New Opportunities for Authenticity in a World of Changing

Biology now produces massive genomic and other data, new ways of building knowledge rely ever more on the processing of data through information technology. Biological data such as DNA sequences and analysis tools are widely accessible via Internet and qualify as authentic. They offer new opportunities to explore, test and validate hypotheses in numerous fields of biology and allow students to engage in the same cognitive processes as hands-on biology. Science is also a process of building knowledge by confronting ideas, discussing their certainty, their links to the data that they are built on and their source. New authentic resources are available to all, raising the possibility for students to practice the authentic scientific process of validating knowledge. Framing authenticity in terms of resources and students activities, we have refined designs for building scientific knowledge, principally a Wiki-supported Inquiry-Based Learning design in information-dense environments of various degrees of authenticity. We will discuss the influence of resources, their authenticity, on the development of scientific knowledge and strategies. Results include an increase in epistemic complexity of student-produced text, a shift towards using resources of increasing authenticity and autonomy in validating information. Some authenticity-linked design features, and generalizabilty will be discussed.