Virtual Hall of Science (VHOS)

虚拟科学馆 (VHOS)

• 批准号: 0929206
• 负责人: Eric Siegel
• 金额: $ 80万
• 依托单位: New York Hall of Science
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-09-01 至 2013-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0929206&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Virtual; Hall; Science; VHOS

The New York Hall of Science (NYHS), in partnership with the developers of Greater Southern Tier BOCES SciCentr program, will engage an ethnically and economically diverse group of young people in creating the Virtual Hall of Science (VHOS). This youth cohort will collaborate and work with science and education professionals to design, build, and staff a virtual science center while acquiring STEM knowledge and a range of ICT competencies. Participants will be trained as exhibit designers, builders, active exhibit guides, and mentors. Acting as a mentoring/governing group, participants will staff the virtual space and encourage and support new visitors to explore STEM activities. Two cohorts of 20 high school Explainers and 20 middle school students are directly impacted by this project, while hundreds of middle and high school youth are engaged through the online Virtual Worlds platform. Students receive 70 hours of training and are responsible for developing and launching the VHOS, training middle school youth, and creating a management plan. Students form teams, create interactive science exhibits, study interactive design, and use a variety of Web 2.0 tools for collaboration purposes. Finally, students beta test the prototype with families, other Explainers, and project staff before making it available to the public. Students build skills in six areas identified by International Society for Technology Education (ISTE) including creativity and innovation, communication and collaboration, research and information fluency, critical thinking, problem solving and decision making, digital citizenship, and technology operations concepts. VHOS will be designed for long-term sustainability through collaboration with state and regional cooperative service professional development programs.The evaluation will be conducted by the Center for Children and Technology at the Education Development Center Inc. (EDC) and will focus on the impact of the VHOS on Explainers and visitors, understanding of science concepts, and the development and articulation of ICT workforce skills by youth. A mixed-methods approach will be employed and include observations, interviews, participant blogs, science concept rubrics, visitor surveys, and pre-post questionnaires for both the formative and summative evaluation. It is anticipated that this project will advance the understanding of the effectiveness of virtual environments in building ICT skills and student understanding of workforce preparation.

纽约科学馆(NYHS)将与大南区一级BOCES Science Centr计划的开发商合作，吸引不同种族和经济背景的年轻人参与创建虚拟科学馆(VHOS)。这一青年群体将与科学和教育专业人员合作，设计、建造一个虚拟科学中心，并为其配备工作人员，同时获取STEM知识和一系列ICT能力。参与者将被培训为展品设计师、建造者、活跃的展品导游和导师。作为一个指导/管理小组，参与者将为虚拟空间配备工作人员，并鼓励和支持新的参观者探索STEM活动。由20名高中讲解员和20名中学生组成的两个队列直接受到该项目的影响，而数百名初中和高中青年通过在线虚拟世界平台参与其中。学生接受70小时的培训，负责开发和推出VHOS，培训中学青年，并制定管理计划。学生组成团队，创建互动科学展览，学习互动设计，并使用各种Web 2.0工具进行协作。最后，学生们在向公众提供原型之前，先与家庭、其他讲解员和项目工作人员进行Beta版测试。学生在国际技术教育协会(ISTE)确定的六个领域培养技能，包括创造力和创新、沟通和协作、研究和信息流畅性、批判性思维、解决问题和决策、数字公民身份和技术运营概念。VHOS将通过与各州和地区合作服务专业发展计划的合作而设计为长期可持续发展。评估将由教育发展中心公司(EDC)的儿童和技术中心进行，重点将放在VHOS对讲解员和访客的影响、对科学概念的理解以及年轻人发展和表达ICT劳动力技能方面。将采用混合方法，包括观察、访谈、参与者博客、科学概念类比、访客调查以及用于形成性和终结性评价的邮前问卷。预计该项目将增进对虚拟环境在培养信通技术技能方面的有效性的理解，并促进学生对劳动力准备的理解。