DIP: BioSim: Developing a Wearable Toolkit for Teaching Complex Science Through Embodied Play

在这项网络学习：转变教育发展和实施项目中，私人投资机构的重点是更好地促进小学早期(K-3年级)的科学学习。他们专注于生命科学学科，特别关注复杂的生物系统。学习复杂系统的方法是通过可穿戴计算机增强的参与式模拟。孩子们一起扮演复杂生物系统(例如，蜜蜂采集蜂蜜、捕食者和猎物)中的代理人的角色，并在他们可以佩戴的电子木偶的帮助下，观察他们模拟的动物特征的变化(例如，能量、饥饿、口渴、睡眠需要)，因为他们与环境中的动物进行互动的方式。研究的重点是在第一人称参与模拟系统的背景下如何进行学习以及如何最好地促进这种学习，关于一个复杂系统的学习如何为儿童学习其他复杂系统做好准备，如何随着时间的推移接触到各种这样的系统来建立对复杂系统的理解，以及利用技术影响这种学习的最佳方式。目前，人们对如何在小学有效地教授科学几乎没有理解。对于这个年龄段，这些PI采取了一种有趣的方式，让孩子们(从K年级到3年级)沉浸在动物和有机体的生活以及他们所生活的生态系统中。儿童参与自然生态系统的模拟，在这些系统中扮演动物或有机体的角色。为了促进对经验的反思，这将导致学习，孩子们配备了电子木偶，帮助他们体验那些动物？生命受到它们与环境中的动植物相互作用的影响。

In this Cyberlearning: Transforming Education DIP (Development and Implementation) Project, the PIs focus on better promoting science learning in early elementary school (grades K-3). They focus in the discipline of life sciences, with specific focus on complex biological systems. The approach to learning about complex systems is through participatory simulation augmented by wearable computers. Children act out the roles of agents in complex biological systems (e.g., bees gathering honey, predators and preys) together, and with the help of electronic puppets that they can wear on one hand, they watch changes in the characteristics of animals they are simulating (e.g., energy, hunger, thirst, need for sleep) as they interact in the environment the way those animals would. Research focuses on how learning happens in the context of 1st person participation in a simulated system and how to best facilitate that learning, how learning about one complex system readies children to learn about other complex systems, how the understanding of complex systems builds over time with exposure to a variety of such systems, and best ways of using technology to affect such learning.There is little understanding currently of how to teach science productively in elementary school. As is appropriate for this age group, these PIs take a playful approach to immersing youngsters (in grades K through 3) in the lives of animals and organisms and the ecosystems they live in. Children participate in simulations of natural ecosystems, taking on the roles of animals or organisms in those systems. To promote the kinds of reflection on experience that will lead to learning, children are equipped with electronic puppets that help them experience how those animals? lives are affected by their interactions with animal and plant life in their environment.