EAGER: Web Adventures Interactive: Innovative Online Activities as Effective Tools for Broadening Participation in Science

EAGER：网络冒险互动：创新的在线活动作为扩大科学参与的有效工具

• 批准号: 2041426
• 负责人: Adem Ekmekci
• 金额: $ 30万
• 依托单位: William Marsh Rice University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-09-01 至 2022-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2041426&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EAGER; Web; Adventures; Interactive; Innovative

This project will accomplish the exploratory groundwork needed to create Web Adventures Interactive (WAI), a set of interactive educational game websites, to study the effectiveness of the interactive features on science learning, motivation, and interest in science careers. This project is funded by the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program, which supports projects that build understandings of practices, program elements, contexts and processes contributing to increasing students' knowledge and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and information and communication technology (ICT) careers. The Web Adventures Interactive will replace the original Web Adventures developed through federal grants in the late 90s to mid-2010s. The unprecedented need for virtual science tools makes it vital to redevelop Web Adventures using new technologies and new interactive features. Over the years, Web Adventures have served millions of students and teachers from across the globe with overarching goals of (1) increasing students' science and health knowledge, and (2) inspiring science-related careers. The transformed version, WAI, provides a great opportunity to study the effectiveness of these new features and to conduct fine-grained new investigations. In addition to preserving the original Web Adventures goals, WAI's overarching goal is to increase three student outcomes: (1) science learning (forensics, microbiology, and neuroscience), (2) motivation for science fields, and (3) awareness and interest in science careers through new and innovative features—including social interaction and engagement, teacher/parent monitoring and assessment of student progress, and further customization options for teachers/parents. A full redevelopment of Web Adventures requires some initial work to be performed including the creation of an archival website (Phase 1) and design and testing of the new infrastructure (Phase 2) with several additional innovative features including social interaction, and detailed analytics regarding game-play characteristics. The new infrastructure will be beta-tested with at least 1,000 middle and high school students to investigate (1) how WAI impacts the three student outcomes; (2) how students' behavior (time-spent, sequence followed, self-exploring versus guided, answering prompted questions etc.) relate to the three student outcomes; and (3) how new features of WAI (i.e., social interactive features and teacher/parent monitoring and connectivity tools) affect behavior and impact the three student outcomes. Students will be given pre-and post-surveys (for motivation and career interest) and assessments (for science learning) that will provide research data. Data analytics and data-mining will also be conducted and included in data analysis. These empirically-tested interactive educational games will be freely and publicly available on a website hosted by the Rice University School Mathematics Project.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.

该项目将完成创建Web Adventures Interactive（阿威）所需的探索性基础工作，这是一套互动教育游戏网站，旨在研究互动功能对科学学习，动机和科学职业兴趣的有效性。该项目由学生和教师创新技术体验（ITEST）计划资助，该计划支持建立对实践，计划元素，背景和过程的理解的项目，有助于增加学生对科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）以及信息和通信技术（ICT）职业的知识和兴趣。网络冒险互动将取代原来的网络冒险开发通过联邦赠款在90年代末至2010年代中期。对虚拟科学工具前所未有的需求使得使用新技术和新的交互功能重新开发Web Adventures变得至关重要。多年来，Web Adventures已为来自地球仪的数百万学生和教师提供服务，其总体目标是（1）增加学生的科学和健康知识，（2）激发科学相关的职业生涯。转换后的版本阿威提供了一个很好的机会来研究这些新功能的有效性，并进行细粒度的新调查。 除了保留原来的Web Adventures目标外，阿威的首要目标是增加三个学生成果：（1）科学学习（法医学，微生物学和神经科学），（2）科学领域的动机，（3）通过新的和创新的功能，包括社会互动和参与，教师/家长监督和学生进步的评估，以及教师/家长的进一步定制选项。Web Adventures的全面重新开发需要进行一些初始工作，包括创建存档网站（第1阶段）和设计和测试新的基础设施（第2阶段），以及一些额外的创新功能，包括社交互动和有关游戏特性的详细分析。新的基础设施将与至少1,000名初中和高中学生进行beta测试，以调查（1）阿威如何影响学生的三个结果;（2）学生的行为（花费的时间，遵循的顺序，自我探索与指导，回答提示问题等）。与三个学生成果的关系;以及（3）阿威的新功能（即，社会互动功能和教师/家长监测和连接工具）影响行为和影响三个学生的成果。学生将获得前和后调查（动机和职业兴趣）和评估（科学学习），将提供研究数据。还将进行数据分析和数据挖掘，并将其纳入数据分析。这些经过严格测试的互动教育游戏将在莱斯大学学校数学项目主办的网站上免费公开。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

Teachers’ use of educational technology and Web Adventures: innovative interactive digital media for learning science.

教师使用教育技术和网络冒险：用于学习科学的创新交互式数字媒体。

• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: Proceedings of 2022 Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference
• 作者: Ekmekci, A.;Papakonstantinou, A.;Varner, P.;Aqazade, M.
• 通讯作者: Aqazade, M.