Turning Textbook Problems Into Design-Based Learning Activities

April 10, 2023 | Blog, Teaching Methods: STEM

Reagan Curtis is a Chester E. and Helen B. Derrick Endowed Professor of educational psychology in the School of Education and founding director of the Program Evaluation and Research Center at West Virginia University. Darran R. Cairns is faculty in the School of Science and Engineering at the University of Missouri–Kansas City. Johnna J. Bolyard is an associate professor of mathematics education in the School of Education at West Virginia University.

They are the authors of Design Thinking in the Middle Grades: Transforming Mathematics and Science Learning.

If you are a teacher, you have almost certainly come across and used textbook problems to address relevant standards in your content area. Textbooks are sometimes structured specifically to address national content standards, so they are a rich foundation for initial ideas around which to build design-based learning activities. Dan Meyer provides a helpful example in his 2013 TED talk Math Class Needs a Makeover. Focusing on mathematics textbook problems, Meyer strips away all measurements and substeps, uses multimedia to show the problem in the real world, and engages students in deciding what is worth measuring, how to measure it, and what to do with those measurements to design a solution. While Meyer focuses almost exclusively on mathematics, his ideas can be applied similarly to science textbooks.

One problem with many mathematics and science textbooks is that that they provide too much structure and guidance, leading students through a set of specific steps from a well-defined problem to specific answers, while not providing enough (or any) real-world experience. Students do not develop autonomy and problem-solving self-efficacy when they follow clearly delineated steps to a predefined answer. They do not connect their everyday experience to deep learning when they do not get real-world experience of the concepts in play. Learning can be made so much richer by removing those steps, situating the problem in a context made real through multimedia or physical objects in the classroom, and allowing students to explore and develop the problem, solution procedures, and criteria for correctness. By making these changes to a textbook problem, you can turn it into a design-based learning activity.

In science textbooks, it is common to see problems that are either step-by-step computation of formulas (like those discussed by Meyer), word problems, or reading comprehension problems, both of which we will discuss below.

Here is a sample science textbook word problem: What do the changes that occur when mixing sand and water have in common with the changes that occur when shaking up salad dressing?

Select all that apply:

Both are only physical changes.
Both are chemical changes.
Both are caused by heating.
Both are caused by cooling.

In both cases, they are physical changes that involve mixing at least two different materials at room temperature. Physical changes are reversible, but they can be difficult to reverse. Consider separating a mixture of sand and water: this is an example of purifying water, and it lends itself to engaging design activities. Students can identify potential purification techniques through research, design their own versions of filters, and perform experiments to see how well their filters work. As students repeatedly mix sand into water and separate the mixture using different filtration techniques, they gain a deep understanding of physical mixtures and solutions. For many students, access to clean water is impossible without filtration, making such activities particularly authentic.

This problem targets NGSS Science Standard MS.PS1-2: Analyze and interpret data on the properties of substances before and after the substances interact to determine if a chemical reaction has occurred. A design-based approach like the one we describe allows for additional standards to be incorporated. For example, students could consider water shortages due to natural disasters and past and current geoscience projects, allowing incorporation of NGSS MS.ESS.3.1: Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for how the uneven distributions of Earth’s mineral, energy, and groundwater resources are the result of past and current geoscience processes. The filtration project also allows for mathematical analysis: How much water can the designed filters purify in an hour? How much sand can each filter remove before it needs replacement? What factors impact rate and longevity for various filters?

Another common textbook problem type requires students to read a selection of text and then answer questions to demonstrate comprehension. Rather than providing too much guidance, as in the last example, textbook problems of this sort do not provide direct experience related to what students are learning. Direct experience manipulating objects is one of the key affordances of design-based learning, and it helps students connect their own experience of the world to deep learning about systems.

Take the example of Ms. Jones, a 6th-grade science teacher. In the past, she had used a textbook problem to address standard MS-PS-4: Construct and present arguments using evidence to support the claim that gravitational interactions are attractive and depend on the masses of interacting objects. This problem asked students to read paragraphs defining gravity and inertia and relating those concepts to the motion of the earth and the moon. Students then wrote responses to a series of comprehension questions:

Explain why the Earth orbits the Sun. Include both of the terms gravity and inertia in your explanation.
Explain what would happen on Earth if our gravity were suddenly decreased (lowered)?
What would happen to the planets if the Sun disappeared?
Explain what would happen to the gravity on the Earth if its mass were suddenly decreased (lowered)?

Ms. Jones wanted to develop a design-based activity that addressed these concepts, but before she could implement that activity, she learned that her school was going to be closed for at least the next week because of flooding in the area. Fortunately, the children at her school had Chromebooks and wireless hotspots so that they would be able to receive asynchronous instruction while they were home. She had planned to update her approach with design-based learning and mathematical modeling activities but wondered if she could do it using an online instruction modality.

Ms. Jones remembered playing lunar landing games when she was younger and searched the Internet to see if she could find an example. She found several options, including this one. She realized that her students could play the game and design a walkthrough, or detailed set of instructions, to teach others how to master the landing process. She recognized that the lunar setting would facilitate natural discussions about the differences between gravity on the moon as compared to gravity on earth. Playing the game would help her students connect more concretely to the concepts of gravity and inertia. She shared walkthroughs created by other students with the class to help them refine their own and asked them to write reflections comparing their walkthrough to another student’s, explaining what they learned and how they applied that learning to improve their initial walkthrough. She ended the module by asking her students to design and present a written argument to support the following claim: The gravitational interaction between a lunar lander and the moon is attractive and depends on the mass of the moon.

Adapting textbook problems in this way allows for rich and authentic content integration. In addition to science and mathematics standards, these examples also offer opportunities to integrate literacy standards and practices when you ask students to write and present reflections and scientific arguments describing what they are learning. Most importantly, a design-based approach to textbook problems gives students real world experience, autonomy, and self-sufficiency, which all contribute to deep learning.