Local Environmental Modeling: A Toolkit for Incorporating Place-Based Learning into Virtual Internships - A Scalable, Informal STEM Learning Environment

在这个项目中，教育研究人员，环境科学家和教育工作者将开发一个计算机工具，让STEM教育工作者和课程开发人员建立当地的环境科学模型。该系统将使用有关土地使用的数据自动构建美国任何地区的基于地图的模拟。用户将能够从一系列环境和经济问题中进行选择，以纳入这些模型。该系统将创建模拟，要求学生改变土地使用模式-例如，增加用于住房，开放土地或工业发展的土地-以满足环境和社会目标。因此，学生将能够了解与自己的城市，城镇，社区或地区相关的环境和经济问题的相互作用。这些基于地图的模拟将被纳入现有的科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）教育工具，土地科学，其中学习者在一个虚构的规划办公室工作，研究分区如何影响社区的经济和环境问题。研究表明，当学习者在他们家附近的地区探索问题时，土地科学是模式有效的，目前的研究将调查本地模拟如何以及为什么改善环境科学学习。该项目由推进非正式STEM学习（AISL）计划资助，该计划通过资助各种环境中使用的创新研究，方法和资源来支持加强非正式环境中学习的工作。在这个项目中，研究团队将建立，测试和部署一个工具包，使非正式的STEM教育工作者和非正式STEM编程的开发人员能够轻松地适应现有的环境科学学习环境，其中包括基于地点的虚拟实习城市规划和生态，他们的当地环境，学习目标和学习人群。土地科学是一个虚拟的实习，其中年轻人探索土地使用决策的环境和社会经济影响。为此，他们在一家城市规划公司扮演实习生的角色，为马萨诸塞州的洛厄尔市制定新的土地使用提案：他们阅读报告，虚拟访问网站，确定利益相关者的优先事项，并使用地理信息系统（GIS）模型来评估土地使用选择的社会经济和环境影响。没有一个计划可以满足所有利益相关者，所以学习者必须妥协，以创建一个有效的计划，并证明他们的决定。土地科学已被证明可以提高公民参与度，对生态社会问题的兴趣以及对科学模型的理解，但当虚拟实习的地点位于学习者的家乡或附近时，它是最有效的。为了提高这种有效学习干预的可及性和影响力，包括学习科学家，土地使用专家和非正式STEM教育工作者在内的跨学科研究团队将开发一个本地环境建模工具包，该工具包将允许教育工作者改变模拟的位置和利益相关者群体，分区代码以及土地使用模型中包含的环境和社会经济指标。该系统将确保生成的模型是功能性的、现实的和适当的复杂性。由非正式STEM教育工作者制作的土地科学的本地化版本将在一系列背景和地点中使用，使研究团队能够研究在线，基于场所的学习干预对环境科学学习，STEM兴趣和动机以及公民参与的影响。

In this project, education researchers, environmental scientists, and educators will develop a computer tool to let STEM educators and curriculum developers build local environmental science models. The system will use data about land use to automatically construct map-based simulations of any area in the United States. Users will be able to choose from a range of environmental and economic issues to include in these models. The system will create simulations that ask students to change to patterns of land use -- for example, increasing land zoned for housing, or open land, or industrial development -- to try to meet environmental and social goals. As a result, students will be able to learn about the interaction of environmental and economic issues relevant to their own city, town, neighborhood, or region. These map-based simulations will be incorporated into an existing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education tool, Land Science, in which learners work in a fictional planning office to study how zoning affects economic and environmental issues in a community. Research has shown that Land Science is mode effective when learners are exploring issues in an area near their home, and the current study will investigate how and why local simulations improve environmental science learning. This project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program which supports work to enhance learning in informal environments by funding innovative research, approaches, and resources for use in a variety of settings. In this project, the research team will build, test, and deploy a toolkit that will allow informal STEM educators and developers of informal STEM programming to easily adapt an existing environmental science learning environment, which consists of a place-based virtual internship in urban planning and ecology, to their local contexts, learning objectives, and learner populations. Land Science is a virtual internship in which young people explore the environmental and socio-economic impacts of land-use decisions. To do so, they play the role of interns at an urban planning firm developing a new land-use proposal for the city of Lowell, Massachusetts: they read reports, virtually visit sites, determine stakeholder priorities, and use a geographic information system (GIS) model to evaluate the socio-economic and environmental impacts of land-use choices. No one plan can satisfy all stakeholders, so learners must compromise to create an effective plan and justify their decisions. Land Science has been shown to improve civic engagement, interest in eco-social issues, and understanding of scientific models, but it is most effective when the location of the virtual internship is in or near the learners' home town. To improve the accessibility and impact of this effective learning intervention, the interdisciplinary research team, which includes learning scientists, land-use experts, and informal STEM educators, will develop a Local Environmental Modeling toolkit, which will allow educators to change the location of the simulation and the stakeholder groups, zoning codes, and environmental and socio-economic indicators included in the land-use model. The system will ensure that the model produced is functional, realistic, and appropriately complex. The localized versions of Land Science produced by informal STEM educators will be used in a range of contexts and locations, allowing the research team to study the effects of an online, place-based learning intervention on environmental science learning, STEM interest and motivation, and civic engagement.