The goal of this project is to engender deep learning of science by developing VidyaMap (pronounced "Vid-yeah," which means knowledge in Sanskrit), an eTextbook for tablets centered around crosscutting themes in science. Themes are displayed using visualizations and zooming techniques so that students can see and understand core ideas that connect scientific phenomena.
We will accomplish this goal by: (i) drawing upon research in cognitive and learning sciences for organizing, representing, and visualizing science content; (ii) making the representation visible to help students gain a robust understanding of science; and (iii) rigorously testing the promise of our innovation through two cycles of iterative development followed by a pilot study.
Two key aspects drive our development efforts. First, we address the need for presenting science content in a way that cuts across disciplines so that students understand the key science phenomena and connections that transcend disciplinary boundaries.
Students should learn science as a connected body of knowledge rather than a set of discrete facts. Yet this type of "connected" learning is lacking in many curriculum materials used in schools, often resulting in students' ideas being fragmented across science topics. Through the use of interactive visualizations, VidyaMap will illustrate connections in science.
Second, we address the need for taking advantage of advances made in mobile and ubiquitous technology, most notably the affordances of tablets, to develop digital text resources for use in science classrooms. As digital materials become more ubiquitous and are adopted across school systems, textbooks are giving way to digital versions at a speed not seen before.
But a problem with digital textbooks currently available is that they are merely clones of their print counterparts, with some added capabilities of 30 animations, sleek graphics, and the ability to highlight and annotate passages. Current digital versions do not tap into decades of research on visualizations, knowledge representation, and learning from texts. The addition of multimedia capabilities may make current eTextbooks interactive and fun to use, but that alone does not make them transformative in any sense, nor does it harness the power of technology in ways that can enhance learning.
Our innovation will enable students to interact with content in novel ways to help them develop a deeper and more connected understanding of science. The key components of the VidyaMap innovation are: (i) an underlying organization of science content centered around crosscutting themes and topics within which these themes can be studied; and (ii) concept map visualizations and text descriptions that will help students understand the core ideas/concepts within the theme and topic. | 
