Collaborative Research: Building Enhanced Scientific Thinking through Modeling Ecosystems

密苏里州植物园和麻省理工学院之间正在进行的合作将推动学生和教师创新技术体验(ITEST)计划的努力，以更好地了解和促进提高学生在科学、技术、工程或数学(STEM)领域追求职业生涯的动机和能力的实践。具体地说，这个项目将探索以建模为基础的课程方法如何促进四年级和五年级学生将科学理解为一种认识的方式。通过与基于模拟的游戏互动，根据对当地生态系统的真实世界经验创建和修改模型，学生将开始用证据进行推理，并在当地和全球环境模式之间建立联系。为了支持建模作为一种教学策略，教师将参与广泛的专业发展，以加深他们对生态内容、技术工具的使用以及促进基于模型的探究的教学转变的理解。其他项目成果将包括八个新的课程模块、新的软件建模工具和模拟游戏，以及学生和教师在STEM职业知识和意识方面发生变化的证据。这项研究采取系统的方法，让所有四、五年级的学生和他们的老师参与到人口统计多样化的学区中，有可能扩大学生对STEM的参与和兴趣。本研究的研究重点将调查在一个经过模型增强的基础科学项目中发现的与学生理解能力提高最密切相关的背景因素：1)科学是一种认识的方式，2)系统思维和基于证据的推理的使用，3)概念变化，以及4)对STEM职业的兴趣。大约1400名4年级和5年级的学生和50名教师将在两个学年内参与这项研究。来自多个工具(例如，调查、访谈、课堂观察、学生项目、测试前和测试后)并在多个时间点收集的数据将被三角化，以评估学生和教师知识以及教师实践的变化。此外，125名学生的子集将被有目的地抽样，以更集中地探索个人学习轨迹的发展。研究人员将控制剂量、系统的课堂和教学差异。

An ongoing collaboration between the Missouri Botanical Garden and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will advance efforts of the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program to better understand and promote practices that increase students' motivations and capacities to pursue careers in fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM). Specifically, this project will explore how a modeling-based curricular approach advances 4th and 5th grade students' understanding of science as a way of knowing. By interacting with simulation-based games to create and revise models based upon real-world experiences with local ecosystems, students will begin to reason with evidence and to make connections between local and global environmental patterns. To support modeling as an instructional strategy, teachers will participate in extensive professional development to deepen their understanding of ecological content, use of technological tools, and pedagogical shifts that facilitate model-based inquiry. Additional project outcomes will include eight new curriculum modules, new software modeling tools and simulation games, and evidence of student and teacher changes in knowledge and awareness of STEM careers. Taking a systemic approach and engaging all 4th and 5th grade students and their teachers in a demographically diverse school district, this project has potential for broadening participation and interest in STEM.The research focus of this study will be to investigate the contextual factors found within a model-enhanced elementary science program which are most closely associated with student gains in understanding: 1) science as a way of knowing, 2) use of systems thinking and evidence-based reasoning, 3) conceptual change, and 4) interest in STEM careers. Approximately 1,400 4th and 5th grade students and 50 teachers will participate in the study over two school years. Data from multiple instruments (e.g., surveys, interviews, classroom observations, student projects, pre- and post-tests) and collected over multiple time points will be triangulated for assessing changes in student and teacher knowledge, as well as teacher practice. In addition, a subset of 125 students will be purposively sampled for a more focused exploration of the development of individual learning trajectories. Researchers will control dosage, systematic classroom, and instructional differences.