Presentation from the 2nd Scientix Conference, 24-26 Ocotober 2014, Brussels, Belgium

1. The acquisition of science competencies
through ICT real-time experiments
Ref. 517587-LLP-1-2011-1-ES-COMENIUS-CMP
Montserrat Tortosa
(COMBLAB coordinator, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
Brussels 26th October 2014

2. 1. Generalities
2. Specific needs that COMBLAB addresses
3. Project objectives and outcomes obtained
4. Final remarks: beyond COMBLAB

3. 1. Generalities
COMBLAB (COmpetency Microcomputer Based LABoratory)
EU Comenius project. From Jan 2012- Dec 2014
Ref. 517587-LLP-1-2011-1-ES-COMENIUS-CMP
PARTICIPANTS: 6 universities from five EU countries
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Montserrat Tortosa,
Esther Rasal)
Spain
Charles University in Prague (Petr Smejkal, Eva Stratilová-
Urvalková, PavelTeply)
Czech
Republic
PH-NOE- Vienna (Hildegard Urban –Woldron) Austria
Universitat de Barcelona (Fina Guitart, Carme Artigas) Spain
University of Helsinki (Maija Aksela, Simo Tolvanen, Päivi
Kousa)
Finland
Bel Matej University (Marek Skorsepa) Slovakia

4. Real time experiments
What are they and what are they useful for?
ICT Technology MBL : Microcomputer based laboratory . MBL. Thornton, 1990

5. 5
Real time experiments
What are they and what are they useful for?
 ICT Technology MBL : Microcomputer based laboratory
- It improves understanding of graphs (Mokros & Tinker, 1987; McDermott et al.,
1987; Brasell, 1987; Testa et al., 2002 ).
- MBL is a tool, a good pedagogical approach is needed (Pintó & Aliberas, 1996)
- High order learning skills can be enhanced using MBL (Aksela, 2005)
 There is agreement (Rocard et al., 2007) that inquiry is a good way of
presenting laboratory work, and to improve scientific literacy.
 -Supporting students learning with MBL
- Research-based frameworks for practice in MBL activities have been proposed
(Pintó et al, 2010 ; Tortosa, 2012).
• - It is necessary that students see the point of what they are doing, so that
the process of teaching and learning probably makes more sense to them
(Lijnse, 2004)

6. 2. Specific needs that COMBLAB addresses
Teachers: some do no know
How to use in an efficient way
Students:
Sensors exist in
Real life/jobs
Have to be capable to
work
with them
Classroom:
Short time of data capture,
It leaves time that can be used
For competencial activities
Teaching materials:
MBL no common framework
Students: low achievement of
scientific competencies
Researchers and policy-makers
New evidences

7. 3. The objectives of COMBLAB are to…
1) Obtain research based teaching materials to enhance students ‘acquisition of
science competencies through ICT real time experiments.
2) Obtain research based teacher training materials to enhance the mentioned
competencies. As ICT real time experiments are a new technology, few teacher
training materials are available, and in the project we aim to develop such
materials.
3) Share within the consortium and to disseminate the outcomes in a public
website and in the future in national and international conferences and journals.
4) Create a community of teachers/researchers from different countries of the
consortium to exchange experiences and good practices in the field. To contact
with existing communities.
5) Create synergies with national and local education authorities of each of the
countries of the consortium to promote that the use of the outcomes of the
project is taken into account both in initial and continuous teacher training.
.

8. 3.The objectives of COMBLAB are to…
1) Obtain research based teaching materials to enhance
students ‘acquisition of science competencies through ICT
real time experiments.
A New research based framework for MBL has
been created (contextualized, IBSE, student
centered, enhance design of experiments,
interpretation and communication of results).

9. 3.The objectives of COMBLAB are to…
1) Obtain research based teaching materials to enhance
students ‘acquisition of science competencies through ICT
real time experiments.
Student’s activities created:
8 Physics activities
8 Biology activities
14 Chemistry activities
+ Teacher guides
 Work curricular concepts
 Not possible without MBL
equipment

10. 10
Some examples…
1) Obtain research based teaching materials to enhance students ‘acquisition
of science competencies through ICT real time experiments.
Coal power
Why burning coal can produce acid rain?

11. Examples
1) Obtain research based teaching materials to enhance students ‘acquisition
of science competencies through ICT real time experiments.
Results, variation of water pH when
Coal power sulphur is burnt on water
Why burning coal can produce acid rain?

12. Examples
1) Obtain research based teaching materials to enhance students ‘acquisition
of science competencies through ICT real time experiments.
Can oceans save us of climate change? Design of experiments by
Students (Rubí, Barcelona)

13. Examples
1) Obtain research based teaching materials to enhance students ‘acquisition
of science competencies through ICT real time experiments.
How a radar knows the speed of a car?
Guided inquiry to modelize the situation
How should we move to obtain this graph?

