Using the Internet to Enhance Student Understanding of Science: The Knowledge Integration Environment

We have developed the Knowledge Integration Environment (KIE) to promote lifelong learning. We believe that science courses can promote lifelong learning by offering students science models that apply to problems they encounter in their everyday lives and by engaging students in personally relevant science projects where they connect science models to typical science resources such as those found on the Internet. Our instructional framework, Scaffolded Knowledge Integration (SKI), guides the design of the Knowledge Integration Environment. In this paper we describe the Knowledge Integration Environment and report results of “design experiments” carried out to guide improvement of Knowledge Integration Environment instruction as well as to help us improve our understanding of lifelong learning.