Learning about Ecosystems Science and Complex Causality through Experimentation in a Virtual World

通过虚拟世界中的实验了解生态系统科学和复杂的因果关系

• 批准号: 1416781
• 负责人: Tina Grotzer
• 金额: $ 291.58万
• 依托单位: Harvard University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-09-01 至 2020-02-29
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1416781&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Learning; about; Ecosystems; Science; Complex

Comprehending how ecosystems function is important knowledge for citizens in making decisions and for students who aspire to become scientists. This understanding requires deep thinking about complex causality, unintended side-effects, and the strengths and limitations of experimental science. These are difficult concepts to learn due to the many interacting components and non-linear interrelationships involved. Ecosystems dynamics is particularly difficult to teach in classrooms because ecosystems involve complexities such as phenomena distributed widely across space that change over long time frames. Learning when and how experimental science can provide useful information in understanding ecosystems dynamics requires moving beyond the limited affordances of classrooms. The project will: 1) advance understanding of experimentation in ecosystems as it can be applied to education; 2) show how student learning is affected by having opportunities to experiment in the virtual world that simulate what scientists do in the real world and with models; and 3) produce results comparing this form of teaching to earlier instructional approaches. This project will result in a learning environment that will support learning about the complexities of the earth's ecosystem. The project will build upon a computer world called EcoMUVE, a Multi-User Virtual Environment or MUVE, developed as part of an earlier NSF-funded project. A MUVE is a simulated world in which students can virtually walk around, make observations, talk to others, and collect data. EcoMUVE simulates a pond and a forest ecosystem. It offers an immersive context that makes it possible to teach about ecosystems in the classroom, allowing exploration of the complexities of large scale problems, extended time frames and and multiple causality. To more fully understand how ecosystems work, students need the opportunity to experiment and to observe what happens. This project will advance this earlier work by developing ways for students to conduct experiments within the virtual world and to see the results of those experiments. The project will work with ecosystem scientists to study the types of experiments that they conduct, informing knowledge in education about how ecosystem scientists think, and will build opportunities for students that mirror what scientists do. The project will develop a modified virtual world and accompanying curriculum for middle school students to help them learn to more deeply understand ecosystems patterns and the strengths and limitations of experimentation in ecosystems science. The resulting program will be tested against existing practice, the EcoMUVE program alone, and other programs that teach aspects of ecosystems dynamics to help teachers know how to best use these curricula in the classroom..

了解生态系统如何运作是公民决策和渴望成为科学家的学生的重要知识。这种理解需要深入思考复杂的因果关系、意外的副作用以及实验科学的优势和局限性。由于涉及许多相互作用的组件和非线性的相互关系，这些是很难学习的概念。生态系统动力学在课堂上特别难教，因为生态系统涉及复杂性，例如在很长一段时间内变化的空间广泛分布的现象。了解实验科学何时以及如何为理解生态系统动态提供有用的信息，需要超越课堂的有限启示。该项目将：1）推进对生态系统实验的理解，因为它可以应用于教育; 2）显示学生的学习如何受到有机会在虚拟世界中进行实验的影响，这些实验模拟了科学家在真实的世界中所做的事情并使用模型; 3）将这种教学形式与早期的教学方法进行比较。该项目将产生一个学习环境，支持对地球生态系统复杂性的学习。该项目将建立在一个名为EcoMUVE的计算机世界上，这是一个多用户虚拟环境或MUVE，作为早期NSF资助项目的一部分开发。MUVE是一个模拟的世界，学生可以在其中虚拟地走动，进行观察，与他人交谈，并收集数据。EcoMUVE模拟了一个池塘和一个森林生态系统。它提供了一个身临其境的环境，使人们有可能在课堂上教授生态系统，允许探索大规模问题的复杂性，延长的时间框架和多重因果关系。为了更充分地了解生态系统如何工作，学生需要有机会进行实验并观察发生了什么。 该项目将通过为学生开发在虚拟世界中进行实验并查看这些实验结果的方法来推进这一早期工作。该项目将与生态系统科学家合作，研究他们进行的实验类型，为生态系统科学家如何思考的教育知识提供信息，并将为学生创造反映科学家工作的机会。该项目将为中学生开发一个经过修改的虚拟世界和配套课程，帮助他们学习更深入地了解生态系统模式以及生态系统科学实验的优势和局限性。由此产生的计划将根据现有的实践进行测试，EcoMUVE计划单独，以及其他教授生态系统动态方面的计划，以帮助教师知道如何在课堂上最好地使用这些课程。