My research focuses on developing and using curriculum materials that support inquiry learning in science. There exists a need to develop curriculum materials that help public school teachers and students meet key learning goals aligned with national standards focusing on inquiry as an instructional strategy. Much of my work to date has addressed this need by working on developing materials that allow students to engage in such extended inquiry investigations. I then examine the use of these materials in the context of middle school classrooms. I am particularly interested in what the inquiry practices of students are as they engage in extended investigations and what learning occurs and my research has begun to look at the supports that are needed both by the teachers and students as they engage in inquiry practices.
Students develop scientific knowledge by actively engaging in scientific ways of knowing, such as asking questions, designing experiments and analyzing data. Yet scientific inquiry practices can be challenging for students. As part of several NSF funded IMD projects, I have led the development of a number of different biology middle grade units. We are currently looking at what learning occurs when teachers and students engage in these materials in a range of settings. These materials are available upon request.
In connection with this, I am interested in how students discuss and interpret data and whether these actions vary depending on the type of data they are using. Although both 1st (student carry out their own invevstigations) and 2nd hand experiences (students are given differnet types of data) have important roles in science and in science classrooms, there is little empirical work about the affordances and constraints of having students engage in these two different types of experiences. I am interested in examining the role of 1st and 2nd hand experiences in students' data analyses using two curriculum units that were developed to align with AAAS benchmarks.
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College of Education
Curriculum & Instruction
http://education.illinois.edu/frp/ci/bhug
Faculty Research Profiles: Barbara Hug
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Clinical Assistant Professor
Curriculum & Instruction
302 Education Building
1310 S. 6th St. MC 708
Champaign, IL 61820USA
Section Links
- Research Biography
- Degrees
- Key Professional Appointments
- Activities & Honors
- Grants
- Selected Publications
- Selected Links
Research Biography
Degrees
- Ph.D., Developmental Biology and Genetics, University of Utah, 1998
- B.S., Biology, University of Cincinnati, 1989
- B.A., History, University of Cincinnati, 1989
Key Professional Appointments
- Assistant Professor, Department of Curriculum & Instruction, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2002--
- Assistant Research Scientist, School of Education, University of Michigan, 2001-2002
- Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Center for Highly Interactive Computing in Education, School of Education, University of Michigan, 1999-2001
- Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Natural History of Genes, Museum of Natural History, University of Utah, 1998-1999
- Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Genetics Science Learning Center, Department of Human Genetics, University of Utah, 1998-1999
Activities & Honors
- Undergraduate Teaching Award, College of Education, 2007
- Early Research Affiliate, Project 2061, 2005-2007
Grants
- Senior Personnel, Entrepreneurial Leadership in STEM Teaching & Learning (EnLiST), National Science Foundation, 2009
- Senior Personnel, I-LLINI Partnerships: Lifelong Learning IN Illinois for 21st Century Teachers, Illinois Board of Higher Education, 2007
- Advisor, The Illinois Critical Technologies Partnership, Illinois State Board of Education, 2007
- Principal Investigator, Mathematics Science Partnership: Sense-Making in Science and Mathematics, Illinois State Board of Education, 2007
- Principal Investigator, Examining Firsthand and Secondhand Experiences: Understanding Investigative Design, Data Collection and Analysis in Science Learning as Practiced in the Classroom, Campus Research Board, 2006
- Principal Investigator, A Learning Progression for Scientific Modeling, National Science Foundation (Northwestern University), 2006
- Principal Investigator, Collaborative Research: Developing the Next Generation of Middle School Science Materials -- Investigating and Questioning Our World through Science and Technology, National Science Foundation (Northwestern University), 2004
Selected Publications
- Schwarz, C., Reiser, B., Davis, B., Andres, A., Fortus, D., Davis, E., Kenyon, L., Hug, B., & Krajcik, J. (Accepted, February 2009). Developing a Learning Progression of Scientific Modeling: Making Scientific Modeling Accessible and Meaningful for Learner, Journal of Research in Science Teaching.
- Kenyon, L, Schwarz, C & Hug, B. (2008). Scientific modeling as an investigative thinking practice. Science and Children, 74, 40-44.
- Hug, B., & McNeill, K. (2008). First and second hand experiences in science: Does data type influence classroom conversations? International Journal of Science Education. 30(13), 1725-1751.
- Muskin, J., Wattnem, J., Ragusa, M., & Hug, B. (2008). Real Science or Marketing Hype? Science Teacher, 74(4), 57-61.
- Hug, B. (2008). Re-examining the practice of dissection: What does it teach?, Journal of Curriculum Studies, 40(1), 91-105.