ROLE: Facilitating the Understanding of Complex Adaptive Systems Through Computer Simulations

交互式计算机模拟越来越多地被用于教授学生科学原理，但相对较少的系统研究做了对因素，使模拟教学有效。 本研究探讨如何设计一个电脑模拟，让学生学习其背后的科学原理，并将此原理转移到新的领域。 选择复杂适应系统的跨学科科学的原则是因为这些数学形式主义适用于广泛的领域。 与学生的实验室实验将探讨如何积极探索一个模拟的好处或阻碍基于相同的原则，提出了一个潜在的模拟的理解。 实验将探讨抽象迁移中具体性和理想化、模拟相似性和个体差异的作用。 探究的科学目标是理解知觉经验如何导致抽象的概念理解，以及概念理解如何改变知觉经验。 实际目标是将这种理解转化为将计算机模拟融入课堂活动的一般教育原则。

Interactive computer simulations are increasingly being used to teach studentsscientific principles, but relatively little systematic research has done onthe factors that make a simulation pedagogically effective. This researchexplores how to design a computer simulation so that students learn thescientific principle underlying it, and transfer this principle to newdomains. Principles from the interdisciplinary science of complex adaptivesystems are chosen because these mathematical formalisms are applicable acrossa wide range of domains. Laboratory experiments with students will explore howactive exploration of one simulation benefits or hinders understanding of asubsequently presented simulation based on the same principle. Experimentswill explore the roles of concreteness and idealization, simulation similarity,and individual differences in abstract transfer. The scientific goal of theinquiry is to gain an understanding of how perceptual experience can lead toabstract conceptual understanding, and how conceptual understanding can changeperceptual experience. The practical goal is to translate this understandinginto general educational principles for integrating computer simulations intoclassroom activities.