Learning Science by Design

9632695 Kafai未来的工作场所要求学校培养学生技术熟练，信息和科学素养。新的国家科学标准（1995）要求学生不仅要知道事实，还要知道如何科学地推理。随着信息技术越来越多地渗透到家庭和工作场所，学生们不仅要知道如何访问和检索互联网上的信息，还要知道如何在学习中有区别地使用它。技术能力强的学生不仅知道事实，而且知道如何用这些工具表达他们的知识和想法。对于学校和教师来说，这些都是具有挑战性的任务，需要在学生对科学和技术的态度仍然开放、基于项目的活动更容易融入课程的早期就开始解决。提出的研究通过开发一个由丰富的教学技术材料和小学科学技术使用组成的为期一年的综合课程来解决这些挑战。“通过设计学习科学”以年轻学生的非正式科学知识为基础，要求他们编写程序，即设计交互式多媒体资源，向年轻学生教授物理学（磁学/电学）或生命科学（海洋栖息地）的科学概念。学生的程序设计过程为他们的科学研究、网络信息搜索和教学干预的设计提供了动力。这种方法将编程作为学生知识重组和个人表达的工具，让他们参与关键的科学实践：促进信息查询，构建科学过程的表示和可视化，解释和捍卫思想，以及管理他们的项目。本研究拟解决两个问题：(1)这种综合性的学习环境对年轻学生有何功效？(2)我们可以观察到什么样的技能和知识转移？研究将在几个公共小学教室进行，以实施为期一年的课程，包括两个不同的设计经验，从而促进对编程，项目和信息管理技能以及科学知识的转移的评估。评估分为三个阶段：第一阶段构建模型案例和评估工具，第二阶段进行实验和比较评估，第三阶段检验模型在不同学校场地和教室中的适用性。我在研究中形成的原则也将直接应用到我的教学活动中。我的教学计划强调教育和信息研究的整合，并将创建一套课程，为研究生和本科生提供新的信息和学习媒体的介绍和体验，它们的理论基础，以及在正式和非正式教育环境中的有意义的应用。建议的研究结果将分发给研究人员和教师。我期望这种方法为在小学课堂上实施先进技术提供一个模型，也适用于其他年级和学校水平。此外，信息和教育领域的整合将有助于提高对教育理论和实践的理解，以及未来学习和信息技术的设计。＊＊＊

9632695 Kafai Future workplaces require that schools prepare students to become technologically fluent and informationally and scientifically literate. The new National Science Standard (1995) demand that students know not only the facts but also how to reason scientifically. The growing infusion of information technologies into the home and work place demands that students know not only how to access and retrieve information on the Internet, but also how to use it discriminantly in their learning. Technologically competent students know not only the facts but also how to express their knowledge and ideas with these tools. These are challenging tasks for schools and teachers which need to be addressed beginning at an early age when students' attitudes about science and technology are still open and project-based activities are easier to integrate into the curriculum. The proposed research addresses these challenges by developing an integrative year-long curriculum consisting of a rich fabric of instructional techniques materials, and technology use in elementary school science. Learning Science by Design builds on young students' informal science knowledge and asks them to program, i.e., design, interactive multimedia resources to teach science concepts in either physics (magnetism/electricity) or life sciences (ocean habitats) to younger students. Students' programming process provides the driving force for their science investigations, Internet information searching, and design of instructional interventions. This approach uses proogramming as a tool for students' knowledge reformulation and personal expression by engaging them in key scientific practices: fostering information inquiry, constructing representations and visualizations of scientific processes, explaining and defending ideas, and managing of their projects. Two questions will be addressed in the proposed research: (1) What is the efficacy of such a comprehensive learning environment for y oung students? (2) What kind of skill and knowledge transfer can we observe? Research will be conducted in several public elementary classrooms in implementing the year-long curriculum that comprises two distinct design experiences, thus facilitating the assessment of transfer of programming, project and information management skills, and science knowledge. The evaluation is divided into three phases: Phase I builds the model case and assessment tools, Phase II conducts the experimental and comparative assessment, and Phase III examines the applicability of the model to different school sites and classrooms. The principles that I am developing in my research will also be directly applied to my teaching activities. My teaching plan emphasizes the integration of education and information studies and will create a set of courses that provide both graduate and undergraduate students with an introduction and experience of the new information and learning media, their theoretical underpinnings, and meaningful applications in formal and informal educational settings. The findings of the proposed research will be disseminated to resarchers and to teachers. I anticipate that the approach provides a model for implementations of advanced technologies in elementary school classrooms, also applicable to other grades and school levels. Furthermore, the proposed integration of information and education fields will lead to an improved understanding of educational theory and practice and the disign of future learning and information technologies. ***