SimScientists Crosscutting Concepts: Progressions in Earth Systems

科学通常不是作为一个连贯的知识体系来教授的，而是作为不同的、不相关的主题来教授的。《下一代科学标准》旨在通过围绕横切概念组织科学教学来改变这一现状，横切概念通过解释不同科学领域的现象来反映科学的连贯性。该项目将解决横切概念如何纵向发展的研究问题，这种发展如何在不同的科学主题之间得到支持，以及横切概念的学习是否得到改善。该项目将创建计算机化的、基于模拟的教学模块，用于中学地球科学，教授横切概念。该项目不仅将记录学生对这些重要思想的学习，还将分析这种学习是如何发生的，与这种学习可靠相关的支持是什么，以及这些思想如何在不同地球科学主题的支持下发展。该项目将重点学习规模、系统和循环的横切概念，因为它们在三个中学地球科学主题中得到支持：生态系统、板块构造和气候。该项目将利用PI和其他团队成员之前的工作，建立在已经构建的SimScientists模拟基础上，以及他们在模拟中嵌入评估的演示技术，以告知学生学习的内容，同时提供模拟设计的反馈。模拟的初步效果将在13名教师和1300名学生身上得到验证。该项目的结果不仅会通过这些和其他中学生使用模拟产生影响，而且还会通过研究如何在多个科学领域中支持跨领域概念。

Science is often taught not as a coherent body of knowledge, but as distinct, unrelated topics. The Next Generation Science Standards aim to change this by organizing science teaching around crosscutting concepts, which reflect the coherence of science through their use in explanations of phenomena in different scientific domains. This project will address the research questions of how crosscutting concepts develop longitudinally, how this development can be supported across different science topics, and whether the learning of crosscutting concepts is improved. The project will create computerized, simulation-based instructional modules for use in middle school earth science that teach crosscutting concepts. This project not only will document student learning of these important ideas, but also will analyze how this learning occurs, what support is reliably related to this learning, and how these ideas might develop in response to support across different earth science topics. The project will focus on learning crosscutting concepts of scale, systems and cycles as they are supported across three middle school earth science topics: ecosystems, plate tectonics and climate. The project will leverage previous work by the PI and other team members by building upon the SimScientists simulations already constructed, and upon their demonstrated technique of embedding assessments in the simulations to inform what students learn while simultaneously providing feedback on the simulation design. Initial efficacy of the simulations will be established with 13 teachers and 1300 students. Results of this project will have impact not only through use of the simulations by these and other middle school students, but also through research on how cross-cutting concepts can be supported over time in multiple scientific domains.