SBIR Phase I: Mobile Games Teaching Rational Number Operations Through Estimation

这个SBIR第一阶段的项目提供了一种独特的方法来教授通过估计进行分数运算的困难内容。广泛的认知科学研究表明，估计儿童的判断力很重要，尤其是在经常违反直觉的分数运算主题中。研究还表明，估计分数对未来在数学上的成功有很高的预测性，对这一领域的早期干预可以改善长期结果。这个项目旨在通过专注于估计来提高孩子们对算术的理解。与其他通常只有一个分数的应用程序不同，这个项目将提供丰富的、可操作的洞察力，帮助教师筛选和监控学生随着时间的推移的进步，从而改善教师的教学和学生的学习。该项目与美国国家科学基金会S改善所有儿童数学教育的使命紧密结合，满足了市场对研究型、参与型软件的基本需求，这些软件与长期学术成果高度相关。该软件将专门为有特殊需要的儿童设计，将符合RTI筛查和干预的标准，进一步增加其对学校市场的商业价值和创造收入的潜力。这项建议寻求开发一个游戏的原型，专注于通过估计来进行分数的加减，这将鼓励意义产生和支持概念理解。该应用程序还将向教师提供数据报告，帮助他们定制教学和有针对性的干预措施。从儿童的游戏中提取可操作的洞察力，而不是从标准化的评估中，这是一项新的创新，有可能极大地改变孩子的学习方式。开发过程将包括对游戏进行线框设计，以及开发应用程序组件和功能。初始数据架构将包括映射到教师行动的学生学习行为概念图，用于课堂干预。相应的数据结构将在第一阶段收集和存储数据，为第二阶段的进一步分析和报告做准备。该项目将涉及前端组件测试，并遵循迭代设计过程，观察学生与软件的交互，适当时进行修改和调试。本项目的研究将包括非正式设计研究和成分测试，以及一个小型学习研究，对15-20名数学学习困难的学生进行近距离观察，探索使用分数软件对五年级学生加法的程序性和概念性知识的影响。

This SBIR phase I project offers a unique approach to teaching the difficult content of operating with fractions through estimation. Extensive cognitive science research shows the importance of estimating on children's sense-making, especially within the often counter-intuitive topic of fractions operations. Research also shows that estimating fractional numbers is highly predictive of future success in mathematics, and early intervention in this area improves long-term outcomes. This project aims to improve children's understanding of arithmetic by focusing on estimation. Unlike other apps, which typically end with just a score, this project will provide rich, actionable insight to help teachers screen and monitor students' progress over time, thereby improving teachers' instruction as well as student learning. Closely aligning with NSF?s mission of improving mathematics education for all children, this project fills an essential need in the marketplace for research-based, engaging software that correlates highly with long-term academic outcomes. This software will be designed especially for children with special needs and will meet the criteria for RTI screening and interventions, further increasing its commercial value for the school market and its potential to generate income. This proposal seeks to develop a prototype of a game focused on the addition and subtraction of fractions through estimation, which will encourage sense-making and bolster conceptual understanding. The app will also provide data reporting to teachers to help them tailor instruction and target interventions. Extracting actionable insight from children's gameplay rather than from standardized assessments, is a novel innovation that has the potential to dramatically change how kids learn. The development process will include wire-framing the gameplay and developing app components and features. The initial data architecture will involve a concept map of student learning behaviors mapped onto teacher actions for classroom intervention. The corresponding data structure will collect and store data during Phase I in preparation for further analysis and reporting during Phase II. The project will involve front-end component testing and follow an iterative design process, observing student interactions with the software, making revisions and debugging where appropriate. This project's research will include both informal design research and components testing as well as a small learning study, a close observation of 15-20 students with mathematics learning difficulties, exploring the effects of using the fractions software on 5th graders' procedural and conceptual knowledge of adding fractions.