modification. A block-based programming interface (Snap4Arduino) further extends the accessibility of this robot, encouraging adaptation and use by educators, hobbyists and beginner programmers. This robot was co-designed with teachers, and we detail the teachers’ feedback in the context of a quali...

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of How can the design of educational technologies affect graduate students‘ epistemologies about learning

Abstract: This paper describes a course in which graduate students learn practical and theoretica... more Abstract: This paper describes a course in which graduate students learn practical and theoretical aspects of educational-design. The course was enacted with 14 students in education. Outcomes illustrate tensions between students' professed beliefs about learning and their actual design practices in four dimensions that characterize the technologies they designed: Learner-activity, Collaboration, Autonomy, and Content-accessibility. By peer-negotiating of these tensions, students developed their skills to design educational-technologies and increased the coherence of their epistemological understanding.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of 1 Meta-Modeling Knowledge: Comparing Model Construction and Model Interaction in Bifocal Modeling

In this paper we will examine students ’ meta-modeling knowledge in the context of their particip... more In this paper we will examine students ’ meta-modeling knowledge in the context of their participation in a Bifocal Modeling activity. Bifocal Modeling is an inquiry-based approach for science learning, which incorporates both physical experimentation and virtual modeling. The current study combines three separate case studies of students participating in different implementation modes of the Bifocal Modeling process. Different implementation methods require different modeling practices, and we will examine the consequences of these practices for students ’ meta-modeling knowledge. The concern of our investigation will be the ways that students critically evaluate scientific models and their understanding of the limitations of those models. Data suggest that model construction (as opposed to simple interaction) lead to deeper meta-modeling knowledge.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Printed in U.S.A. Copyright © 1998 by The Endocrine Society Spatio-Temporal Expression Patterns of Steroidogenic Acute Regulatory Protein (StAR) During Follicular Development in the Rat Ovary*

The steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR) is a vital mitochondrial protein that is indisp... more The steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR) is a vital mitochondrial protein that is indispensable for the synthesis of steroid hormones in the steroidogenic cells of the adrenal cortex and the gonads. Recent studies have shown that StAR enhances the conversion of the substrate for all steroid hormones, cholesterol, into pregnenolone, probably by facilitating cholesterol entry into the inner compartment of the mitochondria where the steroidogenic cytochrome P450scc complex resides. To study the potential of StAR to affect ovarian steroidogenesis during follicular development, we examined the time-dependent expression of StAR protein and messenger RNA in PMSG/human CG (hCG)-treated immature rats. Western blot analyses and immunohistochemical and RT-PCR methodologies have revealed a biphasic expression of StAR in the ovaries responding to hormones. The first peak of StAR expression was generated by

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Identifying Discrepant Events as a Strategy to Improve Critical Thinking About Scientific Models in a Heat Transfer Unit in Middle-School

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Helping Education Students Understand Learning through Designing

Educational Technology archive, 2008

This article describes a course in which graduate students in education learn practical and theor... more This article describes a course in which graduate students in education learn practical and theoretical aspects of educational design by creating technologies for learning. The course was built around three themes: Analyzing technologies, in which students study state­ of-the-art technologies and interview their designers; design studio, in which students design their own technologies using an instructional model that was developed in this study; and theory, in which literature is reviewed. Outcomes illustrate tensions between students' professed beliefs about learning and their actual design practices in four dimensions that characterize the technologies they designed: Learner activity, Collaboration, Autonomy, and Content accessibility. Via peer-negotiating of these tensions in each of the course themes, students have developed their skills to design educational technologies and increased the coherence of their epistemological understanding of how people learn.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of How to design educational technologies?: the development of an instructional-model

The potential of design to support learning has been documented for a wide range of ages. In this... more The potential of design to support learning has been documented for a wide range of ages. In this research we explore the added value of engaging learners in a design process, with a target audience that received little attention in the learning-by-design literature, namely, graduate students in education. Our exploration of student learning is conducted as a design-based research study, with students who participated in national and international, multiinstitutional design-courses. Findings indicate that by integrating approaches from the Learning Sciences and the Instructional Systems Design worlds, the instructional model developed in this study supported students to design pedagogically sound educational technologies. An "anchoring stage", in which students shift from philosophical to practical design was found as a crucial stage in student learning. Interpreting the findings in terms of the novice-expert literature, we found that as we refined our instructional model,...

