Technology can support science education through the use and development of software simulations, and collaborative-based learning projects. Seeds University Elementary School (a laboratory school affiliated with UCLA) has integrated educational technology into its science courses, with the goals "To provide conceptual science understandings and experiences through student construction of collaborative, interactive technology projects" and "To integrate student-centered science learning with the development of software simulations." Students are first provided basic and higher level (as needed) LOGO programming instruction. Students then operate in groups of three to five to select relevant research topics, which are refined into personal areas of interest. Group and individual activities are intended to develop into "an ongoing cycle of science activities and discussions, science interventions, discussions that link science learning, discussions and refinement of driving questions, advanced programming instructions, and development of collaboratively built SimProjects (i.e., computer simulations)."

These student-centered projects have been shown to aid development of a broad, overall conceptual understanding of science. Student development of simulation models also requires students to "formulate and represent their own understanding by manipulating and connecting concepts and relationships in order to construct a model, instead of just telling about the concept." Student development of computer simulation programs results in learning that is qualitatively different from the learning typically associated with simple classroom presentations of learned concepts (Bozeman, 1999, pp. 233-240).

In a study of ninth graders who developed hypermedia presentations on topics such as World War I, Lifestyles between 1870 and 1920, and Immigration and Imperialism, students' on-task behavior increased over time. As students perceived the benefits of planning with the hypermedia, students also developed generalizable skills such as taking notes, finding information, coordinating their work with other team members, writing interpretations, and designing presentations (Lehrer et al., 1994).

Software applications that provide feedback about students' progress can help them learn physics. Seventh, eighth and ninth grade physics students used software (ThinkerTools) that enabled them to be aware of where they were in the inquiry process, and to reflect upon their own and other student's inquiries. These students were better able to apply principles of Newtonian mechanics to real-world situations than were eleventh and twelfth grade students who had not used the software (White & Fredericksen, 1998).

A program called DIAGNOSER helps teachers increase student achievement because it assesses students' preconceptions about various phenomena, and recommends activities to help students 'reinterpret' the phenomena from a physicist's perspective. Teachers also use the program's recommendations to guide instruction. Students who used DIAGNOSER demonstrated levels of understanding of physics concepts superior to that of students who had not used the program (Hunt & Minstrell, 1994).

Internet-based communications can support for collaborative, project-based learning activities. (Wang, Laffey, & Poole, 2001) studied the electronic-based discourse and overall knowledge construction activities of two groups of high school students, and college mentors, who were engaged in the development and marketing of wireless communication technology for automobiles. Student activities were conducted within the technological context of the Internet-based iexpeditions software package. The iexpeditions software package is specifically designed to support Internet-based, collaborative, project-based learning activities. iexpeditions provides tools such as chat rooms, e-mail services, electronic journals, and electronic discussion forums. Based upon observed patterns of electronic communications among group members (e.g., e-mail and chat transcripts), Wang, et al. concluded that “certain mentoring strategies seemed to optimize knowledge construction among the youth." The authors further pointed out that learning environments that emphasize critical evaluations, free speech, and high levels of social interaction seem to be conducive to efficient problem-solving activities.