EXP: SiMSAM: Bridging Student, Scientific, and Mathematical Models with Expressive Technologies

这个项目的目的是阐明科学教育和网络学习中的两个重要问题：(1)我们如何研究和支持学生学习使用模拟和数据分析技术作为科学话语工具的方法？(2)这种方法的教学潜力是什么？该项目探索了一种新颖的基于网络的建模环境SiMSAM的可行性，该环境将允许5-8年级的学生轻松地使用日常材料(例如，建筑纸、棉球、绘画等)制作动态停机动画，说明科学事件。他们已经熟悉的；类似的计算机模拟，使用一个新颖的可视界面，允许他们从原始动画中导入图像并给出指令；收集、分析和绘制模拟生成的数据；以及共享、交易和测试他们的创作。学生使用SiMSAM通过完成活动来探索分子动力学现象，这些活动邀请他们代表涉及大气压力、声音传播和蒸发的“看不见”的事件。分析的重点是该工具提供的新的学习形式(特别是采用模拟和数据分析作为科学话语的工具)，并确定学生对建模现象中的因果机制的推理的潜在转变，他们采用动力学分子理论作为概念模型，以及他们对STEM学科中科学模型的性质的理解。该项目整合了关于学生用于科学和数学主题推理的生产性资源的价值的当代学习理论，科学和数学教育中基于模型的方法，以及计算模拟作为教学和专业工具的重要性。该项目将形成新技术的原型，使中学生能够通过科学建模学习科学，这种方法具有促进对世界现象潜在机制的深入理解的潜力。这款名为SimSAM的软件允许学生制作与分子动力学相关的现象的动画和模拟--这是K-16年级的一个重要内容领域。这项技术使用跨平台、基于网络的技术，不需要特殊设备或下载，因此在学校很容易使用，不需要下载专门的软件应用程序。该项目的产品将包括用于促进学习物质粒子理论的课程材料和软件，这些软件最终可以成为学生在整个科学课程中接触各种动态科学现象的强大工具包。

The purpose of this project is to shed light on two important questions in science education and cyberlearning: (1) How can we study and support the ways in which students learn to use simulation and data analysis technologies as tools of scientific discourse? (2) What is the pedagogical potential of such an approach? The project explores the feasibility of a novel web-based modeling environment, SiMSAM, that will allow students in grades 5-8 to easily produce dynamic Stop-Action Motion animations that illustrate scientific events using everyday materials (e.g., construction paper, cotton balls, drawing, etc.) with which they are already familiar; analogous computer simulations using a novel visual interface that allows them to import and "give instructions" to images from their original animations; collect, analyze, and graph data generated by their simulations; and share, trade, and test their creations. Students use SiMSAM to explore kinetic molecular phenomena by completing activities that invite them to represent "unseen" events involving air pressure, sound propagation, and evaporation. Analysis focuses on new forms of learning afforded by the tool (especially the adoption of simulation and data analysis as tools of scientific discourse) and identifying potential shifts in students' reasoning about causal mechanism in the modeled phenomena, their adoption of kinetic molecular theory as a conceptual model, and their understanding of the nature of scientific models in STEM disciplines. The project integrates contemporary learning theory regarding the value of students' productive resources for reasoning about scientific and mathematical topics, model-based approaches in science and mathematics education, and the importance of computational simulation as a pedagogical and professional tool.This project will prototype new technologies that will allow middle-school students to learn science through scientific modeling, an approach with potential for promoting deep understanding of the mechanisms underlying phenomena in the world. The software, called SimSAM, allows students to create animations and simulations of phenomena related to molecular kinetics - an important content area across grades K-16. The technology uses cross-platform, web-based technologies that do not require a special device or download and will thus be easily usable in schools without the need to download specialized software applications. The project's products will include curriculum materials for promoting learning the particle theory of matter and software that can eventually become a robust toolkit for students to engage with a wide variety of dynamic scientific phenomena across the science curriculum.