SBIR Phase II: Collaborative game approach to support classroom instruction of difficult-to-teach science concepts

该项目将使学生学习困难的科学概念，使用协作游戏的方法，旨在显着提高学生的参与和理解。本游戏是为了提高高中生生命科学必修课光合作用和细胞呼吸的教学效果而开发的。这些过程在很大程度上是不可见的，由一系列复杂和相互依赖的相互作用组成，并且很难教授。该计划旨在透过创造具教育意义的互动工具，让中学生学习复杂的科学科目，从而提高他们对科学、技术、工程及数学的参与和兴趣，并协助他们建立核心科学知识和高层次的思考技巧，以应付世纪的挑战。应用程序的内容和设计是基于有效的科学教学的循证教育方法。开发一种更具沉浸感和实用性的学习方法，支持NSF的使命，以促进特殊的科学教育，并将有助于吸引和准备更多的学生为STEM为基础的职业。这项工作将为教师提供一个教学工具，传达基于化学的生物过程的准确细节，使他们能够向班级提供差异化的教学，并确保所有学生，无论其先前存在的知识和能力水平如何，能够满足国家和国家规定的-该项目建议开发和实施一个工作模拟器，为虚拟实验室学习环境提供科学准确的输出，学生可以通过尝试和错误快速建立对科学方法的实际理解。这使得a）将合法代理引入学生学习中，使得他们的选择驱动学习，B）生成有意义的（非通用的）教学提示，其精确地响应每个个体如何与游戏交互，以及c）建立有价值的框架，用于基于他们与模拟器的多个真实交互来评估学生学习。模拟器将使用数学模型来表示生物过程，以支持任意范围的假设。其他创新包括：a）自动化工具，区分课堂教学，帮助教师解决从补救到高级的一系列学生专业问题，B）扩展设备到设备的学生互动，利用协作评估和论证游戏，c）应用程序管理工具，使教师能够组织，监控和评估这些协作活动中的个别学生参与，以及d）将相关的地史气候数据纳入每个参与者的“奖励花园”，以培养能力并培养对定量分析活动的兴趣。将进行课堂测试，以验证我们的方法，并证明其有效性。

This project will enable students to learn difficult science concepts using a collaborative gaming approach that aims to significantly increase student engagement and understanding. This game is being developed to improve the instruction of photosynthesis and cell respiration, which are required curriculum for high school students in life science courses. These processes are largely invisible, comprised of a complex and interdependent set of interactions, and difficult to teach. By creating educationally sound interactive tools to undertake complicated science subjects, the project aims to increase secondary student involvement and interest in STEM, and to help build the core scientific knowledge and higher-order thinking skills they will need to address the challenges of the 21st Century. The app content and design is based on evidence-based pedagogical approaches to effective science instruction. Developing a more immersive and practicable learning method upholds the NSF's mission to promote exceptional science education and will help attract and prepare more students for STEM-based careers. This work will provide teachers with an instructional tool that conveys accurate details of chemically-based biological processes, enable them to deliver differentiated instruction to their classes, and ensure that all their students, whatever their level of pre-existing knowledge and ability, are able to meet the prescribed national and state-level life science standards.The project proposes to develop and implement a working simulator that produces scientifically accurate output for a virtual lab learning environment, with which students can quickly build practical understanding of the scientific method through trial and error. This enables a) the introduction of legitimate agency into student learning so that their choices drive the learning, b) the generation of meaningful (non-generic) instructional prompts that respond precisely to how each individual interacts with the game, and c) the establishment of a valuable framework for assessing student learning based on their multiple authentic interactions with the simulator. The simulator will represent biological processes using a mathematical model in order to support an arbitrary range of hypotheses. Additional innovations include a) automated tools that differentiate instruction at the classroom level to help teachers address a range of student proficiencies, from remedial to advanced, b) expanded device-to-device student interactions that utilize collaborative assessments and argumentation games, c) app management tools that enable teachers to organize, monitor and assess individual student participation within these collaborative activities, and d) the integration of relevant geohistorical climate data into each player's "reward garden" in order to build aptitude and foster interest in quantitative analysis activities. Classroom testing will be conducted to validate our approach and demonstrate efficacy.