Highlights 1. We designed an experience integrating augmented reality and environmental probes. 2. This combination of technologies had benefits for both teachers and for learners. 3. Gains were revealed on both affective and content dimensions of learning. 4. These technologies facilitated student-centered instructional practices. 5. EcoMOBILE promoted science understanding more than previous field trips without AR and probeware.

a b s t r a c tUsing latent growth models, we explored: (a) The effect of middle school students' (n ¼ 189) preintervention science self-efficacy and science interest on their initial interest in an Ecosystems MultiUser Virtual Environment (EcoMUVE) and the rate of change in their interest in EcoMUVE; and (b) the mediating effect of students' initial interest in EcoMUVE and rate of change in interest on students' postintervention science self-efficacy and interest in science. Results showed that: (1) students' preintervention self-efficacy for science had an effect both on students' triggered situational interest for EcoMUVE and on students' maintained situational interest for EcoMUVE; (2) both triggering and maintaining situational interest in EcoMUVE were important in developing students' science selfefficacy. In fact, maintained situational interest was the stronger predictor; and (3) maintained situational interest for EcoMUVE translated into individual interest for the science content. Results support and extend social cognitive theory as well as models of interest development.

Expert reasoning about ecosystems requires a focus on the dynamics of the system, including the inherent processes, change over time, and responses to disturbances. However, students often bring assumptions to thinking about ecosystems that may limit their developing expertise. Cognitive science research has shown that novices often reduce ongoing patterns and processes to events across diverse science concepts. A robust, event-based focus may exacerbate student difficulties with reasoning about ecosystems in terms of resilience and change over time. In this study, we investigated middle-school students' initial reasoning about ecosystem dynamics and analyzed promising shifts in their reasoning after they interacted with a virtual environment with features designed to support thinking about change over time. Some students adopted a domino narrative pattern-a sequential story about the events and processes. The findings suggest that educators should consider the possibility that novices will bring event-based framing to their ecosystems learning.

We explored Grade 6 students' (n = 202) self-efficacy, epistemic beliefs, and science interest over a 10-day virtual ecology curriculum. Pre-and post-surveys were administered, and analyses revealed that (1) students became more self-efficacious about inquiring scientifically after participating in the activity; (2) students on average evinced a shift toward more constructivist views about the role of authority in justifying scientific claims; (3) students who identified more strongly with being a science person evinced greater gains in self-efficacy, developed a less constructivist view about the role of authority in justifying claims, and became more interested in science overall; and (4) students who held an incremental theory of ability evinced greater gains in self-efficacy. We discuss the implications of these findings for science educators and instructional designers in the design and use of immersive virtual worlds for middle school science students.

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