SBIR Phase I: Avatar-guided system to develop mastery in mathematical problem solving.

SBIR 第一阶段：阿凡达引导系统，培养数学问题解决能力。

• 批准号: 1520367
• 负责人: ATTILA MEDL
• 金额: $ 10.71万
• 依托单位: Mgenuity Corporation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-07-01 至 2015-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1520367&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Avatar; guided; system

This SBIR Phase I project will develop a prototype system that teaches children how to solve seemingly hopeless mathematical problems. Problems differ from exercises in that it is not immediately clear how to approach them. They require hard thinking, not complicated calculations. For example, the system's intelligent avatar will help students discover a method to calculate the Earth-Moon distance with nothing more than basic geometry and a lot of thinking and experimentation. Problems are presented by the avatar in 2D or in captivating 3D virtual worlds. The joy of (guided) discovery is envisioned to increase students' interest in math and other STEM disciplines and to significantly reduce math anxiety. The new rigorous math education standards require strong problem solving skills from each student including at-risk populations. The steady increase of student population also puts enormous pressure on schools to assist the work of their teachers. It is envisioned that the system's unique advantages over competitive solutions could ultimately make it a "must have" for the nation's 132,000 schools educating 58 million K-12 students. The project is expected to contribute to a markedly better math education.The most important technical innovations of this project are the emulation of natural-style teacher-student interactions in the domain of mathematics education, the teaching of proven problem solving strategies by an expert avatar, and the use of immersive 3D virtual worlds to help develop deep insight and advanced problem solving skills. The goal of the Phase I research is to develop a prototype system and scientifically evaluate its promise to improve students' problem solving skills in grades 6-8 within the context of the content domains and standards of mathematical practice specified by the Common Core State Standards. The system's Socratic avatar asks students purposeful questions in relation to a given problem. Students respond in a variety of constrained ways: construct written answers by dragging and dropping words into the right place, or by manipulating objects in the virtual environment. Student reasoning skills are tested continuously and non-intrusively during teach the avatar sessions in which roles are reversed and students demonstrate to a novice avatar how to solve a given problem. This will reveal a wide range of knowledge gaps in conceptual understanding and the use of particular mathematical methods. The researchers will analyze students' improvement in a pretest-posttest control group experiment.

这个SBIR第一阶段项目将开发一个原型系统，教孩子们如何解决看似无望的数学问题。问题与练习的不同之处在于，目前还不清楚如何处理它们。它们需要深思熟虑，而不是复杂的计算。例如，该系统的智能头像将帮助学生发现一种计算地月距离的方法，只需基本的几何学和大量的思考和实验。问题是由化身以2D或迷人的3D虚拟世界呈现的。喜悦发现(引导式)的设想是为了提高学生对数学和其他STEM学科的兴趣，并显著降低数学焦虑。新的严格的数学教育标准要求每个学生都有很强的解决问题的能力，包括高危人群。学生人数的稳步增长也给学校带来了协助教师工作的巨大压力。据设想，该系统相对于竞争解决方案的独特优势最终可能使其成为全国13.2万所学校教育5800万名K-12学生的“必备”。该项目预计将为更好的数学教育做出贡献。该项目最重要的技术创新是在数学教育领域模拟自然风格的师生互动，由专家化身教授经过验证的问题解决策略，以及使用身临其境的3D虚拟世界来帮助培养深刻的洞察力和高级的问题解决技能。第一阶段研究的目标是开发一个原型系统，并在共同核心国家标准规定的数学实践的内容领域和标准的背景下，科学地评估其对提高6-8年级学生的问题解决能力的承诺。该系统的苏格拉底化身向学生提出与给定问题有关的有目的的问题。学生的回答有多种受限的方式：通过将单词拖放到正确的位置，或者通过操纵虚拟环境中的对象来构建书面答案。学生的推理能力在角色互换的虚拟化身教学过程中被持续且非侵入性地测试，学生向新手虚拟化身演示如何解决给定的问题。这将揭示在概念理解和使用特定数学方法方面的广泛知识差距。研究人员将在前测-后测控制组实验中分析学生的进步。