FIRE: Applying Embodied Learning to Physics Education

这个FIRE项目将认知科学家和物理学家聚集在一起。我们的目标是通过特定类型的实验室经验，让学生成为正在研究的物理系统的一部分，以提高高中和大学生的物理能力。实验室经验，学生有物理量的直接经验（例如，感觉力--与阅读力、看到施加在别人身上的力、甚至用仪器测量力相反）可能会导致学生在后来思考和推理他们所经历的物理概念时使用专门用于感觉和运动（感觉运动）处理的大脑区域。最近的研究表明，当这些感觉运动区域参与思考和推理任务时，人们对这些概念的理解会提高（Beilock等人，2008年）。参与这项工作的研究机构是芝加哥大学和德保罗大学。这项建议解决了两个相互关联的问题：（1）涉及感觉运动系统的学习方法是否能丰富物理知识和理解？(2)如果是这样，这是因为感觉运动表征是在学生回忆时访问的（例如，在测试期间）通过运动学习的概念？总共将进行五个实验。首先，三个实验被用来证实的特殊贡献，感觉运动系统对学生的力学物理的理解。具体而言，改变角动量和扭矩之间的关系进行了探讨，学生操纵旋转自行车车轮。实验1比较了直接感觉运动经验与扭矩相关的力（与观察力或测量其影响与仪器）如何影响学生的理解。实验2和3探讨了认知和神经基板驱动的经验和理解之间的联系，使用行为的双任务程序和功能性磁共振成像（fMRI）的范例。实验4-5转移到教室，探讨感觉运动体验与学习的关系，并确定感觉运动体验发生的最佳时间（讲座前与讲座后）。在实验4中，学生在高中物理实验室的经验将被操纵，以探讨如何感觉运动的经验与学生的力学物理的理解。在实验5中，将对入门级大学物理学生进行测试，以调查（1）感觉运动实验室体验如何影响数值测试问题的表现，（2）这种类型的实验室体验何时最有益，以及（3）这种益处发生在哪种类型的问题上。这项工作揭示了某些实验室经验的认知和神经机制。对感觉运动学习机制的关注是令人兴奋的，因为学生本身就是实验室设备中最关键的部分。这项工作的发现将推动物理教育，也有可能影响其他STEM领域的学习。例如，理解化学中的复杂分子结构或工程中的结构关系可能会受益于这里探索的感觉运动经验类型。总之，从这笔赠款中获得的知识将有助于设计快速，有效和可推广的指导方针，教育工作者可以在自己的教学中使用，以促进学生的学习和STEM成就。

This FIRE project brings cognitive scientists together with physicists. The goal is to improve high school and college students' physics proficiency through specific types of lab experiences that allow the student to become part of the physical system being studied. Lab experiences where students have direct experience with physics quantities (e.g., feeling forces--as opposed to reading about force, seeing forces being exerted on someone else, or even measuring forces with instruments) may lead to the use of brain areas devoted to sensory and motor (sensorimotor) processing when students later think and reason about the physics concepts they experienced. Recent research shows that when these sensorimotor areas are involved in thinking and reasoning tasks, people's understanding of those concepts improves (Beilock et al., 2008). The research institutions involved in this work are the University of Chicago and DePaul University.This proposal addresses two inter-related questions: (1) Can learning methods that involve the sensorimotor system enrich physics knowledge and understanding? (2) If so, is this because sensorimotor representations are accessed when students recall (e.g., during tests) concepts learned via movement? A total of five experiments will be conducted. First, three laboratory experiments are used to substantiate the special contributions that the sensorimotor system has to students' understanding of the physics of mechanics. Specifically, the relationship between changing angular momentum and torque is explored as students manipulate a rotating bicycle wheel. Experiment 1 compares how direct sensorimotor experience with the forces related to torques (versus observing forces or measuring their effects with instruments) impacts student understanding. Experiments 2 and 3 explore the cognitive and neural substrates that drive the link between experience and understanding using behavioral dual-task procedures and a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) paradigm. Experiments 4-5 move to the classroom to explore how sensorimotor experience relates to learning, and to indentify the optimal time (before vs. after lecture) for sensorimotor experience to occur. In Experiments 4, students' experiences in high school physics labs will be manipulated to explore how sensorimotor experience relates to students' understanding of the physics of mechanics. In Experiments 5, introductory-level college physics students will be tested to investigate (1) how sensorimotor lab experiences impact performance on numerical test questions, (2) when this type of lab experience is most beneficial, and (3) for which type of questions this benefit occurs. This work uncovers the cognitive and neural mechanisms by which certain lab experiences work. The focus on sensorimotor learning mechanisms is exciting as students are themselves the most critical piece of lab equipment. The findings from this work will advance physics education and also have the potential to impact learning in other STEM domains as well. For instance, understanding complex molecular structures in chemistry or structural relations in engineering may benefit from the types of sensorimotor experiences explored here. In sum, the knowledge acquired from this grant will aid in the design of quick, effective, and generalizable guidelines that educators can use in their own teaching to advance student learning and STEM achievement.