SBIR Phase II: Advanced Software for Interactive Chemistry Tutoring

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This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will produce a set of completed and commercially viable intelligent tutoring systems for chemistry education, building upon a rule-based, model-tracing, cognitive modeling tutor prototype for chemical equation balancing. Teachers, students, parents and administrators state that existing chemistry education software does not satisfy their need for truly interactive and on-demand computer instruction. Current approaches are rigid and linear, offering only a limited number of fixed and statically scripted problems. They do not deal with the individual student's own work in any meaningful or intelligent way. By simulating reasoning using chemical principles rather than compiling a database of problems and answers, artificial intelligence methods can provide a route to overcoming these serious fundamental limitations. Although the technology proffered by Quantum Simulations, Inc. is technology that will assist all students, those students of average or marginal performance will benefit the most.Creating tutoring systems that can function as guides and not just as graders of student work is an important step in realizing the full value of computers in education. The proposed work takes a significant step in this direction. Moreover, the technology has been designed in a general way such that it can be applied to other educational topics beyond chemistry and can work together in a synergistic, value-added fashion with other tools and curricula in a multi-resource learning environment. Quantum Simulations, Inc., customers are driven by strong end user needs and include textbook publishers, software provides, and distance learning companies.