This workshop will focus on the use of multiple external representations for science learning. Specifically, our focus will be on the integration of text resources and simulations with hands-on science activities. Hands-on investigations enable students to manipulate physical objects and instruments; simulations can help control parameters and provide alternative quantitative representations, while text can provide students with language to describe their experiences, and understand theories. Integrating these representations can provide students with opportunities for deeper science learning. While hands-on activities, text-based investigations and simulations have mostly been used singly in helping students learn science, recent research on integrating different modes in which students learn science has raised more questions than provided answers. In fact, most research on multiple representations has focused on computer-based representations (e.g., text+animations). A unique aspect of this workshop is that it will also address the issue of integrating physical representations in the form of hands-on activities with other modes of learning science.

Two key issues that will be addressed in the workshop are: (i) integration of multiple representations into instructional activities and (ii) scaffolding students to make connections between representations. Several questions concerning these will be discussed:

1. What are the strengths, limitations and specific affordances of hands-on experimentation, text-based learning and learning from computer simulations and animations (e.g., virtual experiments)?
2. What difficulties do students have in working with multiple representations? How can a teacher facilitate students in making connections across representations and activities within an instructional unit? How can we design scaffolding in software to help students as they transition amongst these different learning activities?
3. What are different ways of designing instructional activities involving real-world experiments, text-based learning and computer simulations? How can these be integrated into a science curriculum in the classroom context? How can learning and teaching activities using these different representations be orchestrated for optimal outcomes?
4. How can different representations scaffold each other?

This workshop is intended for researchers involved in the design and implementation of technology-rich learning environments for science and mathematics in K-16 settings. It will have an interdisciplinary focus. Researchers from multiple disciplines – cognitive and learning sciences, educational psychology and computer science and - are encouraged to attend. We are especially interested in researchers who have implemented and studied some form of hands-on activities together with other modes of learning, such as from text or from computer simulations.

There will be the following pre-workshop activities. Accepted submissions will be made available to all participants through the workshop web site. In addition, a selected list of published papers that address the workshop issues will be posted on the web site. All participants will be asked to read these papers as well as each others’ submissions prior to the workshop.

The workshop will be divided into different phases. Each phase will focus on one of the issues listed above. The organizers will begin each phase by summarizing relevant questions and possible answers relating to the focus issue, culled from the set of papers mentioned above. In addition, specific samples of computer simulations/animations or videos of classroom implementations may be shown to seed discussions. Thereafter, workshop attendees will be asked to break into small groups to develop and discuss ideas, potential solutions to problems and open questions for future research regarding the focus issue. Attendees will be encouraged to share ideas, problems and solutions arising from their own work. Following this, each group will summarize their deliberations for everyone.

The last part of the workshop will involve a discussion on the collaborative development of a document (perhaps a review paper) based on the workshop activities. This discussion will continue after the workshop through the web site (which will include a wiki to facilitate such discussions).