Applying a complex systems perspective to investigate the relationship between choreography and agent-based modeling as tools for scientific sense-making

应用复杂系统的视角来研究编排和基于代理的建模之间的关系，作为科学意义构建的工具

• 批准号: 2418539
• 负责人: Dionne Champion
• 金额: $ 85.9万
• 依托单位: TERC Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-03-01 至 2025-02-28
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2418539&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Applying; complex; systems; perspective; investigate

Science is a process of inquiry that involves question asking, experimentation, and exploration. However, for youth, it is often presented as settled, a fixed collection of facts, principles, and theories that can seem sterile and unimaginative. This project is designed to combat that idea. This Research in Service to Practice project brings scientists, middle school youth and choreographers together to explore unsettled scientific phenomena from a complex systems perspective using choreography and agent-based modeling (ABM), to engage all participants in cutting edge scientific inquiry. Given the ubiquity of complex systems, being able to adopt a complex systems perspective is critical to understanding the world and our relationship to it. However, research has shown that this can be a challenge, specifically for youth. While most complex systems research has not focused on the role of the body, recent studies have shown the promise and potential of embodiment as its own form of reasoning about complex systems. Thus, this project will create exploratory science spaces foregrounding embodiment in the process of scientific discovery. The program has two phases: (1) a 20-hour training workshop where scientists and choreographers engage in interdisciplinary collaborative design work, and (2) a 60-hour summer program where the researcher-practitioner partnership involving scientists, choreographers and youth engages in agent- based & embodied choreographic scientific modeling. The summer program takes place in community-based centers in Gainesville, FL and Boston, MA broadening perceptions of what science research looks like and can be. Each site will host 20 youth, two local scientists, and a local choreographer. Participants will engage in embodied collaborative inquiry, brainstorming and modeling to create choreographic representations and culminate in a public event for the community. The project aims to understand the experiences of and shifts in youth and scientists as they engage in these activities and to understand how to design such a model for informal learning. The project will also help scientists apply a complex systems lens to their own work and settled perspectives. This project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. Using a design-based research (DBR) approach, the project will develop and expand embodied and agent-based learning theories, while also piloting, analyzing, and refining collaborative models for science learning in informal spaces. The research questions are: 1. How does engaging in the process of creating embodied and agent-based models of complex systems contribute to new ways of understanding science, de-settle ideas about the process of how science gets “made”, and impact understanding of the role of the body in making science? and 2. How can arrangements of bodies and modeling tools work together to support understanding of complex systems? The research and design are informed by three main theoretical principles: (a) science is “dance of agency”, a process of inquiry that through iterative dialogic interaction with tools, technology, and humans, produces understandings that more and more closely explain natural phenomena; (b) embodied-interactionist theories of learning allow us to understand representational sense-making by looking closely at the processes by which representations are made, not just at representational end- products; and (c) creative embodiment and agent based modeling are valuable tools for sense-making around complex science ideas and emergent phenomena. Two cycles of design, implementation, and analysis across two different informal learning sites will be conducted. Data will be collected at both sites, resulting in four implementation and data collection periods. Each round of implementation will be staggered so that reflections and lessons from an implementation can inform the next design iteration. This project will provide insights on the relationship between choreography and ABM as tools for scientific sense-making and expand ABM to consider the role of movement and bodies more broadly in physical space. It will also contribute to an understanding of how underrepresented youth’s perceptions and conceptions of science can be shaped through embodied science activities, and of the relationships these youth see between their own bodies and identities, science, and the creative arts. Finally, by involving individuals from underrepresented communities as researchers, designers, scientists, evaluators, and advisors, this project expands cross-cultural and training opportunities within the field of education and STEM research.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.

科学是一个探索的过程，包括提出问题、实验和探索。然而，对于年轻人来说，它往往被呈现为固定的、似乎贫瘠和缺乏想象力的事实、原则和理论的固定集合。这个项目就是为了对抗这种想法。这个服务于实践的研究项目将科学家、中学生和编舞聚集在一起，使用编舞和基于代理的建模(ABM)从复杂系统的角度探索尚未解决的科学现象，让所有参与者参与尖端科学探索。鉴于复杂系统的无处不在，能够采用复杂系统的观点对于理解世界以及我们与世界的关系至关重要。然而，研究表明，这可能是一个挑战，特别是对年轻人来说。虽然大多数复杂系统的研究并没有集中在身体的作用上，但最近的研究已经显示了体现作为关于复杂系统的自身推理形式的前景和潜力。因此，该项目将创造探索性的科学空间，突出体现在科学发现的过程中。该计划分为两个阶段：(1)20小时的培训工作坊，科学家和编舞参与跨学科的协作设计工作；(2)60小时的暑期计划，由科学家、编舞和年轻人组成的研究员-实践者伙伴关系参与基于代理的编舞科学建模。暑期项目在佛罗里达州盖恩斯维尔和波士顿的社区中心举行，马萨诸塞州拓宽了人们对科学研究是什么样子以及可以是什么的看法。每个场地将接待20名青年、两名当地科学家和一名当地编舞。参与者将参与具体化的协作调查、头脑风暴和建模，以创建舞蹈表现形式，并在社区的公共活动中达到高潮。该项目旨在了解青年和科学家在从事这些活动时的经历和变化，并了解如何设计这样一种非正式学习模式。该项目还将帮助科学家将复杂的系统镜头应用于他们自己的工作和固定的视角。该项目由推进非正式STEM学习计划(AISL)资助，该计划旨在促进对非正式环境中STEM学习的设计和开发的新方法和基于证据的理解。使用基于设计的研究(DBR)方法，该项目将开发和扩展具体化和基于代理的学习理论，同时还将试验、分析和完善非正式空间中科学学习的协作模型。研究问题是：1.参与创建复杂系统的具体化和基于主体的模型的过程如何有助于以新的方式理解科学，消除关于科学是如何“制造”的过程的想法，并影响对身体在制造科学中的作用的理解？以及2.物体的排列和建模工具如何协同工作以支持对复杂系统的理解？研究和设计受到三个主要理论原则的启发：(A)科学是“代理之舞”，一个探索的过程，通过与工具、技术和人类的迭代对话互动，产生越来越紧密地解释自然现象的理解；(B)体现互动主义学习理论使我们能够通过仔细观察表征的过程，而不仅仅是代表性的最终产品，来理解表征意义的形成；以及(C)创造性体现和基于主体的建模是围绕复杂的科学概念和紧急现象进行意义形成的宝贵工具。将对两个不同的非正式学习网站进行两个周期的设计、实施和分析。将在两个地点收集数据，从而形成四个执行和数据收集期。每一轮实施都将是交错的，以便从实施中得到的反思和经验教训可以为下一次设计迭代提供参考。这个项目将提供关于编舞和ABM之间的关系的见解，作为科学意义产生的工具，并扩展ABM，以更广泛地考虑运动和身体在物理空间中的作用。它还将有助于了解如何通过具体的科学活动塑造未得到充分代表的青年对科学的看法和观念，以及这些青年看到他们自己的身体和身份、科学和创造性艺术之间的关系。最后，通过吸收来自代表性不足社区的个人作为研究人员、设计师、科学家、评估者和顾问，该项目扩大了教育和STEM研究领域的跨文化和培训机会。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。