Title of Project: The COPELLS Project: Collaborative Onine Projects for English Language Learners in Science

Directors: Carolyn Knox, Ph.D., Kenneth Doxsee, Ph.D., and Fatima Terrazas-Arellanes, Ph.D.

Funding agency: National Science Foundation (NSF)

Beginning – Ending Dates: September 01, 2009- March 31, 2013

Description:
Project COPELLS is a three and a half year research and development project proposed by University of Oregon’s National Center for Supported Electronic Text (NCSeT) and the Center for Advanced Technology in Education (CATE). The UO will partner with the Instituto Latinamericano de la Communicacion Educativa (ILCE) to select, translate, enhance, and evaluate culturally relevant and linguistically appropriate Collaborative Online Projects (COPs) in science for secondary level Spanish speaking English Language Learners. COPs will be translated and aligned to both National Science Education Standard (NSES; NRC, 1996) and Oregon secondary science standards by Oregon State Department of Education Science Curriculum educators working on this project. In addition, they will be enhanced with supportive resources (eText supports) designed to promote bilingual use of the materials and increase science literacy in both English and Spanish.

The project’s two major goals are to (a) facilitate and improve science content-area learning for Spanish-speaking ELL students and (b) facilitate their acquisition of Academic English while learning science content. Feasibility and usability of the Collaborative Online Projects will be classroom tested, gathering information on the impact of the bilingual online science materials for improving science content-area learning, student attitude toward scientific learning, student and teacher satisfaction, and science academic language proficiency (ALP) of ELL students.

Key outcome measures include: indicators of COPs usability based on screen capture, computer log files, and classroom observations; teacher and student satisfaction, attitude, and engagement measures; student performance on test of content knowledge as measured with Curriculum Based Measures; and Spanish and English language assessments measured with the Language Assessment Scales-Links.

Key people:
Dr. Carolyn Knox, Principal Investigator
Dr. Kenneth Doxsee, Co-Principal Investigator
Dr. Fatima Terrazas-Arellanes, Co-Principal Investigador
Dr. Ulad Sabin, Multimedia Materials Developer
Dr. Len Hatfield, Server/Systems Manager.
Dr. Patricia Cabrera Muñoz, ILCE Director

Advisory Board:
Dr. Edward Olivos, ELL Expert
Dr. Pat Rounds, ELL Expert
Dr. Cheryl Kleckener, Science Curriculum Expert

Partnering Schools:
Springfield School District, OR
4J-Eugene School District, OR
Woodburn School District, OR

Contact: Carolyn Knox, Ph.D., Project Director

Website: http://copells.uoregon.edu