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

这个SBIR第一阶段项目提供了一种独特的方法来教授通过估计操作分数的困难内容。广泛的认知科学研究表明，估计儿童的意义，特别是在分数运算往往违反直觉的主题的重要性。研究还表明，估计分数是高度预测未来的数学成功，在这方面的早期干预可以改善长期的结果。该项目旨在通过侧重于估算来提高儿童对算术的理解。与其他通常只以分数结束的应用程序不同，该项目将提供丰富的、可操作的洞察力，帮助教师筛选和监控学生随时间的进展，从而改善教师的教学和学生的学习。与NSF保持密切联系？该项目的使命是改善所有儿童的数学教育，它满足了市场对基于研究的、与长期学术成果高度相关的引人入胜的软件的基本需求。该软件将专门为有特殊需要的儿童设计，并将符合生殖道感染筛查和干预的标准，进一步提高其在学校市场的商业价值及其创收潜力。该提案旨在开发一个游戏原型，重点是通过估计进行分数的加法和减法，这将鼓励理解并加强概念理解。该应用程序还将向教师提供数据报告，以帮助他们定制教学和目标干预措施。从孩子们的游戏中而不是从标准化的评估中提取可操作的洞察力是一种新颖的创新，有可能极大地改变孩子们的学习方式。开发过程将包括线框游戏和开发应用程序组件和功能。最初的数据架构将涉及学生学习行为的概念图，映射到教师的课堂干预行动。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，在适当的情况下进行修订和调试。本研究将包括非正式设计研究和组件测试，以及一个小型的学习研究，近距离观察15-20名数学学习困难的学生，探索使用分数软件对五年级学生的分数加法程序和概念知识的影响。

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.