14. 14
Examples
1) Obtain research based teaching materials to enhance students ‘acquisition
of science competencies through ICT real time experiments.
1)Obtener materiales de aula basados en la investigación que mejoren en el
alumnado la competencia científica mediante experimentos en tiempo real.
Why plants do not grew in this
greenhouse made with green glass?
Chlorophyll absorbs radiation of the
same wavelenght than the one
absorbed by the green glass

15. 15
Examples
1) Obtain research based teaching materials to enhance students ‘acquisition
of science competencies through ICT real time experiments.
The best antacid
Expected results: teacher’s guide

16. Examples
1) Obtain research based teaching materials to enhance students ‘acquisition
of science competencies through ICT real time experiments.
1)Obtener materiales de aula basados en la investigación que mejoren en el
alumnado la competencia científica mediante experimentos en tiempo real.
New designed activities:
 Inquiry based (IBSE)
 Are Contextualized
 Competencies of design of
experiments and
evaluation of results are
enhanced
 Could not be made
without sensors
 Are curriculum-based

17. 17
4. Validation of students’ activities: collaborative
work in five EU countries
Design of
worksheets
Revision
(other
researcher)
First version
(English)
http://comblab.uab.cat/ Data on students/teachers
Translation
local
languages
2nd
Implementation
2013-2014
1st Implementation
2012-2013
Revised version
Possible new adaptations
(teachers)
Creative Commons License
Non comercial, quoting the original

18. 4. Validation of students’ activities: collaborative
work in five EU countries
1) Obtain research based teaching materials to enhance students ‘acquisition
of science competencies through ICT real time experiments.
18
Two main lines of research in COMBLAB
Motivation,
Perception of
capacities
Do students
understand
the activity?
It is necessary that students see the point of
what they are doing, so that the process of
teaching and learning probably makes more
sense to them (Lijnse, 2004)
Motivational and cognitive factors interact in
complex ways to lead learning (Schunk, 2005)
Motivated Strategies for Learning
Questionnaire (MSLQ) Pintrich et al, 1991)

19. COMBLAB
19
Methods
4.Validating students’ materials…
First Implementations
N = 865 secondary and high school students in five countries (Austria, Czech Republic, Finland,
Slovakia and Spain).
After implementation students answered a post-questionnaire on the activities
To evaluate quality of the first version of activities, analysis of students answers to four questions
is presented:
a) The instructions were clear to me (item 2)
b) I needed my teacher’s help to understand the activity (item 5)
c) Do you understand the objectives of the activity? (Item 6)
d) List the objectives of the activity. (Item 7)
e) MBL approach helped me to interpret the results correctly.(Item 11)
f) Which parts of the activity did you like the most? Why?
g) Which parts of the activity did you find more difficult? Why?
d) The activity could have been done without MBL equipment.(Item 14)

20. 20
4. Validation of students’ activities: collaborative
Methods and samples
Partner Country Physics Chemistry Biology Total
UAB Spain 46 S 186 S -- 232
CU Czech
Rep
-- 126 U 76 S 202
UW Austria 40 S/U -- -- 40
UB Spain 98 S 83 S -- 181
UH Finland -- 168 S/U -- 168
UMB Slovakia -- 42 U -- 42
Total 184 605 76 865
First Implementations (October 2012-June 2013)
Number of students who have implemented the first version of activities
S: school U: University
work in five EU countries

21. COMBLAB
21
Methods
4.Validating students’ materials…
• Descriptive analyses
• Statistical analyses of mean
• Analysis of frequencies
• Comparative analysis (subject, country, age, gender).
Significance is determined based on Kurskal- Wallis test or based on
Mann-Whitney U test. (significant level 0,05),

22. COMBLAB Researches on students learning
and motivation
 91.6 % of students say that they understand the objectives of the
activities.
 54.7 % of the students mention correctly the objectives of the
activities
 Students understand the activity but they need their teachers’ help:
teachers are a key factor
 91.4 % of students say that MBL helps them to interpret the results
 There is a strong relationship between students‘ perceptions of
their motivational orientations prior and after performing the MBL-activity
 Self-reported perceptions of motivational orientations only partially
depend on gender but much more on the particular MBL-activity

23. COMBLAB Researches:
How to scaffold teachers to implement MBL
 Results support the requirement for science and inquiry PCK
in curriculum material (Davis and Krajcik 2005) and support
with technology (Gerard et al. 2011)
 Additional focus on teachers own inquiry skills is also needed.

