SBIR Phase II: Learning From Nature: Marine Educational Games With Big IDEAS (Innovative Differentiated Educational Assessments in Science)

SBIR第二阶段项目将为教育工作者开发一种易于使用的实时形成性评估工具，该工具将与每个学生独特地结合在一起，并通过虚拟现实学习游戏进行部署，该游戏使用有毒的海螺作为探索自然科学问题的管道。美国目前在科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）教育方面排名世界第52位。这对美国社会的未来在智力和经济上都是有害的。最近的研究表明，提高学生学习能力的不是教什么，而是教的方式，尤其是在STEM领域。因此，这个项目是由研究目标驱动的，以了解儿童如何学习特定的科学内容，以及为什么某些游戏元素更适合传达科学材料。该项目的成果是一个专有的多层形成性评估工具，可以测量学生通过虚拟现实学习游戏体验获得的新颖STEM内容的实时学习情况。该项目将使教师能够灵活地根据个性化的学生学习目标定制未来的教学。在这个项目中创造的产品的商业化将改变科学学习和可衡量的参与教育游戏的社会和经济效益，以满足国家科学基金会？该公司的使命是支持改善美国公民生活的教育计划，并通过雇佣软件设计师、教育工作者和科学家来增加税收和就业。在SBIR第二阶段开发的专有技术将是首个同类评估仪表板，将虚拟现实和基于网络的学习环境与形成性评估联系起来，以促进教学和深化学习。该项目将在在线和虚拟现实游戏中构建专有的评估工具，使用为每个玩家定制的新颖形成性评估，不断吸引用户参与科学探究和发现的过程。专有的评估仪表板允许教师和玩家实时测量他们的进度，并确定提高STEM学习的机会。使用Unity作为平台，玩家的行动和决策将在整个游戏过程中得到量身定制的形成性评估和持续反馈。这种反馈可以帮助教师描述学生在学习过程中的位置，并为进一步的教学提供动力。这种评估仪表板的新方法改变了定性和定量学习，并有可能显著提高学生的参与度和对科学探究的承诺，以支持新兴的科学变革者。玩家/教师仪表板的研究目标是将学生在游戏过程中的学习反馈与动态定量和定性的形成性评估结合起来，创造知识获取的无缝演示，同时为教师提供多种机会，让学习者在游戏之前、期间和之后参与更深入、更有意义的探究。该项目产生的产品与下一代科学标准（NGSS）和国际文凭（IB）计划保持一致，以确保内容的最高水平，并向全球广大客户群分发。让教师和学生参与该项目的预期结果将提高他们在STEM领域的能力，这将使参与者转变为终身学习者，并提高他们在STEM领域和职业中的参与度。

This SBIR Phase II project will develop an easy to use real-time formative assessment tool for educators that will be uniquely aligned to each student and deployed via a virtual reality learning game that uses venomous marine snails as a conduit for exploring scientific issues in nature. The USA is currently ranked 52nd in the world in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. This is detrimental intellectually and economically to the future of American society. Recent studies indicate it is not what is taught, but how it is taught that enhances student-learning abilities, particularly as it pertains to STEM. As a result, this project is driven by the research objectives to understand how children learn specific science content and why certain game elements are better suited to convey scientific material. The outcome of this project is a proprietary multi-tiered formative assessment tool that can measure real time student learning of novel STEM content obtained through a virtual reality learning game experience. This project will enable teachers to nimbly tailor future instruction with individualized student learning goals. Commercialization of the products created in this project will transform scientific learning and measurable engagement in educational games for social and economic benefit to meet the NSF?s mission of supporting education initiatives that improve the lives of U.S. Citizens, and generate income for tax revenue and jobs via the employment of software designers, educators and scientists.The proprietary technology developed in this SBIR Phase II will be a first-of-its-kind assessment dashboard that will link virtual reality and web-based learning environments with formative assessment to fuel instruction and deepen learning. This project will build proprietary assessment tools into online and virtual reality games which continuously engage users in the process of scientific inquiry and discovery using novel formative assessments customized to each player. The proprietary assessment dashboard allows teachers and players to measure their progress in real-time and identify opportunities to enhance their STEM learning. Using Unity as the platform, player actions and decisions will be met with tailored formative assessments and ongoing feedback throughout game play. This feedback helps teachers delineate where their students are along their learning progressions and fuels further instruction. The novel approach of this assessment dashboard transforms qualitative and quantitative learning and has the potential to significantly enhance student engagement and commitment to scientific inquiry to support emerging science changemakers. The research objective of the player/teacher dashboard is to align feedback on student learning during game play with dynamic quantitative and qualitative formative assessment that create a seamless demonstration of knowledge acquisition while providing teachers with multiple opportunities to engage learners in deeper and more meaningful levels of inquiry before, during, and after gameplay. The products generated from this project are aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and the International Baccalaureate (IB) program to ensure the content is of the highest caliber and distribution is to a large global customer base. The anticipated results from exposing teachers and students to this project will be increased competencies in STEM, which will transform players into lifelong learners and enhance engagement in STEM fields and careers.