Collaborative Research: SimSnap: Orchestrating Collaborative Learning in Biology through Reconfigurable Simulations

该项目将开发和研究协作学习的生物学，使用平板电脑，支持生物系统的模拟，可以单独使用或连接在一起。该项目将在中学生命科学课程中实施4年，学生将解决重要的社会科学问题，例如在社区花园中种植健康的植物，以解决种植足够的农产品以满足不断增长和变化的需求的需要。在数字植物栖息地模拟中工作，学生将研究不同的环境和遗传因素如何影响各种植物和蔬菜的健康。当学生从事设计任务时，他们将能够通过将他们的平板电脑“扣”在一起（通过将它们彼此相邻）来创建跨越所有设备的单一共享模拟，从而在个人和协作工作之间无缝移动。学生将能够将他们个人探究活动的元素（例如，植物类型，土壤成分）放入他们的共享模拟中，为合作讨论和知识整合提供机会。当学生“打开”平板电脑时，他们的协作作业将以数字日志的形式留在他们身边，供个人反思或作为未来合作活动（与潜在的新小组成员）的资源。项目课程单元将帮助学生看到他们正在学习的科学概念和原理之间的联系，因为他们通过个人、合作和全班学习的结合，反复地进行设计。这项工作还将开发新的方法，帮助教师在学生参加开放式生物调查时了解课堂状况，并支持教师课堂编排和促进。项目研究成果、材料和软件将在项目网站上提供给全国感兴趣的教师、管理人员、政策制定者和研究人员。该项目将从个人、小组和全班三个层面研究协作学习，并利用技术和课堂教师以创新的方式支持学习。研究表明，技术可以支持协作学习，但关于它如何支持个人学习和协作学习之间的过渡的研究有限。虽然研究也表明，根据任务或学习目标的不同，合作或个人学习可能更有益，但相对而言，很少有研究考察学生在这些社会层面之间移动时的学习潜力。此外，随着这些配置变得越来越复杂，如何支持教师的协调和促进也面临着挑战。研究将集中在四个主要研究问题上：1)通过用户驱动的调查参与个人相关的生物学课程如何帮助学生理解潜在的科学内容？2)学生如何使用和分享他人的工作来发展他们自己对基础科学概念的理解？3)允许在个人，小组和全班配置之间移动的设计如何允许学生作为一个学习社区工作？4)技术平台如何支持教师组织和促进课堂活动？项目研究将遵循基于设计的研究方法，其前提是自然环境中的学习是多个相互作用变量的产物，不能简化为一小组受控因素。研究将分为四个主要的发展弧线：技术设计和迭代；简化、用户测试和协同设计；课堂实施;研究和分析。每一项设计的技术在应用于课堂之前都将在实验室进行用户测试。部分分析将集中在不同的技术（例如，个人和连接的平板电脑，教师编排平板电脑）如何在自然环境中支持学习和协作。项目研究框架提供了一种在多用户协作环境下使用混合方法和各种定量测量和定性指标来检查交互的可用性、有用性和影响的方法。教师们将通过为期两周的暑期课程来准备使用该系统，在此期间，他们还将参与课程和技术的共同设计。项目研究成果、材料和软件将在项目网站上提供给全国感兴趣的教师、行政人员、决策者和研究人员，并通过会议演讲和出版物向适当的受众传播。探索研究preK-12项目（DRK-12）旨在通过研究和开发创新资源、模型和工具，显著提高preK-12学生和教师对科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）的学习和教学。DRK-12计划中的项目建立在STEM教育的基础研究和先前的研究和开发工作的基础上，为拟议的项目提供了理论和实证依据。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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 collaborative learning in biology using tablet-style computers that support simulations of biological systems and that can be used individually or linked together. The project will be implemented over 4 years in middle school life science classes, in which students will solve important socio-scientific problems, such as growing healthy plants in community gardens to address the need to grow sufficient produce to fulfill ever increasing and varying demands. Working within a digital plant habitat simulation, students will investigate how different environmental and genetic factors affect the health of a variety of plants and vegetables. As students engage in design tasks, they will be able to seamlessly move between individual and collaborative work with peers by “snapping” their tablets together (by placing them next to each other) to create a single shared simulation that spans all their devices. Students will be able to drop elements of their individual inquiry activities (e.g., plant types, soil compositions) into their shared simulation, providing opportunities for collaborative discussion and knowledge integration. When students “unsnap” their tablets, their collaborative work will stay with them in a digital journal, for individual reflection or as a resource for future collaborative activities (with potentially new group members). Project curriculum units will help students see the connections between the science concepts and principles they are learning, as they iteratively work on their designs through a combination of individual, collaborative and whole class learning. This work will also develop new approaches that help teachers understand the state of the class when students are taking part open-ended biology investigations, and support the teacher classroom orchestration and facilitation. Project research findings, materials and software will be made available to interested teachers, administrators, policymakers, and researchers nationwide on the project website.The project will research collaborative learning along three planes–individual, small group and whole class–with technologies and classroom teachers supporting learning in innovative ways. Research has shown that technology can support collaborative learning, but there is limited research on how it can support transitions between individual and collaborative learning. While research has also shown that collaborative or individual learning may be more beneficial depending on the task or learning goal, there are relatively few studies that examine the potential for learning when students move between these social planes. Further, as these configurations become increasingly complex, there is also the challenge of how to support teachers’ orchestration and facilitation. Studies will focus around four main research questions: 1) How does engaging in personally relevant biology curriculum through user-driven investigations help students understand the underlying science content? 2) How are students using and sharing the work of others to develop their own understanding about the underlying science concepts? 3) How do designs that allow for the movement between individual, small group, and whole class configurations allow students to work as a learning community? 4) How does the technology platform support teachers in orchestrating and facilitating classroom activities? Project studies will follow a design-based research methodology, guided by the premise that learning in naturalistic settings is the product of multiple interacting variables that cannot be reduced to a small set of controlled factors. The research will be broken down across four main developmental arcs: Technology design and iteration; Facilitation, user testing, and co-design; Classroom implementation; and Research and analysis. Each of the designed technologies will be user tested in the lab prior to being deployed in the classroom. Part of the analysis will focus on how the different technologies (i.e., individual and connected tablets, the teacher orchestration tablet) support learning and collaboration in naturalistic settings. The project research framework provides a way to examine the usability, usefulness and impact of interactions in a multi-user collaborative context using a mixed-method approach with various quantitative measures and qualitative indicators. Teachers will be prepared to use the system through 2-week summer institutes, during which they will also participate in co-design of the curriculum and the technology. Project research findings, materials and software will be made available to interested teachers, administrators, policymakers, and researchers nationwide on the project website, as well as being disseminated to appropriate audiences via conference presentations and publications.The Discovery Research preK-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.