The investigation will study a number of the projects that NSF is funding which students collect, share, and analyze real-world data in the course of conducting scientific investigations. IN these projects to date, the data gathering and sharing activities have gone more smoothly than the data ansalysis, in which many students and teachers have struggled. Such difficulties pose a serious barrier to fostering authentic mathematics and science learning and to enabling shared inquiry among students and scientists. This research will study the nature of the data analysis problems to provide a specific information that can help current projects better support data analysis skills, and a research base that can inform the development of future data analysis projects, materials, software, and teacher development efforts. The study will focus on issues such as data authenticity, tractability, and accessibility to students and teachers. Major products will include (1) analyses of individual projects' data sets, including and assessment of the extent to which interesting and interpretable findings can be reached and suggestions on how to make this data more accessible to students, and (2) a technical report that summarizes major findings, includes representative case studies that highlight both the problems and possibilities of students analyzing real world scientific data and makes recommendations about the design of data sharing and analysis projects, including ancillary materials and tools.
