NSF Young Investigator

小行星9358519 在过去的十年中，科学界对复杂现象如何从简单的成分和简单的相互作用中产生的兴趣激增。 复杂系统的研究不仅提出了科学问题，也提出了教育和认识论问题：人们必须发展新的思维方式才能理解复杂现象吗？ 如果是这样，什么类型的工具和活动可以让学生以新的方式思考复杂的系统？ 我建议开发一套新的计算工具，使预科学生能够构建和探索复杂的现象。 我计划特别关注与进化有关的思想。 以前的研究表明，许多学生误解和抵制通过自然选择进化的想法。 我计划开发一套“进化工具”（基于遗传算法等计算技术），其双重目标是：（a）更深入地了解学生对进化思想的误解，（B）帮助学生开发思考进化的新方法。 ***

9358519 Resnick During the past decade, there has been a surge of scientific interest in how complex phenomena can arise from simple components and simple interactions. The study of complex systems raises not only scientific questions, but also educational and epistemological questions: Must people develop new ways of thinking in order to make sense of complex phenomena? And if so, what types of tools and activities can engage students in thinking about complex systems in new ways? I propose to develop a set of new computational tools to enable pre-college students to construct and explore complex phenomena. I plan to focus particularly on ideas related to evolution. Previous studies have shown that many students misunderstand and resist the idea of evolution through natural selection. I plan to develop a set of "evolution tools" (based on computational techniques like genetic algorithms) with the dual goals of: (a) gaining a deeper understanding of students' misconceptions about evolutionary ideas, and (b) helping students develop new ways to think about evolution. ***