R&D: Evolution Readiness: A Modeling Approach

这个项目将使用基于计算机的有机体及其环境相互作用的模型来支持学习进程，从而促进对进化论和支持它的证据的欣赏。提案团队将建立超级模型：课程活动和形成性评估，将可操作的模型与文本和多媒体材料联系起来。目标人群是三到五年级的公立学校学生。学生们不希望完全理解这一最全面的理论的每一个方面。然而，预计他们将逐渐认识到进化是一种紧急行为，是他们通过观察自然现象和直接操纵计算模型而了解的一系列基本过程的显著结果。进化论可能是K-12生命科学课程中最具挑战性的科目。这个项目将创建一个以研究为基础的课程，从很小的年级开始，以展示紧急行为的逐渐复杂的模型为中心。利用之前NSF资助的研究中创造的技术，当学生与基于计算机的模型交互时，他们的行为将被跟踪，收集极其细粒度的表现数据。以前的研究表明，这些数据是通过传统问答评估衡量的后续学习收益的可靠预测指标，即使是在与所进行的实验没有直接关系的项目上也是如此。通过继续这一研究方向，该项目将有助于改进复杂科学主题领域的教学，并提供一种可靠的手段，直接评估学生的概念理解和探究技能，而不是他们对科学事实的记忆。进化论是一个特别令人望而生畏的课题，因为它的证据往往是间接的，而且该理论主要建立在无法直接观察到的现象上。通过将教育技术的进步与对幼儿认知发展的更好理解相结合，该项目将产生一个经过经验验证的学习过程，用于教学演变。预计在小学和中学中遵循这一进程的学生将更好地理解该模式的含义以及该模式的证据和理论基础。

This project will use computer-based models of interacting organisms and their environments to support a learning progression leading to an appreciation of the theory of evolution and evidence that supports it. The proposal team will build hypermodels: curricular activities and formative assessments that link manipulable models to text and multimedia materials. The target population is public school students in grades 3 through 5. Students are not expected to come to a full understanding of every facet of this most encompassing of theories. However, it is anticipated that they will come to appreciate evolution as an emergent behavior; the remarkable outcome of a series of elementary processes that they have learned about through observation of natural phenomena as well as the direct manipulation of computational models. Evolution is perhaps the most challenging subject in the K-12 life science curriculum. This project will create a research-based curriculum, starting at very early grades and centered on progressively complex models that exhibit emergent behavior. Taking advantage of technology created in prior NSF-funded research, students' actions will be tracked as they interact with computer-based models, collecting extremely fine-grained performance data. Previous research indicates such data is a robust predictor of subsequent learning gains as measured by conventional question-and-answer assessments, even on items that do not relate directly to the experiments performed. By continuing this line of research, the project will help to improve the teaching of complex scientific topic areas and provide a reliable means of directly assessing students' conceptual understanding and inquiry skills, as opposed to their recall of science facts. Evolution is a particularly daunting subject to understand, as the evidence for it is often indirect and the theory rests largely on phenomena that cannot be directly observed. By combining advances in educational technology with improved understanding of young children's cognitive development, this project will produce an empirically validated learning progression for teaching evolution. It is anticipated that students who follow this progression in elementary and middle school will better understand both the implications of the model and the evidentiary and theoretical basis for it.