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

背景资料：概念设计中基于模型的类比的人工智能理论产生了一种方法论和一种语言，用于建立复杂系统的功能和因果模型，称为结构-行为-功能（SBF）模型。系统的SBF模型明确地表示其结构[S]（即，其组件和连接的配置），其功能（F）（即，它的输出行为），和内部因果行为[B]（即组成系统功能的组件功能的因果过程）。SBF语言提供了一个表达和组织层次结构中的知识的词汇表，它在聚合和抽象的多个层次上捕获功能和因果关系。使用SBF方法的学习科学的实证研究已经导致了大量的证据，而专家在其结构，行为和功能方面对复杂系统进行建模，新手主要表达系统的结构，表现出对它的功能的最小理解，并且很大程度上错过了它的行为。

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.