Creative Inquiry with ipads in elementary science education.

The present paper emphasizes results of an ongoing research project (2012-2015 about creative inquiry with mobile technologies in elementary science education. The analytical lens is directed towards the situated ways in which 8 to 12 year old students (n=300) make sense of science phenomena through creative inquiry practices. The project is supplying classes with ipads and a secure internal cloud service. These devices are equipped with a range of sensors, which allow students to capture, collect, treat and visualize a broad range of data. Applications permit to combine these collaborative inquiry data with content from print or digital media sources. The internal cloud facilitates to comfortably share all kind of data between students and teachers and to disseminate final products to a private or public audience. The study explores how mobile devices facilitate the understanding of scientific phenomena and the formation of scientific thinking. A core concern deals with processes of creativity, critical thinking, communication and collaboration as emphasized by the 21st century skill frameworks. To achieve this goal, classroom activities are recorded through video data once per trimester and for two consecutive school years. The research analyses also how the students’ productions come into being by considering the versions students store on the internal cloud server. Moreover, the ipads allow students to record themselves their learning and comment on their inquiry approaches.