Producing Interactive Web-Based Animations for Introductory Cell and Molecular Biology

为细胞和分子生物学入门制作基于网络的交互式动画

• 批准号: 0732346
• 负责人: Esther Siegfried
• 金额: $ 5.29万
• 依托单位: University of Pittsburgh
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-01-01 至 2008-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0732346&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Producing; Interactive; Web; Based; Animations

This project involves the design of a prototype interactive animation to be used in the on-line tutorials for introductory cell and molecular biology classes. The prototype being developed simulates oxidative phosphorylation, a process that involves many molecular mechanisms and that can be manipulated experimentally at the cellular level. The animation promotes independent exploration and experimentation through a built-in feature that allows a student to manipulate cellular conditions, or add a pharmacological agent, and observe the changes to the simulated process.The intellectual merit of the proposed interactive animation is the inclusion of three features not commonly found in other animations. First, the animation is interactive and allows the student to manipulate many of the parameters of the simulation through a virtual experimentation feature. Second, the animation includes review and challenge questions, for which a student receives immediate feedback, designed to monitor his or her understanding and to reveal any misconceptions. Third, the instructor is able to track the student's use of the animation and therefore, its utility in deepening the student's understanding. Furthermore, the interactive animation is flexible in design so that the content can be modified to accommodate a range of students with different backgrounds, including both biology majors and non-biology majors. This interactive animation on oxidative phosphorylation has broad impacts because it is available through a cooperative entity for use by instructors at other locations around the country. Importantly, the system is scalable; although initially centered at the developer's institution, the programming architecture allows it to be expanded, in future years, into a distributed network of unlimited size, with interconnected nodes spanning the country. The ability of the system to capture and process data about the learning progress of students (coupled with the ability to provide constant feedback to both the student and instructor) has the potential to effect a fundamental change in how courses are taught, and how students approach learning.

该项目涉及设计一个原型交互式动画，用于细胞和分子生物学入门课程的在线教程。 正在开发的原型模拟氧化磷酸化，这一过程涉及许多分子机制，并且可以在细胞水平上进行实验操作。 该动画通过内置功能促进独立探索和实验，该功能允许学生操纵细胞条件，或添加药理制剂，并观察模拟过程的变化。所提出的交互式动画的智力优点是包含其他动画中不常见的三个功能。 首先，动画是交互式的，允许学生通过虚拟实验功能操纵模拟的许多参数。 其次，动画包括复习和挑战问题，学生会收到即时反馈，旨在监控他或她的理解并揭示任何误解。 第三，教师能够跟踪学生对动画的使用情况，从而了解其在加深学生理解方面的作用。 此外，互动动画设计灵活，可以修改内容以适应不同背景的学生，包括生物专业和非生物专业的学生。这种关于氧化磷酸化的交互式动画具有广泛的影响，因为它可以通过合作实体提供给全国其他地方的教师使用。 重要的是，该系统是可扩展的；虽然最初以开发人员机构为中心，但编程架构允许其在未来几年扩展为无限规模的分布式网络，互连节点遍布全国。系统捕获和处理有关学生学习进度的数据的能力（加上向学生和教师提供持续反馈的能力）有可能对课程的教学方式以及学生的学习方式产生根本性的改变。