This study explores the dynamic, interactive nature of digital drawings and writing in a knowledge building community in which students used a multimedia online environment--Knowledge Forum--to represent and advance ideas in the field of optics. The research employs a mixed-methods case study to collect and analyze multimedia notes created by 22…

Most people who are attracted to STEM-related fields are drawn not by a desire to take mathematics tests but to create things. The opportunity to create an algebra drawing gives students a sense of ownership and adventure that taps into the same sort of energy that leads a young person to get lost in reading a good book, building with Legos®,…

This article describes a cooperative project between eighth graders and first graders called "Going Green in the Neighborhood." The project entailed the first grade students sketching home designs on paper to make a model community, and the eighth grade students taking those drawings and making them into 3D computer models and then…