Learning Evolution through Model-Based Inquiry: Supporting Agent-Based Modeling in STEM Classrooms

在这个项目中，研究人员设计和探索使用基于代理的模型，以提高高中生对进化生物学的理解，同时促进他们的计算思维能力。 使用NetLogo编程环境，学生和教师专注于生物体水平（微观进化）的进化变化与人口水平（宏观进化）的进化之间的关系。 这是进化论中最基本的概念之一，学生们似乎最难掌握。 NetLogo的使用非常适合这一目的，因为它可以描述个体水平的变化如何与整个生物体的人口变化相关。研究探讨了使用这种方法对学生成绩的影响，包括学习和学生的兴趣。 学习环境的目的是检查学生单独或成对在笔记本电脑或作为一个小组在台式电脑上工作。 设计研究是用来探索这些方法的相对效果。 研究对象是9至11年级的市中心学生。这项研究很重要，因为如果学习技术和将进化建模为计算问题可以帮助克服学生在这一领域理解的关键症结，这是生物课程的核心，那么学生对进化的学习就可以得到改善。 如果研究者所使用的方法是有效的，那么它表明，学生学习的生产力的显着变化可以通过使用学习技术来实现。 此外，该项目预计将有助于学习的理论和实践，使用教学技术，基于代理的模型和计算模型。 由于市中心的学生参与了这项研究，研究结果应该对这一群体特别有益。

In this project, the investigators design and explore the use of agent based models in advancing high school students' understanding of evolutionary biology while promoting their computational thinking skills. Using the NetLogo programming environment, the students and teachers focus on the relationship of evolutionary change at the level of the organism (micro-evolution) with evolution at the population level (macro-evolution). This is one of the basic concepts in evolution that seems most difficult for students to grasp. The use of NetLogo is well-suited toward this end given that it can depict how changes at the individual level relate to shifts in the population of the organism as a whole.The research examines the impact of using such methods on student outcomes including learning and student interest. The learning environment is designed to examine students working either alone or in pairs at laptop computers or as a group on a table top computer. Design research is used to explore the relative effects of these approaches. Inner city students in grades 9 through 11 are the study population.This research is important because if learning technologies and modeling evolution as a computational problem can help overcome a critical sticking point in students' understanding in this area, which is core to the biology curriculum, then student learning of evolution can be improved. If the approach used by the investigators is effective, then it demonstrates that significant changes in the productivity of student learning can be achieved by the use of learning technology. In addition, the project expects to contribute to the theory and practice of learning using instructional technologies, agent based models, and computational models. Because inner city students are involved in the study, the findings should be particularly beneficial to this group.