Science on the Web: Students Online in a Sixth-Grade Classroom Raven McCrory Wallace, Jeff Kupperman, and Joseph Krajcik Department of Educational Studies School of Education University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Elliot Soloway Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science College of Engineering University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Publications from newspapers to research journals are filled with claims about the Internet and its value for education, yet research is just beginning to evaluate uses of these new information resources in the classroom. As part of the University of Michi- gan Digital Library Project, this research was undertaken as a first step in designing tools for secondary students to access a digital library. The Web offered an initial site for learning how students interact with digital resources and use standard tools. The Web can be seen as a site for student inquiry in science, using it as an information re- source that opens the boundaries of the classroom and creates the possibility for stu- dents to pursue questions of personal interest. This study looks at students in 6th-grade science classes as they use the Web to carry out an inquiry-based assign- ment. Their understanding and enactment of their assignment to do research on the Web, their engagement in information seeking, and their use of Web technologies are explored and analyzed. Findings include evidence that students use Web technologies easily but simplistically; that information seeking is a complex and difficult process for these students, who seek to reduce the task to finding an obvious answer or finding a good Web site; and that developing students’ understanding of content through use of the Web is a challenge for students and teachers. Connecting schools to the Internet is the subject of much recent discussion. In pop- ular literature and political speech, school districts are urged to get connected, and recent proposals for educational reform include the mandate to get every classroom THE JOURNAL OF THE LEARNING SCIENCES, 9(1), 75–104 Copyright © 2000, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Correspondence and requests for reprints should be sent to Raven Wallace, School of Education, University of Michigan, 610 East University, 3119 SEB, Ann Arbor, MI 48104. E-mail: ravenmw@umich.edu