TEEMSS is a long-term initiative at the Concord Consortium to infuse computer-based data collection and analysis across the elementary and middle school science curriculum. This project is funded by the Elementary and Secondary Informal Education division of the National Science Foundation (Grant No. 9986419).

The TEEMSS project is a research and demonstration project designed to gather solid data on the educational value of low-cost probeware. The costs of computer-based data collection and analysis tools represent a major barrier to their wide adoption. Schools could greatly reduce their total costs of implementing probeware by shifting from desktop computers to handhelds and by having students construct their own probes. The questions addressed by the project are whether this is feasible in typical schools and whether educational materials can be developed around this capacity that improve student learning of standards-based concepts.

The project involves the research and development group at The Concord Consortium. Our goal in this initial TEEMSS project is to develop two instructional units that use probeware that could be economically implemented. We will then evaluate student learning of these units when they are implemented by typical teachers who have received a modest amount of in-service training.

Click here to observe developments in:

• instructional units

• data collection

The project involves integrating these technologies, testing them with a draft curriculum in one classroom, revising both the technologies and the curriculum, and then testing the result in 19 classrooms during the 2001-2002 academic year. Classroom pilot teachers for the 2001 academic year are from Massachusetts public school districts (Boston, Brookline, and Maynard), as well as New York, Australia, and Israel.

The TEEMSS project had an external review during the 2001-2002 academic year by Sigmund Abeles. His report, which provides an excellent, independent, description of the project is here.

The following is a research report on the TEEMSS project:
Metcalf, S. J., & Tinker, R. (2003) TEEMSS: Technology Enhanced Elementary and Middle School Science, Annual Meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, March 23-26, 2003, Philadelphia.
View Abstract | Download PDF Version (169 K)

Click here to observe all those that have contributed to the TEEMSS project.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 9986419. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.