– 1 – Iterative design of a technology-supported biological inquiry curriculum William A. Sandoval and Brian J. Reiser School of Education & Social Policy, Northwestern University Paper presented at: Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association April 13-17, San Diego, CA Abstract This paper describes the design and study of a technology-supported curriculum to develop students’ abilities to construct their own scientific knowledge. In the BGuILE project we have been working with high school biology teachers to integrate computer-based inquiry environments into existing curricula. This work is based on the design experiment paradigm (Collins, 1992). An inherent character of design experiments is that the introduction of a design into a particular learning context fundamentally alters that context, and makes the controlled study of different aspects of that context difficult (Brown, 1992). This paradigm is needed to adequately understand how our own designs, of both technology and related classroom activities, affect students’ and teachers’ learning practices in an inquiry-based classroom. Despite the fact that it is difficult to characterize the contributions of particular aspects of designs to the overall success of an intervention, and recognizing that these aspects are interdependent and situated within different classroom contexts, we have made some progress in understanding how to design curricular units of interrelated computer-based investigations and various classroom activities, such as labs and discussions, that help frame students’ inquiry and provide opportunities for students to reflect upon their work and their reasoning strategies. This research is supported by a grant from the James S. McDonnell Foundation. Any opinions, findings, or conclusions expressed here belong to the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the James S. McDonnell Foundation. This work is part of the Biology Guided Inquiry Learning Environment (BGuILE) project, directed by Brian J. Reiser. We thank David Goodspeed and Linda Patton for allowing us into their classrooms and collaborating with us as designers, and their students for playing along with us. We especially thank Iris Tabak for her collaboration on this research, and Renee Judd, Richard Leider, and TJ Leone for their development work.