Puffins: Exploring how narrative, data science, and artificial intelligence enhance the study of ecology in middle school

Puffins：探索叙事、数据科学和人工智能如何增强中学生态学的学习

• 批准号: 2241777
• 负责人: Janice Mokros
• 金额: $ 49.99万
• 依托单位: TUMBLEHOME, INC.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-04-01 至 2025-12-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2241777&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Puffins; Exploring; how; narrative; data

The study of puffins can provide a fascinating subject area for the integrated learning of data and ecosystems. Once hunted to local extinction, puffins have made a dramatic yet fragile comeback and been re-established to historic nesting islands in mid-coast Maine. This project combines a scientific adventure story about puffin restoration with student-directed data investigations about the relationships between puffin health and environmental factors. Students will examine trends and correlations in several decades of curated National Audubon Society data about puffins, using an accessible open-source education data tool to examine relationships among variables including sea surface temperature, hatch island, fish in the puffin diet, fledgling weight, and survival to breeding age. They will use present-day data from puffin webcams and sound recordings to supplement their work with historical datasets. Students will train an artificial intelligence (AI) system to distinguish among puffin vocalizations, learn concepts of data biases, and examine how patterns of puffin calls associate with other aspects of puffin behavior and health. Students also will install their own webcams at school to generalize their study on the behavior of local birds and learn how scientists use webcams. Finally, students will interact with former interns from diverse backgrounds who have worked on Maine’s puffin islands to learn how data are being used to study ornithology and climate change. The project will enable Maine’s rural and urban students, students whose first language is not English, new immigrants, and students who do not consider themselves science-oriented to experience place and community-based authentic data and perform their own research on a charismatic species. 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 goal of this project is to explore how data science and AI, combined with the scientific narrative of a nonfiction book about puffins, enhances middle school students’ learning about an ecological system. The project addresses three research questions: 1) How do students use data tools to make sense of large ecological datasets?; 2) How do students organize and use data gathered from webcams, such as images of puffins engaged in various behaviors or the sounds puffins make, and how do they use AI to extend their observations?; and 3) What is the impact of using data tools, combined with a nonfiction book, on students’ learning about puffin ecology and ecological systems more generally? The project will use a design-based research approach in which several middle school teachers co-design a three-week curriculum module in conjunction with project staff. These teachers will also provide input to the research plan, which is based on classroom observations as well as case studies of a small number of students from each of seven classrooms. The case study research will provide a deeper analysis of students’ understanding of puffin data, and will involve the collection of student work as well as individual interviews in which students will be asked to explain their findings. In addition, we will collect survey data from all 500 students who participate in the project to determine how their overall STEM interest, engagement, career knowledge, and interest in data science and ecology have been impacted. Project deliverables include the puffin curriculum module and a modified version of an Audubon dataset about puffins that will be made freely available for all educators. We will publish the project’s findings for researchers, educators, and the general public. Teacher workshops, including one focused on attracting under-represented students to data science, will be presented to national audiences.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.

海雀的研究可以为数据和生态系统的综合学习提供一个迷人的主题领域。海雀一旦被猎杀到局部灭绝，它们就戏剧性地卷土重来，并在缅因州中部海岸的历史性筑巢岛屿上重新建立。该项目结合了关于海雀恢复的科学冒险故事，以及关于海雀健康与环境因素之间关系的学生指导数据调查。学生将研究趋势和相关性在几十年的策划国家奥杜邦学会数据关于海雀，使用一个可访问的开源教育数据工具，以检查变量之间的关系，包括海面温度，孵化岛，鱼在海雀饮食，羽翼未丰的重量和生存繁殖年龄。他们将使用海雀网络摄像头和录音的现代数据，以历史数据集补充他们的工作。学生将训练人工智能（AI）系统来区分海雀的发声，学习数据偏差的概念，并研究海雀呼叫的模式如何与海雀行为和健康的其他方面相关联。 学生们还将在学校安装自己的网络摄像头，以推广他们对当地鸟类行为的研究，并学习科学家如何使用网络摄像头。最后，学生们将与来自不同背景的前实习生互动，他们曾在缅因州的海雀群岛工作，以了解如何使用数据来研究鸟类学和气候变化。该项目将使缅因州的农村和城市的学生，学生的第一语言不是英语，新移民，和学生谁不认为自己的科学为导向的经验的地方和社区为基础的真实数据，并执行自己的研究魅力的物种。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，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）职业的知识和兴趣的项目。该项目的目标是探索数据科学和人工智能，结合一本关于海雀的非小说类书籍的科学叙述，提高了中学生对生态系统的学习。该项目解决了三个研究问题：1）学生如何使用数据工具来理解大型生态数据集？2)学生如何组织和使用从网络摄像头收集的数据，如海雀从事各种行为的图像或海雀发出的声音，以及他们如何使用人工智能来扩展他们的观察？3）使用数据工具，结合非小说类书籍，对学生学习海雀生态学和生态系统有什么影响？该项目将采用基于设计的研究方法，其中几位中学教师与项目工作人员共同设计一个为期三周的课程模块。这些教师还将为研究计划提供投入，该计划基于课堂观察以及来自七个教室的少数学生的案例研究。个案研究将提供学生对海雀数据的理解的更深入的分析，并将涉及学生工作的收集以及个别访谈，学生将被要求解释他们的发现。此外，我们还将收集参与该项目的所有500名学生的调查数据，以确定他们的整体STEM兴趣、参与度、职业知识以及对数据科学和生态学的兴趣受到了怎样的影响。项目交付成果包括海雀课程模块和奥杜邦海雀数据集的修改版本，该数据集将免费提供给所有教育工作者。我们将向研究人员、教育工作者和公众公布该项目的调查结果。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。