Collaborative Research: Learning About Complex Systems in Middle School by Constructing Structure-Behavior-Function Models

背景：概念设计中基于模型的类比的人工智能理论已经导致了无法学和一种用于构建复杂系统的功能和因果模型的语言，称为结构-行为-功能(SBF)模型。系统的SBF模型显式地表示其结构[S](即其组件和连接的配置)、其功能(F)(即其输出行为)和内部因果行为[B](即将组件的功能组成系统功能的因果过程)。SBF语言提供了一种在层次结构中表达和组织知识的词汇表，它捕获了聚集和抽象的多个层次上的功能和因果关系。学习科学中使用SBF方法的经验研究已经导致大量证据表明，尽管专家根据系统的结构、行为和功能对复杂系统进行建模，但新手主要表达系统的结构，对其功能表现出最少的理解，并在很大程度上错过了其行为。

Background: Artificial Intelligence theories of model-based analogy in conceptual design have led to amethodology and a language for building functional and causal models of complex systems calledStructure-Behavior-Function (SBF) models. An SBF model of a system explicitly represents its structure[S] (i.e., its configuration of components and connections), its functions (F) (i.e., its output behaviors), andinternal causal behaviors [B] (i.e. its causal processes that compose the functions of the components intothe functions of the system). The SBF language provides a vocabulary for expressing and organizingknowledge in a hierarchy, which captures functionality and causality at multiple levels of aggregation andabstraction.Empirical research in the Learning Sciences using the SBF methodology have led to substantial evidencethat while experts model a complex system in terms of its structure, behaviors and functions, novicesexpress primarily the structure of the system, demonstrate minimal understanding of its functions, andlargely miss its behaviors.