SBIR Phase II: Advanced Software for Interactive Chemistry Tutoring

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）二期项目将基于一个基于规则、模型追踪、认知建模的化学方程式平衡导师原型，为化学教育生产一套完整的、商业上可行的智能辅导系统。教师、学生、家长和管理人员表示，现有的化学教育软件不能满足他们对真正的交互式和按需计算机教学的需求。当前的方法是严格和线性的，只提供有限数量的固定和静态脚本问题。它们不以任何有意义或明智的方式处理学生个人的作业。通过利用化学原理模拟推理，而不是编制一个问题和答案的数据库，人工智能方法可以为克服这些严重的基本限制提供一条途径。虽然量子模拟公司提供的技术将帮助所有学生，但那些表现一般或边缘的学生将受益最多。要实现计算机在教育中的全部价值，重要的一步是创建能够起到指导作用而不仅仅是学生作业评分的辅导系统。拟议的工作朝着这个方向迈出了重要的一步。此外，该技术被设计成通用的方式，因此它可以应用于化学以外的其他教育主题，并且可以在多资源学习环境中与其他工具和课程以协同、增值的方式一起工作。Quantum Simulations, Inc.的客户是由强大的终端用户需求驱动的，包括教科书出版商、软件供应商和远程学习公司。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will produce a set of completed and commercially viable intelligent tutoring systems for chemistry education, building upon a rule-based, model-tracing, cognitive modeling tutor prototype for chemical equation balancing. Teachers, students, parents and administrators state that existing chemistry education software does not satisfy their need for truly interactive and on-demand computer instruction. Current approaches are rigid and linear, offering only a limited number of fixed and statically scripted problems. They do not deal with the individual student's own work in any meaningful or intelligent way. By simulating reasoning using chemical principles rather than compiling a database of problems and answers, artificial intelligence methods can provide a route to overcoming these serious fundamental limitations. Although the technology proffered by Quantum Simulations, Inc. is technology that will assist all students, those students of average or marginal performance will benefit the most.Creating tutoring systems that can function as guides and not just as graders of student work is an important step in realizing the full value of computers in education. The proposed work takes a significant step in this direction. Moreover, the technology has been designed in a general way such that it can be applied to other educational topics beyond chemistry and can work together in a synergistic, value-added fashion with other tools and curricula in a multi-resource learning environment. Quantum Simulations, Inc., customers are driven by strong end user needs and include textbook publishers, software provides, and distance learning companies.