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

了解生态系统是如何运作的，对于公民和有志成为科学家的学生来说是重要的知识。这种理解需要深入思考复杂的因果关系、意想不到的副作用以及实验科学的优势和局限性。由于涉及到许多相互作用的组件和非线性相互关系，这些概念很难学习。在课堂上教授生态系统动力学尤其困难，因为生态系统涉及复杂的现象，例如广泛分布在空间上的现象，这些现象会随着时间的推移而变化。学习实验科学何时以及如何能够在理解生态系统动态方面提供有用的信息，需要超越课堂的有限负担。该项目将：1)增进对生态系统实验的理解，因为它可以应用于教育；2)展示在虚拟世界中进行实验的机会如何影响学生的学习，虚拟世界模拟了科学家在现实世界和模型中所做的事情；以及3)将这种教学形式与早期的教学方法进行比较。该项目将创造一个学习环境，以支持对地球生态系统复杂性的了解。该项目将建立在名为EcoMUVE的计算机世界之上，这是一个多用户虚拟环境或MUVE，是作为早期NSF资助项目的一部分开发的。Muve是一个模拟世界，学生们可以在其中虚拟地四处走动、进行观察、与他人交谈和收集数据。EcoMUVE模拟池塘和森林生态系统。它提供了身临其境的环境，使在课堂上教授生态系统成为可能，使人们能够探索大规模问题的复杂性、延长的时间范围和多重因果关系。为了更全面地了解生态系统是如何工作的，学生需要有机会进行实验并观察发生了什么。该项目将通过开发学生在虚拟世界中进行实验并查看这些实验的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，在教育中告知生态系统科学家如何思考，并将为学生创造模仿科学家所做工作的机会。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。由此产生的课程将与现有的实践、EcoMUVE项目以及其他教授生态系统动力学方面的项目进行测试，以帮助教师知道如何在课堂上最好地使用这些课程。

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..