I-Corps L: Loko I'a App - Place-based cultural and scientific exploration in a mobile platform

通过美国国家科学基金会创新团队学习计划(i-Corps L)，该项目将开发各种方法，使Loko I‘a手机应用程序能够在一个具有标志性和文化意义的环境中接触到广泛的学习者，包括科学调查、文化探索、基于地点的学习、协作网络和技术增强的探究。Loko I‘a移动应用程序旨在通过几个结合了科学探究、地方感、文化相关性和技术的现场和虚拟模块，让用户参与历史上的夏威夷原住民鱼塘的科学和文化探索。作为一种虚拟体验，它允许人们以一种有意义的方式与鱼塘互动，而不会影响自然资源。与团队旅游或无人导游相比，现场体验让游客可以更深入地接触鱼塘，但不会对有限的人力资源造成负担。要发展科学的实用知识，学生需要学习如何实施科学方法，进行分析和批判性思维，提出问题，并调查现实生活中的现象。当教师努力通过现实世界的应用程序将相关性带到科学教育中时，Loko I‘a应用程序将基于地点的学习与技术相结合，并帮助学习者通过现代多感官体验与空间互动和连接，包括音频、视觉、动觉和探究元素。与其他科学家的合作将使学生或公民科学家能够访问实时传感器数据以及先前调查的高影响力视觉表现，以进行他们自己的科学调查。这个目前的项目将检查该应用程序的可扩展性和可持续性，供学生和公民科学家使用，并开发一个开放教育版本的可行性，供学校教授编程技能。预计Loko i‘a移动应用程序可以为其他自然和标志性地点提供可定制的应用程序模板。Loko i’a应用程序将帮助促进STEM学习的多个维度的知识。它将有助于全面了解移动平台影响或加强学习的潜力，学习是科学教育中一个相对较新的研究领域。这款应用还为开发和测试融合了科学和文化的教学技术提供了一个模式。作为一款允许学习者探索科学、传统知识和文化历史之间联系的教育应用程序，有一个独特的机会来检验这种综合学习方法是否提高了学生对科学的兴趣和对自然场所的参与。这款应用程序可以用来帮助培养学生的编程技能，特别是在提高计算机科学素养成为国家优先事项的情况下，并向我们介绍预先构建的系统的有效性，在这些系统中，学生通过操作现有模块来学习。最后，Loko I‘a可以作为一个很有前途的案例研究，探索互动应用程序和其他技术的效用，以帮助有学习障碍的学生更积极地参与协作学习。

Through the NSF Innovation Corps for Learning Program, (I-Corps L), this project will develop ways to enable the Loko I'a mobile phone app to reach a broad audience of learners in scientific investigation, cultural exploration, place-based learning, collaborative networking, and technology-enhanced inquiry within an iconic and culturally significant setting. The Loko I'a mobile app is designed to engage users in scientific and cultural exploration of a historical Native Hawaiian fishpond through several on-site and virtual modules that combine scientific inquiry, sense of place, cultural relevance, and technology. As a virtual experience it allows people to interact with the fishpond in a meaningful way without impacting the natural resources. The on-site experience allows visitors to engage with the fishpond more deeply than would a group tour or unguided walk, but without taxing limited human resources. To develop a working knowledge of science, students need to learn how to implement the scientific method, engage in analytical and critical thinking, pose questions, and investigate real-life phenomena. As teachers struggle to bring relevance to science education via real world applications, the Loko I'a app integrates place-based learning with technology, and helps learners interact and connect with a space via modern multi-sensory experiences that include audio, visual, kinesthetic, and inquiry elements. Collaborations with other scientists will enable students or citizen scientists to access real-time sensor data as well as high-impact visual representations of previous investigations to conduct their own scientific inquiry. This current project will examine the scalability and sustainability of the app for use by students and citizen scientists, and develop the feasibility of an open educational version for schools to teach programming skills. It is expected that Loko I'a mobile app could lead to a customizable template of the app for other natural and iconic locations.The Loko I'a app will help advance knowledge in several dimensions of STEM learning. It will contribute to the overall understanding of the potential for mobile platforms to affect or enhance learning, a relatively new area of research in science education. The app also provides a model for developing and testing instructional technologies that integrate science and culture. The educational app that allows learners to explore connections between science, traditional knowledge and cultural history, there is a unique opportunity to examine whether this integrative learning approach enhances students' interest in science and engagement with natural places. The app can be used to help develop student skills in programming, particularly as increasing computer science literacy emerges as a national priority and inform us about the effectiveness of pre-built systems in which students learn by manipulating existing modules. Lastly, Loko I'a may serve as a promising case study for exploring the utility of interactive apps and other technologies to help students with learning disabilities become more active participants in collaborative learning.