A Collaborative Environment for Engaging Novices in Scientific Inquiry

摘要

We describe the design, implementation, and evaluation of GreenTouch, a collaborative environment that enables novice users to engage in authentic scientific inquiry. Green-Touch consists of a mobile user interface for capturing data in the field, a web application for data curation in the '"cloud," and a tabletop interface for exploratory analysis of heterogeneous data. This paper contributes: 1) the design, implementation, and validation of a collaborative environment which allows novices to engage in scientific data capture, curation, and analysis; 2) empirical evidence for the feasibility and value of integrating interactive surfaces in college-level education based on an in situ study with 54 undergraduate students; and 3) insights collected through iterative design, providing concrete lessons and guidelines for designing multi-touch interfaces for collaborative inquiry of complex domains.