24. 24
Some of COMBLAB Publications
ŠMEJKAL, P., STRATILOVÁ URVÁLKOVÁ, E., TEPLÝ, P., SKORŠEPA, M., TORTOSA MORENO, M.: Koncepce úlohy pro školní měřicí systém s využitím
prvků badatelsky orientovaného vyučování. In: Zborník z medzinárodnej konferencie “Súčasnosť a perspektívy didaktiky chémie III, Donovaly 2013”.
Banská Bystrica : Fakulta prírodných vied UMB, 2013. s. 90-96.
TORTOSA, M., ŠMEJKAL, P., STRATILOVÁ-URVÁLKOVÁ, E., URBAN-WOLDRON, H., GUITART, F. AKSELA, M., TOLVANEN, S., SKORŠEPA, M.: Real-time
Experiments to Enhance Chemistry Competences in Secondary Students. In: 12th European Conference on Research in Chemistry Education
(ECRICE 2014, Jyväskylä, Finland). Jyväskylä : University of Jyväskylä, 2014, ISBN 978-951-39-5744-5, p. 45.
SKORŠEPA, M.: Ako „uhasiť“ pálenie záhy – príklad školského chemického experimentu s podporou výpočtovej techniky. In: Biológia, ekológia,
chémia. roč. 16, 2012, č. 3-4, s. 8-11.
SKORŠEPA, M., TORTOSA, M.: Faktory ovplyvňujúce motivačnú orientáciu žiakov v počítačom podporovanom laboratóriu. In: Acta Universitatis
Matthiae Belii, ser. chem. 2014, č. 15, (in press).
STRATILOVÁ URVÁLKOVÁ, E., ŠMEJKAL, P., TEPLÝ, P., SKORŠEPA, M., TORTOSA MORENO, M.: MBL activites using IBSE: Learning Biology in Context. In:
Proceedings of 6th international Conference on Research in Didactics of the Science. Krakow, 2014. (in press)
SKORŠEPA, M., TORTOSA, M.: Čiastková štúdia z overovania nových aktivít pre počítačové prírodovedné laboratórium. In: Acta Universitatis Matthiae
Belii, ser. chem. 2014, č. 15, (in press).
SKORŠEPA, M., TORTOSA MORENO, M., URBAN-WOLDRON, H., STRATILOVÁ URVÁLKOVÁ, E.: Implementácia aktivít do vyučovania v počítačom
podporovanom laboratóriu na stredných školách. In: Zborník z medzinárodnej konferencie “Súčasnosť a perspektívy didaktiky chémie III, Donovaly
2013”. Banská Bystrica : Fakulta prírodných vied UMB, 2013. s. 78-83.
ŠMEJKAL, P., STRATILOVÁ URVÁLKOVÁ, E., SKORŠEPA, M.: iPad and iPhone – Alternativní způsob sběru dat při měření školním experimentálním
systémem PASCO – postoje a názory žáků. In: Zborník z medzinárodnej konferencie “Aktuálne trendy vo vyučovaní prírodných vied, Smolenice
2012”. Trnava : Pedagogická fakulta Trnavskej univerzity, 2012. s. 195-201.
SKORŠEPA, M., ŠMEJKAL, P.: Rozvoj kompetencií študentov a učiteľov prostredníctvomreálnych počítačom podporovaných experimentov vo
vyučovaní prírodných vied. In: Zborník z medzinárodnej konferencie “Aktuálne trendy vo vyučovaní prírodných vied, Smolenice 2012”. Trnava :
Pedagogická fakulta Trnavskej univerzity, 2012. s. 256-262.
TOLVANEN, S, AKSELA, M., GUITART MAS, J., WOLDRON-URBAN: Research-based future science teacher training on using ICT- enhanced inquiry
activities. In C. P. Constantinou, N. Papadouris & A. Hadjigeorgiou (Eds.), E-Book Proceedings of the ESERA 2013 Conference: Science Education
Research For Evidence-based Teaching and Coherence in Learning. Part 4. Nicosia, Cyprus : European Science Education Research Association.
2013, pp. 181-190. ISBN: 978-9963-700-77-6.

