DIP: Collaborative Research: Taking Hands-on Experimentation to the Cloud: Comparing Physical and Virtual Models in Biology on a Massive Scale

在这个网络学习：教育转型DIP项目中，pi正在建立和评估一个技术和课程基础设施，为本科生和K-12学生提供可扩展的、低成本的生命科学实验。该基础设施利用了pi开发的两项技术：生物系统，使生物学的低成本远程实验成为可能；双焦点建模，通过实时比较物理模型和虚拟模型，激励学生进行深入的科学探究。使用低成本的本地或远程生物打印单元（BPU），学习者将把生物体“打印”到培养皿中，并用活体材料进行实验。由于系统的低成本和可扩展性，每个学习者都可以根据需要控制经验仪器。活体材料本身占地面积小，而且不断发展的高通量技术，如自动显微镜和DNA测序，使大量简单的、学习者指导的实验具有成本效益，自动化多路复用，使学习者每个人都能亲自进行连续的实验。第二个创新是将物理实验与计算机建模实时并置，即双焦点建模，允许学生观察和探索真实世界的生长、相互作用和生物特征，同时观察模型的结果，代表他们对生物活动背后的生物现象的理解，并随后完善他们的解释和理解。研究的重点是这种新的双焦点认知形式的认知能力和约束，学习者处理这种潜在的强大方法的复杂性所需的支持，以及当他们有真实和虚拟模型可用时，学生在设计和执行实验方面的熟练程度的进步。pi正在解决如何以低成本和丰富多样的方式将现代生物科学带入课堂和非正式学习环境的重大挑战。他们正在创建的平台将生物打印设备与双焦点建模相结合，为学习者提供了比简单的模拟和虚拟实验更开放的探索和现实主义体验。通过这次调查，学校和大学将能够将更多的高级生物学实验整合到他们的实验课程中，扩大所有学生，特别是弱势学生对生命科学的接触。

In this Cyberlearning: Transforming Education DIP project, the PIs are building and evaluating a technological and curricular infrastructure to empower scalable, low-cost experimentations for undergraduates and K-12 students in the life sciences. The infrastructure exploits two technologies that have been developed by the PIs: biotic systems, which enable low-cost remote experimentation in biology, and bifocal modeling, which motivates students to engage in deep scientific inquiry by comparing physical and virtual models in real time. Using a low-cost local or remote Biological Printing Unit (BPU), learners will 'print' organisms into petri dishes and run experiments with live materials. Each learner will have control over the empirical apparatus for as long as needed, due to the low cost and scalability of the system. The living material itself has a small footprint, and ever-advancing high-throughput technologies, such as automated microscopy and DNA sequencing, enable cost-effective, automated multiplexing of massive numbers of simple, learner-guided experiments, allowing learners to each personally carry out successions of experiments. The second innovation is juxtaposition, in real time, of the physical experimentation with computer modeling, known as Bifocal Modeling, allowing students to observe and explore the real-world growth, interactions, and characteristics of their organisms in parallel with observing outcomes of models representing their understanding of the biological phenomena underlying organism activity and subsequently refine their explanations and understanding. Research focuses on cognitive affordances and constraints of this new bifocal epistemic form, the supports needed by learners to handle the complexities of this potentially powerful approach, and the progressions in student proficiency in design and execution of experiments when they have both real and virtual models available.The PIs are addressing the significant challenge of how to bring modern bioscience into classrooms and informal learning environments, at low cost and with substantial variety. The platform they are creating, which integrates Biological Printing Devices with Bifocal Modeling, provides for more open exploration and realism in what learners can experience than is possible simply with simulations and virtual experiments. Schools and universities will be able to integrate more advanced biology experiments into their lab curricula as a result of this investigation, broadening exposure of all students, especially the less privileged, to the life sciences.