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了基于代理的模型在促进高中生对进化生物学的理解同时提高他们的计算思维能力的使用。利用NetLogo编程环境，学生和教师专注于有机体(微观进化)层面的进化变化与种群层面(宏观进化)的进化关系。这是进化论中似乎最难掌握的基本概念之一。NetLogo的使用非常适合这一目标，因为它可以描述个体水平的变化如何与整个有机体种群的变化相关。这项研究考察了使用这种方法对学生结果的影响，包括学习和学生兴趣。学习环境的设计是为了检查学生在笔记本电脑上单独或成对学习，或在台式电脑上分组学习。设计研究被用来探索这些方法的相对效果。市中心9到11年级的学生是研究对象。这项研究很重要，因为如果学习技术并将进化论建模为计算问题可以帮助克服学生在这一领域的理解上的关键症结，这是生物课程的核心，那么学生对进化论的学习就可以得到改善。如果研究人员使用的方法是有效的，那么它表明通过使用学习技术可以显著改变学生的学习效率。此外，该项目预计将对使用教学技术、基于代理的模型和计算模型进行学习的理论和实践做出贡献。因为市中心的学生参与了这项研究，所以这一发现应该对这一群体特别有利。

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.