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of The Link Between Physical Experiment and Computer Model in a Science Classroom

The Bifocal Modeling Framework (BMF) is an inquiry-based approach for science learning that links... more The Bifocal Modeling Framework (BMF) is an inquiry-based approach for science learning that links students’ physical experimentation with their use of computer modeling. Our study is among the first implementations of a BMF approach in a science class. The study consisted of three conditions implemented with a total of 75 9th grade high-school students. The first and second conditions were assigned two different implementation modes of BMF: BMF-with-model-design and BMF-without-model-design. Both groups conducted a physical experiment, utilized a virtual-model, and compared the results between the two. However, only the BMF-with-design participated in the design-module, which consisted of developing an on-paper model of the scientific phenomenon under investigation. The third condition, employed as a control, received instruction in the school’s traditional approach. Our results indicate that students who participated in both implementations demonstrated better understanding of the ...

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Bifocal Biology: The Link between Virtual and Real Experiments

In this paper we describe a pilot study of an approach to STEM inquiry learning called Bifocal Mo... more In this paper we describe a pilot study of an approach to STEM inquiry learning called Bifocal Modelling (Blikstein, 2010) with a group of high school students studying bacterial growth. Students grew and measured real bacteria, and then collaboratively designed a conceptual agent-based model of bacteria. Observations and student notes suggest that the activity helped students demonstrate their knowledge of bacterial growth by formalizing it from a list of unorganized facts into an accurate pseudo-computational model. In the process of completing their task, they also critically reflected on the assumptions built into the modelling activity itself, and demonstrated familiarity with some core principles of complex systems.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of A Tale of Two Worlds: Using Bifocal Modeling to Find and Resolve "Discrepant Events" Between Physical Experiments and Virtual Models in Biology

In this paper we demonstrate an approach to supporting students’ engagement in combined physical ... more In this paper we demonstrate an approach to supporting students’ engagement in combined physical experimentation and virtual modeling. We present a study that utilizes a scientific inquiry framework which links students’ physical experimentation with their use of computer modeling in real time, which we call “Bifocal Modeling.” In the case of the Bifocal Modeling activities discussed here, a group of high-school students designed computer models of bacterial growth through reference to a physical experiment they were conducting, and they were able to validate the effectiveness of their model against the results from their experiment. Our findings suggests that as students compare their virtual models with physical experiments, they encounter “discrepant events” that contradict their existing conceptions and elicit a disequilibrium. This experience of conflict encourages students to further examine their ideas and hypothesis, seek more accurate explanations of the observed natural ph...

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Research paper thumbnail of Bifocal Biology: Combining Physical and Virtual Labs to Support Inquiry in Biological Systems

In this paper we describe a pilot study of an approach to STEM inquiry learning called Bifocal Mo... more In this paper we describe a pilot study of an approach to STEM inquiry learning called Bifocal Modeling (Blikstein, 2010) with a group of high school students studying bacterial growth. Students grew real bacteria, and then collaboratively designed a conceptual agent-based model of bacteria to mimic the observed growth. Observations and student notes suggest that the activity helped students demonstrate their knowledge of bacterial growth by formalizing it from a list of unorganized facts into an accurate pseudo-computational model. In completing their task, they also critically reflected on the assumptions built into the modeling activity itself, and demonstrated familiarity with some core principles of complex systems.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Session details: Workshops

Proceedings of the 2017 Conference on Interaction Design and Children, 2017

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Introducing Bifocal Modeling Framework in Elementary School: Learning Science Using Tangible Modeling Tools

In this study, we implemented a Bifocal modeling unit on diffusion with physical models instead o... more In this study, we implemented a Bifocal modeling unit on diffusion with physical models instead of computational models, using two different tools: 1. Paper modeling, 2. Modeling with micro-robot toy. We worked with 5th grade students for a period of 5 hours. After running experiments, students developed physical models and then interacted with a virtual model. Using either tool, students significantly improved their conceptual understanding of diffusion, but engaged differently in the modeling processes.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact