CAREER: Learning Entropy and Energy Project (LEEP)

没有足够的语言来谈论变化和变化的方向，科学课程从根本上受到限制，过度强调静态的结构，如分类和记忆的事件序列。与这些过于简化、以静力学为基础的课程相比，学生生活的世界是复杂和动态的。学生对他们世界的了解与他们目前在学校教授的以静力学为基础的科学之间产生了根本的脱节。除了在学校课程和早期大学课程(例如早期的非微积分科学)中转向Aath of Change，一个完整的基于动力学的课程还需要解决我们在周围世界中的定向体验。当我们早上起床时，能量总是从我们温暖的脚流向冰冷的地板，而不是从我们温暖的脚流向寒冷的地板。热力学第二定律--熵定律是唯一允许学习者理解物理过程方向性的科学定律。用基于动态的全面改革取代以静态为基础的课程，关键取决于能否谈论变革，但也取决于能否谈论变革的方向。最近与早期引入变化数学相关的教育创新，例如使用运动探测器和强大的模拟软件，正开始进入重大的课程改革。不幸的是，旨在促进所有学习者基于动态的理解的与熵相关的基础研究、材料开发和课程工作几乎是不存在的。这笔资助的目的是解决在追求基于动力学的改革中的这一关键缺失元素。十多年来基于熵的研究和创新使我相信，在科学教育的早期，熵的思想可以被纳入到关于能量动力学的学习中，熵可以以一种跨学科和跨水平(从小到大)的方式被教授，朝着这个方向发展，不仅促进了学生对熵的理解，而且所有学生在几乎所有的科学学习水平上更好地理解和成功的能力，都得到了显著的提高。虽然我打算让这项以信息量为重点的工作影响从小学后期到本科科学课程的广泛范围的科学学习，但我的主要关注点将是学生生活中与形式科学学习相关的两个关键时刻：早期高中和早期大学水平的工作。进入这一关头，许多学生仍“沉浸在游戏中”，并对进一步的科学研究感兴趣。走出这些关头，许多学生决定离开，特别是来自代表性不足群体的学生。在这些级别教授的课程将既为基于熵的学习的有效性奠定基础，也作为研究环境。在学校，我将主要关注国家规定的九年级综合物理化学课程。在大学层面，我将专注于一门新开发的本科理科课程，名为熵与能源，我将与一名研究物理学家共同教授这门课程，他也是一项名为UTeach的完全重组和快速增长的新二级认证项目的联席主任。在新的UTeach计划中，像这样的领域课程将在大学层面上模拟基于标准的教学。与学生学习相关的研究，如用熵学习，将与我新开发的认识和学习课程整合在一起，这是所有UTACH学生的第一门必修课。通过在学校建立教师工作圈，通过在大学设立一个纸袋研讨会系列，通过研究报告和出版物，以及通过开发学习熵与能量(LEEP)网站，该项目旨在支持更大范围的对话，讨论学习有关知识的功效和意义，并将熵作为面向所有学生的以动力学为基础的课程的重要组成部分。

Absent an adequate language to talk about change and the direction of change, sciencecurricula are fundamentally constrained to over-emphasize static constructs liketaxonomies and memorized sequences of events. In contrast with these over-simplified,statics-based curricula, the world students live in is complex and dynamic. Afundamental disconnect is created between what learners know of their world and thecurrent statics-based science they are taught in school. In addition to moving toward amath of change strand in school curricula and early university curricula (e.g. early non-calculussciences), a full dynamics-based curriculum needs to address the directed-nesswe experience in the world around us. When we get up in the morning, energy alwaysflows from our warm feet to the cold floor and never the other way around. The secondlaw of thermodynamics the entropy law is the only law of science that allowslearners to understand the directed-ness of physical process. Replacing statics-basedcurricula with a full dynamics-based reform depends vitally on being able to talk aboutchange but also on being able to talk about the direction of change. Recent educationalinnovations related to the early introduction of the math of change e.g. the use ofmotion detectors and powerful simulation software are starting to find their way intosignificant curricular reform. Unfortunately, entropy related fundamental research,materials development, and course-work aimed at advancing the dynamic-basedunderstanding of all learners is all but non-existent. This grant is aimed at addressingthis critical missing element in pursuing dynamics-based reform.Over a decade of entropy-based research and innovation leads me to believe thatentropy ideas can be incorporated into learning about energy dynamics early on inscience education, that entropy can be taught in a way that is cross-disciplinary and cross-level(from the very small to the very large), and that moving in this direction not onlyadvances student understanding of entropy but that the ability of all students to betterunderstand and succeed, at virtually all levels of their science learning, is significantlyadvanced. Although I intend for this entropy-focused work to impact science learningfrom late elementary through the wide range of undergraduate science courses, myprimary focus will be on two critical junctures in students' lives relative to formalscience learning: early high school and early university level work. Coming into thesejunctures many students are "still in the game" and are interested in further sciencestudy. Coming out of these junctures many students decide to leave, especially studentsfrom under-represented groups. Courses taught at these levels will serve both astestbeds for the efficacy of entropy-based learning and as research settings. In schools, Iwill focus primarily on the state-mandated, ninth-grade Integrated Physics and Chemistrycourse. At the university level I will focus on a newly developed undergraduate sciencecourse titled Entropy and Energy that I will co-teach with a research physicist who is alsoCo-Director of the completely restructured and rapidly growing new secondarycertification program called UTeach. Domain courses, such as this, in the new UTeachprogram are to model Standards-based teaching at the university level. Researchinsights related to student learning as such learning with entropy will be integratedwith my newly developed Knowing and Learning course that is the first requirededucation course for all the UTEACH students. Through the establishment of a workcircle of teachers in schools, through the establishment of a brown-bag seminar series atthe university, through research presentations and publications, and through thedevelopment of a Learning Entropy and Energy (LEEP) website, this project is intendedto support a larger conversation related to the efficacy and significance of learning aboutand with entropy as a vital part of moving towards a dynamics-based curriculum for allstudents.