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KIE Learning Goals Why is it that students can learn about insulation and conduction in science class, and still wrap their coke in tin foil to keep it cold on the way to school? Students need connected science ideas as well as useful models of science phenomena so they can solve problems that are relevant to their personal lives. To this end, KIE is based on Scaffolded Knowledge Integration, a framework that has been developed through more than ten years of research on student scientific thinking. The intent of Knowledge Integration is to help students develop an integrated scientific understanding, linking isolated scientific concepts to each other and to the world outside the science classroom. Another important goal of the KIE learning environment is to help students learn to use the World Wide Web productively and thoughtfully. The Web is both a wonderful resource and an important challenge to educators, with its explosive and uncensored growth in this decade. KIE teaches students to think of web information as evidence, and to evaluate it critically with regard to authorship, credibility, and relevance. This approach engages students in real scientific inquiry, and counters the increasingly dangerous assumption that you can believe everything you see in print. Real scientific inquiry is also important to help students develop productive views of the nature of science. Research has shown that students who understand science as a dynamic process, rather than a static set of facts to be learned, are more successful at scientific inquiry and continued science learning. KIE promotes this conception of science by engaging students in investigation of current scientific controversies and by introducing them to real scientists and their work. The components of Scaffolded Knowledge Integration are described on the next page.