Collaborative Research: Developing an Online Game to Teach Middle School Students Science Research Practices in the Life Sciences

该项目将开发和研究AquaLab 9，这是一款在线视频游戏，旨在让中学生学习生命科学内容的科学研究实践。通过从事科学研究实践，学生将培养直接与许多国家学术标准相联系的智力技能，这对于发展科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）素养和追求STEM职业道路非常重要。 学习者将扮演一名在海底研究站工作的科学家，由于灾难而与地面切断联系。他们必须找出问题，设计实验，创建模型，并从证据中进行论证，以使空间站生存下来。学习者将面临高度相关的当代问题，如废物管理，能源使用/生产/储存，以及在一个幻想故事的环境中的生态可持续性。该游戏专为5-8年级设计，可在30分钟内播放，并将在Chromebook和平板电脑上运行。该游戏将有40名教育工作者参加为期一年的奖学金，他们将成为共同设计者，指导该项目为他们所代表的不同学生服务，了解教育中的游戏，促进课堂上的游戏测试，并向同龄人报告他们的经验。由此产生的游戏，在英语和西班牙语，将使用至少162,000名学生的项目结束后，数十万项目完成后。 该项目将通过数字传播和最低技术要求来扩大获取途径，这将为学生创造一个低成本的机会，让他们参与科学实践，即使是在时间、设备或专业知识都不具备的学校。 学习进展是学生在学习一个主题时所经历的步骤。该项目将研究学习进度如何为教育游戏设计提供一个框架。这些进展将从大量观众的游戏数据中经验性地得出。因此，游戏可以被设计为为学生创造个性化的干预措施，以提高学习效果。 项目研究将使用一种称为隐形评估的方法，该方法分析学生游戏行为的数据，而不需要中断或干预游戏活动。这个项目将使用这种方法来发展经验验证的理解不同的学生如何发展他们的科学实践。基于这项研究，游戏将被修改，以提高学生的学习，通过提供个性化的反馈给每个学生。发现研究K-12计划（DRK-12）旨在通过研究和开发创新的资源，模型和工具，显着提高K-12学生和教师的科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）的学习和教学。DRK-12项目中的项目建立在STEM教育的基础研究以及为拟议项目提供理论和经验依据的先前研究和开发工作的基础上。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The project will develop and research AquaLab 9, an online video game to engage middle school students in learning science research practices in life sciences content. By engaging in science research practices, students will develop intellectual skills that link directly to many state academic standards and are important for developing Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) literacy and pursuing STEM career pathways. Learners will take on the role of a scientist working at an ocean-floor research station, cut off from the surface due to a catastrophe. They must identify problems, design experiments, create models, and argue from evidence to lead the station to survival. Learners will be challenged with highly relevant, contemporary issues such as waste management, energy use/production/storage, and ecological sustainability in the setting of a fantastical story. Designed for Grades 5-8, the game will be playable in 30-minute segments and will work on Chromebooks and tablet computers. The game will involve 40 educators in a yearlong fellowship where they will become co-designers, steer the project to serve the diverse students they represent, learn about games in education, facilitate playtests in their classrooms, and report their experiences to peers. The resulting game, in English and Spanish, will be utilized by at least 162,000 students by the end of the project and hundreds of thousands more after the project is completed. The project will broaden access through digital distribution and minimal technology requirements, which will create a low-cost opportunity for students to engage in science practices, even in schools where time, equipment, or expertise are not available. Learning progressions are the steps that students go through when they are learning about a topic. The project will research how learning progressions can provide a framework for educational game design. These progressions will be empirically derived from large audience game play data. The game can thus be designed to create personalized interventions for students to improve learning outcomes. Project research will use an approach called stealth assessment, which analyzes data from students' game behavior without requiring a disruption or intervention in the game activities. This project will use this approach for developing empirically validated understandings of how different students develop their science practices. Based on this research, the game will be revised to improve student learning by providing individualized feedback to each student.The Discovery Research K-12 program (DRK-12) seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models and tools. Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.