25. 25
Some of COMBLAB Publications
TORTOSA MORENO, M., GUITART MAS, J., SKORŠEPA, M., URBAN-WOLDRON, H., STRATILOVÁ URVÁLKOVÁ, E., ŠMEJKAL, P.: Los objetivos de
actividades de laboratorio diseñadas para la adquisición de competencia científica mediante experimentos en tiempo real: visión del alumnado.
Enseñanza de las ciencias. (num. extra), 2013, pp. 3547-3553. ISSN 0212-4521.
GUITART MAS, F., TORTOSA MORENO, M., AKSELA, M., TOLVANEN, S.: Diseño e implementación de propuestas de formación basadas en la
investigación didáctica para promover la utilización de actividades mbl centradas en la adquisición de competencias científicas. Enseñanza de las
Ciencias 2013; : 1708-1713.
TORTOSA MORENO, M., SKORŠEPA, M., GUITART MAS, J., WOLDRON-URBAN, H., AKSELA M., TOLVANEN, S., STRATILOVÁ URVÁLKOVÁ, E., ŠMEJKAL,
P.: Design of research-based lab sheets for the acquisition of science competencies using ICT real-time experiments. Do students get the point of
what they are doing? In C. P. Constantinou, N. Papadouris & A. Hadjigeorgiou (Eds.), E-Book Proceedings of the ESERA 2013 Conference: Science
Education Research For Evidence-based Teaching and Coherence in Learning. Part 4. Nicosia, Cyprus : European Science Education Research
Association. 2013, pp. 12-20. ISBN: 978-9963-700-77-6.
WOLDRON-URBAN, H., TORTOSA MORENO, M., SKORŠEPA, M.: Implementing learning with sensors in science education: Students’ motivational
orientations toward using MBL. In C. P. Constantinou, N. Papadouris & A. Hadjigeorgiou (Eds.), E-Book Proceedings of the ESERA 2013
Conference: Science Education Research For Evidence-based Teaching and Coherence in Learning. Part 4. Nicosia, Cyprus : European Science
Education Research Association. 2013, pp. 165-171. ISBN: 978-9963-700-77-6.
GUITART MAS, F.; STRATILOVA URVALKOVA, E,; SMEJKAL, P.; TORTOSA MORENO, M.. Analysis of students questionnaires after implementation of
research-based activities on the acquisition of science competencies using sensors to real classrooms. In: Constantinos P. Constantinou, Nicos
Papadouris, Angela Hadjigeorgiou. Science Education Research For Evidence-based Teaching and Coherence in Learning Proceedings of the ESERA
2013 Conference. 1 ed. Al Isma'iliyah: ESERA; 2013.
SKORŠEPA, M., STRATILOVÁ URVÁLKOVÁ, E., ŠMEJKAL, P., TORTOSA MORENO, M., URBAN-WOLDRON, H.: Activities with sensors in laboratory of
biology: Students’ motivation and understanding the results. In: Proceedings of 6th international Conference on Research in Didactics of the Science.
Krakow, 2014. (in press)
SKORŠEPA, M., TORTOSA, M.: What do pre-service and in-service teachers think of education in computer based lab? In: Science and technology
education for the 21st century. Proceedings of the 9th IOSTE Symposium for Central and Eastern Europe. Hradec Králové : Gaudeamus, 2014, pp.
183-195. ISBN 978-80-7435-416-8.
STRATILOVÁ URVÁLKOVÁ, E., ŠMEJKAL, P., TEPLÝ, P., SKORŠEPA, M., TORTOSA MORENO, M., URBAN-WOLDRON, H.: New IBSE oriented activities for
biology – design and evaluation. In: Science and technology education for the 21st century. Proceedings of the 9th IOSTE Symposium for Central and
Eastern Europe. Hradec Králové : Gaudeamus, 2014, pp. 247-285. ISBN 978-80-7435-416-8.

26. 3. The objectives of COMBLAB are to…
2) Obtain research based teacher training materials to enhance the mentioned
competencies. As ICT real time experiments are a new technology, few teacher
training materials are available, and in the project we aim to develop such
materials.
Actions made to scaffold teachers:
- Local groups de of implementation of activities
- Future teachers (Master for future teachers UB, UH)
- In service teachers (training course, piloted April 2014, Barcelona).
teachers: (a training course has been designed,
piloted April 2014 in Barcelona; May 2014 in Helsinki; October 2014 in Prague).

27. 3. The objectives of COMBLAB are to…
3) Share within the consortium and to disseminate the outcomes in a public
website and in national and international conferences and journals.
http://comblab.uab.cat

28. 3. The objectives of COMBLAB are to…
4) Create a community of
teachers/researchers from
different countries of the
consortium to exchange
experiences and good practices
in the field. To contact with
existing communities.
5) Create synergies with national
and local education authorities
of each of the countries of the
consortium to promote that the
use of the outcomes of the
project is taken into account both
in initial and continuous teacher
training.
Comblab has been included in
Scientix, and in Stencil databases

29. 3. The objectives of COMBLAB are to…
4) Create a community of
teachers/researchers from
different countries of the
consortium to exchange
experiences and good practices
in the field. To contact with
existing communities.
5) Create synergies with national
and local education authorities
of each of the countries of the
consortium to promote that the
use of the outcomes of the
project is taken into account both
in initial and continuous teacher
training.

30. 3. The objectives of COMBLAB are to…
5) Create synergies with national
and local education authorities
of each of the countries of the
consortium to promote that the
use of the outcomes of the
project is taken into account both
in initial and continuous teacher
training.

31. 4. Beyond COMBLAB…
Local groups of teachers
Students
Other people involved

32. 32
Acknowledgements
Teachers and students who have implemented the activities
Project: 517587-LLP-1-2011-1-ES-COMENIUS-CMP.
Thank you for your attention
montserrat.tortosa@uab.cat