Teaching problem-solving through a cooperative learning environment

The Biology Sleuth was developed to provide a testbed in which the distribution of critical resources could be varied and the consequent effects on group dynamics and individual learning could be studied. The primary teaching goal of The Biology Sleuth is to teach important problem-solving skills (specifically, diagnostic reasoning) to high school students. In order to meet this goal a cooperative learning [3] environment has been developed in which students work in groups, aided by each other, software, and the classroom teacher,