Embedded phenomena for knowledge communities: Supporting complex practices and interactions within a community of inquiry in the elementary science classroom

The work presented here is a product of a collaborative effort to develop a knowledge community and inquiry curriculum for elementary science, where students engage in extended investigations of simulated scientific phenomena presumed to occupy the physical space of their classrooms. By their immersive nature, these "embedded phenomena" lend themselves to a collective epistemology, and hence to new forms of learning and instruction that depart from the conventional didactic approach. The symposium centers on the design and enactment of a seven-week elementary school ecosystems unit, WallCology, developed in close collaboration with partner teachers and school administrators during summer and fall of 2011. Six posters highlight different facets of our effort, including descriptions of the immersive environment, the instructional narrative, the inquiry support technologies, the role of aggregate representations, discourse processes, and the classroom experiences of the 37 students and two teachers who participated in the unit.