DIP: Collaborative Research: Taking Hands-on Experimentation to the Cloud: Comparing Physical and Virtual Models in Biology on a Massive Scale

DIP：协作研究：在云端进行实践实验：大规模比较生物学中的物理模型和虚拟模型

• 批准号: 1324753
• 负责人: Hans Riedel-Kruse
• 金额: $ 135万
• 依托单位: Stanford University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-09-15 至 2018-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1324753&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: DIP; Collaborative; Research; Taking; Hands

In this Cyberlearning: Transforming Education DIP project, the PIs are building and evaluating a technological and curricular infrastructure to empower scalable, low-cost experimentations for undergraduates and K-12 students in the life sciences. The infrastructure exploits two technologies that have been developed by the PIs: biotic systems, which enable low-cost remote experimentation in biology, and bifocal modeling, which motivates students to engage in deep scientific inquiry by comparing physical and virtual models in real time. Using a low-cost local or remote Biological Printing Unit (BPU), learners will 'print' organisms into petri dishes and run experiments with live materials. Each learner will have control over the empirical apparatus for as long as needed, due to the low cost and scalability of the system. The living material itself has a small footprint, and ever-advancing high-throughput technologies, such as automated microscopy and DNA sequencing, enable cost-effective, automated multiplexing of massive numbers of simple, learner-guided experiments, allowing learners to each personally carry out successions of experiments. The second innovation is juxtaposition, in real time, of the physical experimentation with computer modeling, known as Bifocal Modeling, allowing students to observe and explore the real-world growth, interactions, and characteristics of their organisms in parallel with observing outcomes of models representing their understanding of the biological phenomena underlying organism activity and subsequently refine their explanations and understanding. Research focuses on cognitive affordances and constraints of this new bifocal epistemic form, the supports needed by learners to handle the complexities of this potentially powerful approach, and the progressions in student proficiency in design and execution of experiments when they have both real and virtual models available.The PIs are addressing the significant challenge of how to bring modern bioscience into classrooms and informal learning environments, at low cost and with substantial variety. The platform they are creating, which integrates Biological Printing Devices with Bifocal Modeling, provides for more open exploration and realism in what learners can experience than is possible simply with simulations and virtual experiments. Schools and universities will be able to integrate more advanced biology experiments into their lab curricula as a result of this investigation, broadening exposure of all students, especially the less privileged, to the life sciences.

在这个网络学习：转变教育DIP项目中，PI正在构建和评估技术和课程基础设施，以支持生命科学本科生和K-12学生进行可扩展的、低成本的实验。该基础设施利用了PI开发的两项技术：生物系统和双焦点建模，前者实现了低成本的远程生物学实验，后者通过实时比较物理和虚拟模型来激励学生从事深入的科学研究。使用低成本的本地或远程生物打印单元(BPU)，学习者将把生物打印到培养皿中，并用活材料进行实验。由于系统的低成本和可扩展性，每个学习者都可以在需要的时间内控制经验设备。这种活的材料本身占用的空间很小，而且不断进步的高通量技术，如自动显微镜和DNA测序，使大量简单的、由学习者指导的实验能够经济高效地自动多路复用，使学习者能够每个人都亲自进行一系列的实验。第二个创新是将物理实验与计算机建模实时并置，称为双焦点建模，允许学生观察和探索现实世界中他们的生物体的生长、相互作用和特征，同时观察代表他们对生物体活动背后的生物现象的理解的模型的观察结果，并随后完善他们的解释和理解。研究的重点是这种新的双焦点认知形式的认知承受和限制，学习者需要支持来处理这种潜在的强大方法的复杂性，以及当学生拥有真实和虚拟的模型时，他们在设计和执行实验方面的熟练程度的进步。PI正在解决如何以低成本和大量的多样性将现代生物科学带入课堂和非正式学习环境的重大挑战。他们正在创建的平台将生物打印设备与Bifocal建模集成在一起，提供了比单纯使用模拟和虚拟实验更开放的探索和逼真的学习者体验。这项调查的结果是，中小学和大学将能够将更高级的生物实验整合到他们的实验室课程中，扩大所有学生，特别是弱势群体对生命科学的接触。