Collaborative Research: Integrating Physical Computing and Data Science in Movement Based Learning

该项目将研究如何在基于运动的学习环境中整合机器学习、数据科学和物理计算。该项目重点关注纽约和科罗拉多州参加舞蹈等体育活动的女高中生的学习环境设计。这些学生中有许多是非裔美国人和拉丁裔，而这些群体在科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）领域的代表性不足。研究人员将利用学习者的专业知识和文化实践，使他们参与到真实的、对个人有意义的计算中来。学生们将学习使用穿戴在身上的可编程电子设备创建计算系统（物理计算），使用这些系统创建运动和手势的统计模型（数据科学和机器学习），然后将这些模型应用于数字体验式学习环境。研究人员将与体育教师和学习者密切合作，制定设计原则、课程、新的教育技术和跨环境的比较分析。本项目由STEM+Computing （STEM+C）项目资助，该项目支持研究和开发，以了解STEM学习中计算和计算思维的整合。本项目涉及的研究问题包括：1)如何利用体育教育来建立计算机专业知识？2)将计算机与体育教学实践相结合的挑战是什么？3)在体育应用的背景下，我们如何有效地评估与计算机相关的学习成果和倾向转变？这项研究分为三个阶段。第一阶段将包括在三个开发地点进行访谈和观察，其中包括纽约市的非营利组织STEM From Dance和科罗拉多州博尔德的两个团队。第二阶段将包括与体育教育者和计算教育者的参与式设计会议，以加深对物理运动和计算（跨越机器学习、数据科学和物理计算的子学科）如何通过共同设计的物理和计算学习活动相互补充的理解。参与式设计和协同设计活动将探索传感技术和实施方案如何重塑计算教育，并为概念化知识和培养专业知识提供替代途径。第三阶段将包括在纽约和博尔德的三个地点试点综合体育教育和计算机课程。课程将包括四个为期5周的计算模块，这些模块将在三个开发地点进行迭代。其中三个模块将分别侧重于每个计算子学科，第四个模块将涉及将这些学科整合在一起的高级主题。这项研究将产生课程和技术，以支持机器学习、数据科学和物理计算中的学习模块，整合跨越硬件和软件边界的多个抽象层次（即网络物理系统）。通过这种合作探究，研究人员将开发出关于如何将计算嵌入到已建立的基于运动的学习实践中的变革性知识，从而产生基于学习者和教育者的真实实践和需求的计算课程和工具。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will examine how to integrate machine learning, data science, and physical computing in the context of movement based learning. The project focuses on learning environment design for female high school students who participate in physical education activities such as dance in New York and Colorado. Many of these learners are African American and Latina, populations that are underrepresented in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM). Researchers will leverage learners' expertise and cultural practices in order to engage them in authentic and personally meaningful computing. The students will learn to create computing systems with programmable electronics worn on the body (physical computing), use those systems to create statistical models of movement and gesture (data science and machine learning), and then apply the models in a digital experiential learning environment. Researchers will work closely with physical education teachers and learners to produce design principles, curricula, new educational technologies, and comparative analyses across contexts. This project is funded by the STEM+Computing (STEM+C) program that supports research and development to understand the integration of computing and computational thinking in STEM learning.Research questions addressed in this project include: 1) How can physical education be leveraged to build expertise in computing? 2) What are the challenges of integrating computing into physical education practices? and 3) How can we meaningfully assess learning outcomes and dispositional shifts with respect to computing in the context of physical education applications? The research has three phases. Phase I will consist of conducting interviews and observations at three development sites including the non-profit organization STEM From Dance in NYC and two teams in Boulder, Colorado. Phase II will consist of participatory design sessions with physical educators and computing educators to develop a deeper understanding of how physical movement and computing (across the sub-disciplines of machine learning, data science, and physical computing) can complement one another using co-designed physical and computing learning activities. The participatory design and co-design activities will explore how sensing technologies and embodiment affordances can reshape computing education and provide alternative pathways for conceptualizing knowledge and cultivating expertise. Phase III will consist of piloting the integrated physical education and computing curricula across the three sites in NYC and Boulder. The curricula will consist of four 5-week computing modules that will be iterated on within the three development sites. Three of the modules will focus on each of the computing sub-disciplines individually, and the fourth will involve advanced topics integrating the disciplines together. This research will produce curriculum and technology to support learning modules in machine learning, data science, and, physical computing, integrating multiple levels of abstraction across the boundaries of hardware and software (i.e., cyber-physical systems). Through this collaborative inquiry researchers will develop transformative knowledge about how to embed computing into established movement based learning practices, resulting in computing curricula and tools that build on the learners' and educators' authentic practices and needs.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.