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The Biology Sleuth uses a problem-based learning approach, with secondary students playing the role of physicians to teach problem-solving skills, in particular, diagnostic reasoning. Students work together in groups of three assigned to single computers and are presented with nine problemsolving episodes in the form of hypothetical patients. They are provided with paper-based charts which serve as the knowledge-base necessary to diagnose patient cases posed to them by the computer system. This knowledge-base consists of information about a set of diseases (including the clinical tests which can be run to diagnose these diseases). Initially, students are asked to use this knowledge-base to identify the hypotheses which are consistent with the pattern of clinical results associated with each patient. As these skills become more practiced, they are also asked to begin running tests and interpreting data for themselves. Finally, they are asked to decide which individual tests to run.The Biology Sleuth has been evaluated at 18 schools, including rural, suburban, and inner city schools in five different geographical regions of the U.S.. Over 2000 students have participated in these evaluations. A final summative evaluation using a pre-testjpost-test score comparison (using a betweensubjects design) indicated that The Biology Sleuth is a very powerful tool, especially for populations at risk of academic failure and for groups typically underrepresented as professionals in science.The goal of this new study, however, was to use this context to explore the effects of different teaching strategies and resource allocations on group dynamics and, subsequently, on individual learning, and to help develop guidelines for using such a training tool. This study suggests that a strategy focusing on resource allocation and the teaching strategy employed can significantly influence group problem-solving behavior and individual learning.The treatment group, in which resources were redistributed, showed quite an improvement from the control group (35% improvement). By controlling the distribution of critical resources, the group dynamics were altered drastically. By using resource allocation to give students new roles within that group, the students who had been successfully completing the problem-solving task by themselves directed their energy to working with a troubled student because he or she now had control of the critical resources, the knowledge-base, pen and the mouse, for solving the case and entering the group's answer. These students, who had previously experienced problems, became interested in the group's activities and individually engaged in the problem-solving processes. This new group configuration resulted in learning for both the students who were taught by their peers and the students who provided the tutoring.Research on cooperative learning and instructional design have focused on strategies that can be employed in order to develop productive and efficient training environments. This research suggests global de...

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