ABSTRACT
The paper describes a large scale design study involving a total of 1100 middle and high school students from California and Massachusetts who collaborated on-line about plate tectonic activity in their respective location. The students, drawn from demographically diverse schools, collaborated on-line using WISE (Web-based Inquiry Science Environment; Linn, 1999). WISE is a web-based integrated set of software resources to engage students in many types of scientific inquiry, including prompted reflection, electronic discussions, evidence sorting and argument mapping, collaborative search for evidence, collaborative design, and analysis (Linn & Hsi, 2000).
