EAGER: Anticipating The Future of STEM+SC Interactive Learning Environments

PI的愿景是，未来的高中生和大学生将能够流利地、常规地通过一种类似于数学和写作的新型识字能力来创建动态模拟，从而更好地理解“重要思想”。也就是说，他们将能够用系统和计算的语言表达他们对事物如何工作的理解--设备、系统和现象。绩效指标所指的“重要理念”包括跨STEM和其他学科的与系统和流程相关的理念，例如历史和治理。建议的新表达媒介被称为“动态模拟”，在这个迫切的项目中，PI正在确定动态模拟需要包括什么，以便开发一种新的、更好的媒介来表示、理解、探索和交流复杂的关系。我们的想法是，这种新的媒介将允许表达系统的功能和工作之间的更复杂的关系，而不是目前使用易于访问的数学、视觉、编程和自然语言所能做到的。预计新的动态表达语言将是一种质的新的语言，在EToys和Scratch等系统的基础上会有相当大的改善。这些语言虽然非常成功地被用来表达小学和中学的复杂性的重要思想，但对于表达更复杂的系统相关思想来说，它们太有限了。据设想，新的语言将允许表达自然系统、社会系统、技术系统以及我们作为个体的生物、心理和人类学系统中的关系。此外，目标是使用这种表达工具和表示将允许学习者和用户从各种不同的角度“看到”他们正在创建的动态构件，允许他们提取否则可能太抽象而无法想象的意义和意义。实现这一愿景的基础是计算本身。正如该提案所述，“[S]由于计算是关于过程的，所以计算的科学就是过程的科学。在计算领域，就像17世纪以来的许多其他领域一样，科学和工程处于动态阴阳状态，既制造和实验，又观察和创造模型，以促进这两种艺术的发展。”与急切的计划相适应，这是“以愿景为导向”的研究；它专注于可能发生的事情，其活动的目标是“发现问题”，以便能够制定出后来的具体计划。问题发现的结果将是许多问题的具体描述，这些问题将需要解决，以将部分愿景转变为现实。我们的主张是，我们可以通过给予年轻人更好的方式来表达他们的理解，从而帮助他们更好地理解以过程和系统为导向的现象。要做到这一点，需要一种富有表现力的计算语言，它将允许他们表达系统各部分之间的关系，以及这些部分以动态方式相互作用的方式。富有表现力的语言是这个早期项目的重点，是实现更大愿景的第一步，并被构思为一种具体的资源，将允许其他人设想教育的可能性。

The PIs' vision is that high school and college students of the future will be fluently and routinely able to better understand "important ideas" by creating dynamic simulations via a new kind of literacy akin to both mathematics and writing. That is, they will be able to express their understanding of how things work -- devices, systems, and phenomena -- in the language of systems and computing. The kinds of "important ideas" the PIs refer to include systems- and process-related ideas across STEM and other disciplines, including, for example, history and governance. The proposed new medium for expression is called "Dynamic Simulation", and in this EAGER project, the PIs are identifying what a dynamic simulation needs to include so that a new and better medium for representing, understanding, exploring, and communicating complex relationships can be developed. The idea is that this new medium will allow more complex relationships among functions and workings of systems to be expressed than can currently be done with easily accessible mathematical, visual, programming, and natural languages. It is expected that the new dynamic language for expression will be a qualitatively new and considerably better follow on to systems such as Etoys and Scratch. Those languages, though very successfully used to express important ideas of elementary-school and middle-school complexity, are too limited for expression of more sophisticated systems-related ideas. It is envisioned that the new language will allow expression of relationships in natural systems, social systems, technological systems, and the biological, psychological, and anthropological systems we are as individuals. Furthermore, the goal is that use of such expressive tools and the representations will allow learners and users to "see" the dynamic artifacts they are creating from a variety of different perspectives, allowing them to extract meaning and significance that otherwise might be too abstract to envision. Foundations for bringing the vision to fruition are in computing itself. As the proposal states, "[s]ince computing is about processes, the science of computing is the science of processes. And within computing, as with many other fields since the 17th century, science and engineering are in a dynamic yin-yang of making and experimenting, observing, and creating models to further both arts." As appropriate to the EAGER program, this is "vision-directed" research; it is focused on what might be and its activities are aimed toward "problem finding" so that a later concrete plan can be formulated. The results of problem finding will be concrete characterizations of many of the problems that will need to be solved to turn parts of the vision into reality. The claim is that we can help our youth better understand process- and systems-oriented phenomena by giving them better means of expressing their understanding. What is needed for that is an expressive computational language that will allow them to express relationships between parts of a system and the ways those parts interact with each other in a dynamic way. The expressive language, the focus of this early project, is a first step in achieving the bigger vision and is conceived as a concrete resource that will allow others to envision educational possibilities.