EAGER: Anticipating The Future of STEM+SC Interactive Learning Environments

PI的愿景是，未来的高中生和大学生将能够通过一种类似于数学和写作的新型素养来创建动态模拟，从而流利地、定期地更好地理解“重要思想”。也就是说，他们将能够用系统和计算的语言来表达他们对事物如何工作的理解--设备、系统和现象。PI所指的“重要思想”包括跨STEM和其他学科的系统和流程相关思想，例如历史和治理。所提出的新的表达媒介被称为“动态模拟”，在这个EAGER项目中，PI正在确定动态模拟需要包括什么，以便开发一种新的更好的媒介来表示，理解，探索和交流复杂的关系。这个想法是，这种新的媒介将允许表达系统的功能和工作之间的更复杂的关系，而不是目前易于访问的数学，视觉，编程和自然语言。预计新的动态语言表达将是一个新的质量和相当好的后续系统，如Etoys和Scratch。这些语言虽然非常成功地用于表达小学和中学复杂性的重要思想，但对于表达更复杂的系统相关思想来说太有限了。据设想，新的语言将允许表达自然系统，社会系统，技术系统，以及我们作为个体的生物学，心理学和人类学系统中的关系。此外，我们的目标是使用这种表达工具和表示将允许学习者和用户从各种不同的角度“看到”他们正在创建的动态工件，允许他们提取意义和重要性，否则可能过于抽象而无法想象。实现这一愿景的基础在于计算本身。正如该提案所述，“因斯计算是关于过程的，因此计算科学就是过程科学。在计算机领域，就像17世纪世纪以来的许多其他领域一样，科学和工程处于一种动态的阴阳关系中，即制造和实验、观察和创建模型，以促进这两门艺术的发展。与EAGER计划相适应，这是一项“以愿景为导向”的研究;它的重点是可能发生的事情，其活动旨在“发现问题”，以便制定后续的具体计划。问题发现的结果将是许多问题的具体特征，这些问题需要解决才能将部分愿景变为现实。其主张是，我们可以帮助青年更好地理解面向过程和面向系统的现象，方法是让他们有更好的手段来表达自己的理解。为此，需要一种表达性的计算语言，使他们能够表达系统各部分之间的关系，以及这些部分以动态方式相互作用的方式。表达性语言，这个早期项目的重点，是实现更大的愿景的第一步，并被视为一个具体的资源，将允许其他人设想教育的可能性。

The PIs' vision is that high school and college students of the future will be fluently and routinely able to better understand "important ideas" by creating dynamic simulations via a new kind of literacy akin to both mathematics and writing. That is, they will be able to express their understanding of how things work -- devices, systems, and phenomena -- in the language of systems and computing. The kinds of "important ideas" the PIs refer to include systems- and process-related ideas across STEM and other disciplines, including, for example, history and governance. The proposed new medium for expression is called "Dynamic Simulation", and in this EAGER project, the PIs are identifying what a dynamic simulation needs to include so that a new and better medium for representing, understanding, exploring, and communicating complex relationships can be developed. The idea is that this new medium will allow more complex relationships among functions and workings of systems to be expressed than can currently be done with easily accessible mathematical, visual, programming, and natural languages. It is expected that the new dynamic language for expression will be a qualitatively new and considerably better follow on to systems such as Etoys and Scratch. Those languages, though very successfully used to express important ideas of elementary-school and middle-school complexity, are too limited for expression of more sophisticated systems-related ideas. It is envisioned that the new language will allow expression of relationships in natural systems, social systems, technological systems, and the biological, psychological, and anthropological systems we are as individuals. Furthermore, the goal is that use of such expressive tools and the representations will allow learners and users to "see" the dynamic artifacts they are creating from a variety of different perspectives, allowing them to extract meaning and significance that otherwise might be too abstract to envision. Foundations for bringing the vision to fruition are in computing itself. As the proposal states, "[s]ince computing is about processes, the science of computing is the science of processes. And within computing, as with many other fields since the 17th century, science and engineering are in a dynamic yin-yang of making and experimenting, observing, and creating models to further both arts." As appropriate to the EAGER program, this is "vision-directed" research; it is focused on what might be and its activities are aimed toward "problem finding" so that a later concrete plan can be formulated. The results of problem finding will be concrete characterizations of many of the problems that will need to be solved to turn parts of the vision into reality. The claim is that we can help our youth better understand process- and systems-oriented phenomena by giving them better means of expressing their understanding. What is needed for that is an expressive computational language that will allow them to express relationships between parts of a system and the ways those parts interact with each other in a dynamic way. The expressive language, the focus of this early project, is a first step in achieving the bigger vision and is conceived as a concrete resource that will allow others to envision educational possibilities.