EAGER: Making with Understanding

有一种新的文化运动，人们每天都在修补STEM(科学、技术、工程、数学)中的概念，仅仅是为了满足创造力和好奇心。这场“制造者运动”是由低成本电子产品和制造工具的广泛应用推动的，这些工具允许业余制造者在探索科学现象的同时创造互动对象。这样的环境具有巨大的潜力，可以让人们参与STEM的概念和活动，同时使个人能够找到复杂和对个人有意义的问题的创造性解决方案。然而，在这些学习环境中，学生的注意力往往更多地集中在完成一个技术项目上，而不是理解科学概念。虽然有些学习确实发生在这样的环境中，但Maker活动的很大一部分可能包括遵循一系列说明，并相信它们将导致一个功能项目。在这个项目中，研究了一种新兴技术--增强现实(AR)，作为一种通过让学生接触到具有挑战性的概念来改变STEM Maker运动的手段。制造者空间活动中涉及许多看不见的现象(例如，电流、磁场的相互作用或气压波的运动)。增强现实耳机，如微软的Hololens，允许学生看到物理世界中的虚拟“全息图”。这个项目调查设计活动的影响，在设计活动中，学习者可以可视化并与他们的项目中涉及的隐藏力量进行交互，例如电子、磁场、光或无线电波，或者可视化物理部件的内部工作方式，例如微芯片和传感器。这项提案探索了如何通过增强现实技术来增强新一代创客空间，以创建能够让人理解的学习环境。该项目利用增强现实(AR)技术扩展传统的学生在Maker空间的活动，并调查这种干预是否1)增加学习收获，2)促进学生之间更深层次的概念讨论，3)改变学生对观察到的现象的概念。一个例子活动包括从头开始制造一个扬声器(放大的电信号被转换成磁场)，或者对微控制器进行编程，以根据多个传感器的读数做出决定。这种活动通过AR技术的使用得到增强，因为系统覆盖了不可见现象的表示(电子流、磁力、传感器值、代码片段等)。直接位于相关物理组件的顶部。研究包括进行系统的实证研究，比较基于AR的学习与传统的非AR方法的有用性，并进行后续研究，以确定合作学习的负担能力。该项目将使用传统的定量和定性方法，以及来自多模式学习分析领域的新方法来理解和分类学生在不同条件下的行为。这项工作将1)有助于我们理解STEM概念的学生教育如何通过增强现实等新技术来增强；2)贡献一套可重复使用的模块来可视化和模拟Maker活动中经常遇到的不可见现象；3)产生指导方针，帮助设计创新的学习环境。

There is a new cultural movement where everyday people tinker with concepts in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics), simply for the purpose of satisfying creativity and curiosity. This "maker movement" is powered by the wide availability of low-cost electronics and manufacturing tools, which allow amateur makers to create interactive objects while exploring scientific phenomena. Such environments have great potential to engage people with STEM concepts and activities while empowering individuals to find creative solutions to complex and personally meaningful issues. However, in these learning environments, frequently students' focus is more on completing a technical project rather than comprehending scientific concepts. While some learning does happen in such contexts, a significant portion of maker activities may include following a list of instructions and trusting that they are going to result into a functional project. In this project an emerging technology, Augmented Reality (AR), is investigated as a means to transform the STEM maker movement by making challenging concepts accessible to students. Many invisible phenomena are involved in maker space activities (e.g., the flow of electricity, the interaction of magnetic fields, or the movement of air pressure waves). Augmented Reality headsets, such as the Microsoft Hololens, allow students to see virtual "holograms" in the physical world. This project investigates the impact of design activities where learners can visualize and interact with the hidden forces involved in their projects, such as electrons, magnetic fields, light or radio waves, or to visualize the inner workings of physical components such as microchips and sensors. This proposal explores how a new generation of maker spaces can be enhanced by augmented reality technologies to create learning environments that enable making with understanding. This project augments traditional student activities in maker spaces using augmented reality (AR) technology, and investigates whether this intervention 1) increases learning gains, 2) facilitates deeper conceptual discussion among students, and 3) modifies student conceptions of the observed phenomena. An example activity includes building a speaker from scratch (in which amplified electrical signals are converted into magnetic fields), or programming a micro-controller to make decisions based on the readings of multiple sensors. Such activities are enhanced by the use of AR technology, as the system overlays a representation the invisible phenomena (flow of electrons, magnetic forces, sensor values, snippets of code, etc.) directly on top of the relevant physical components. Research involves conducting systematic empirical studies to compare the usefulness of AR-based learning vs. traditional non-AR approaches, and follow-up studies to identify the affordances for collaborative learning. The project will employ traditional quantitative and qualitative measures, along with novel methods from the field of multi-modal learning analytics to understand and classify students' behaviors across conditions. This work will 1) contribute to our understanding of how student education of STEM concepts can be enhanced by new technologies such as augmented reality, 2) contribute a set of reusable modules to visualize and simulate the invisible phenomena that are commonly encountered in maker activities, and 3) produce guidelines to help the design of innovative learning environments.