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We report on the development of a middle school life sciences inquiry module, Sensing the Environment. This 'dataenriched' inquiry module includes a series of activities exploring the nature of science, photosynthesis, transpiration, and natural selection, which culminates in students' querying authentic environmental data to support a scientific argument. This inquiry module results from a framework we devised to promote use of authentic data in the classroom. Our framework includes three elements: (a) an online tool, enabling authentic data to be easily searched, visualised, stored, and used to substantiate a scientific argument; (b) an online instructional teacher guide, providing support for teaching through inquiry; and (c) a dynamic data gathering/delivery system, allowing for expansion of the data and enabling students, teachers, scientists, or the public to 'add value' to the data. Based on our experience with Sensing the Environment, we suggest our framework can be a means for facilitating integration of rich, dynamic, and authentic data into science instruction.

Adventures in Modeling: Exploring Complex, Dynamic Systems with StarLogo. Vanessa Stevens Colella, Eric Klopfer, and Mitchel Resnick. 2001, Teachers College Press. 188 pages. $29.95, paper. Shiny Happy Turtles?Adventures in Modeling: Exploring Complex, Dynamic Systems with StarLogo is a cleverly written and illustrated, comprehensive "StarLogo for dummies" manual. Any secondary school science teacher with a desire to bring technology into the classroom will regard this text as a rich source of ideas. StarLogo software provides a multipurpose teaching medium through which a teacher can illustrate the process of science investigation, the predictive nature of models, and the dif cult-to-grasp concept of complex systems. What sets StarLogo apart from other modeling software is that the behavior of individual agents is manipulated, which allows students to observe complex behaviors resulting from a series of simple behaviors. Users are given the opportunity to investigate the effect individuals have on the environment as well as environmental in uence on the behavior of individuals (individuals are referred to as "turtles").The typical secondary school science experience often fails to provide students with opportunities to learn about the very nature of science; we are graduating seniors who are not quite sure what the phrase, "science as a way of knowing" really means. Why has it been so dif cult to infuse technology and inquiry-based learning into science classes? One of the many roadblocks is the paucity of quality, teacher-friendly, eldtested lessons and reassurance that the lessons can simultaneously satisfy the standardsbased requirements of an already over-stuffed curriculum. Adventures in Modeling offers a long-awaited infusion.This manual emerges from the talents of Stevens Colella and Klopfer, who provide expertise in the role of innovative computational tools in the teaching and learning process, and the effectiveness of learning about complex phenomena through simulations. They jointly conduct secondary school StarLogo workshops at the Santa Fe Institute and MIT. Resnick is, of course, the visionary who developed the original StarLogo modeling software. The paperback describes the notion of decentralized systems, the StarLogo approach to modeling systems along with the importance of models in science and education, and ideas to connect Adventures projects with state and national standards. Sample projects (on an enclosed CD and on the MIT Media Laboratory website) model concepts such as diffusion, probability, natural selection, species interactions, and demographics, all of which satisfy state and national standards for science as well as social studies, statistics, and mathematics.

Introduction: Despite the proven effectiveness of the HEART Score in discriminating the need for further observation versus discharge of patients presenting to the Emergency Department (ED) for evaluation of chest pain, utilization rates remain low in many institutions. One reason frequently cited for failure to use this tool is concern by the ED providers that discharged patients will not receive appropriate follow-up. Hypothesis: We hypothesized that the use of a simple daily report (DR) of treated patients would improve utilization rates of the HEART score, and allow for close follow-up of patients discharged from the ED. Methods: We created an electronically-generated report which listed all patients presenting to the ED with a complaint of chest pain in a community hospital, along with their HEART score, and their admission or discharge status. The report was provided on a daily basis to the ED medical director, who could provide counseling to providers who were not utilizing the HEART score regularly, and to case management, who could contact each discharged patient to assess their clinical status and ensure that they had appropriate follow-up plans. Results: Baseline utilization of the HEART Score in chest pain patients (n=305) over a 4 month period prior to the use of this DR was 51.8%. After instituting the DR, utilization rose to 66% (n=339 patients) over the next four months (p=0.0003). Furthermore, correlation of the numbers of ER discharges vs. patients kept for observation or admitted continued to correlate well with the calculated HEART score. Conclusions: The use of a simple DR significantly increased the utilization of the HEART score in the ED of a community hospital to identify patients who could be discharged safely, versus those who required further observation or admission.