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This project for my ninth grade science class began like most others, with an announcement to the class and a distribution of guidelines and deadlines. The announcement was reinforced on the class website, with all the documents online for parents and students to review, but that is not what made it different. The scientific foundation of the project was electrical circuits, specifically the difference between parallel and series circuits, and that is not an unusual topic for a ninth grade science course.

One of the first differences came in the use of computer-based simulations. The PhET project at the University of Colorado, Boulder offers browser-based simulations of many scientific topics. In this simulation, students can make circuits with switches and see if they work. After learning the concepts of parallel and series circuits through this site, students had to translate these concepts into a working prototype of a device. The device would have four switches that controlled a single electrical output, like a lightbulb or a buzzer. These switches had to be arranged into a logical arrangement, so that closing certain combinations of switches would complete the circuit, and other combinations would not. This allowed us to meet Pennsylvania standards in information processing that is often overlooked in science classrooms, but was a perfectly logical application of electrical circuits.

Our "Classroom For The Future" gave us tools to accelerate student progress on this project., adding another important dimension to the project. Once students mastered the circuit construction simulation, they were introduced to graphical programs that let them map out their electrical circuits in standard engineering formats. They used the same graphical tools to map out the logic that tied the switches together in series and parallel branches, determining which combination of switches would activate the circuit.

Since students were allowed to work with partners, we set up a GoogleDoc, shared between partners and also shared with me. This browser-based application allowed them to contribute to the project even at times when they were unable to meet in person. It also allowed them to communicate with me outside of class, and allowed me to offer feedback on their work. Through the GoogleDoc, I could also monitor the contributions of each partner and see whether they were making progress. This array of computer applications allowed students to draft an idea, test it in a simulated, and predict its consequences, all the while allowing them to edit and improve their work. By the time they built the prototype device, they had done far more planning, and that work became the foundation of a self-evaluation which was incorporated into their overall project grade.

But the real test of all these computer-intensive plans, came when they brought their finished prototype to school...