Collab-ITS: Autoscoring Collaborative Online Science Labs for Grades 3–5 that Integrate Math and Writing

In Phase I, the project team will develop prototype labs that automatically score elementary students' science writing through natural language processing scoring algorithms, as well as an educator dashboard with information on student progress. At the end of Phase I, a pilot study will include 5 grade 3 to 5 educators with 25 students per class. The researchers will examine if the prototype functions as intended, if educators are able to use the labs in classrooms with their students, if the system can accommodate for a range of students' written responses across different competencies, and how well students in grades 4 and 5 rate using the prototype to support writing in the context of STEM.