Cultivating Creativity to Integrate Computation and Science Problem Solving in Informal Learning

我们作为一个国家所面临的未来挑战，例如优化农业产量和极端天气条件管理的需求日益增长，将需要大量富有想象力的科学家和工程师，他们对科学和计算知识融合以增强问题解决能力的方式有着深刻的理解。这些未来的科学家和工程师中有许多目前是儿童。这个项目的目标是研究最好的方法，让年轻人做好准备，面对未来的科学和工程问题。一个由教育研究人员，科学教师和科学家组成的团队将调查教育数字环境的设计，以促进计算和科学的参与，兴趣和学习。中学年龄的学习者将面临现实世界的挑战，难以解决的科学问题，特别适合具有创造性思维能力的计算解决方案。学习者将沉浸在一个鼓励实验，创造力和协作的“沙箱”虚拟环境中。通过以新颖的方式挑战学习者，该项目旨在为学习者提供自然世界的复杂性以及科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）创造力的机会。该项目由STEM + Computing（STEM+C）项目资助，旨在支持研究和开发，以了解计算和计算思维在STEM教学和学习中的整合，为当前和未来的劳动力做好准备。在两年的时间里，研究人员将调查虚拟场景的设计及其功效（1）实现和促进科学和计算思维的同时学习，（2）激发对STEM的兴趣，（3）鼓励在解决相关和未来问题时的创新和创造力。研究将在三个主要地点的课后和夏令营环境中进行：香槟-厄巴纳Fab实验室，伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳-香槟分校教育学院和西部中心学院（WCA），这是一所创新的STEM学校，为加利福尼亚州赫米特的6 - 12年级儿童提供服务。场景将来自STEM的一系列不同领域，包括生物学，生态学，农业和土木工程。每个场景将首先与小组学习者进行两次迭代，然后在项目结束时进行更大规模的评估，重点是整个场景集及其之间的相互联系。WCA的科学和计算机科学教师以及项目科学顾问将在所有阶段提供指导和投入，重点关注场景的关键方面，包括底层模拟模型的保真度和微调正确的难度水平。为了评估计算思维能力，相关的科学知识和兴趣，将采用混合方法。具体来说，学习者将完成简短的调查，知识评估，并在干预期间和之后接受采访。来自模拟的日志文件数据将允许研究人员调查相关的学习者行为，例如学习者对他们的解决方案进行了哪些修改，以及他们使用不同技术的频率。为了评估创造力，研究人员将确定解决方案的新颖方面，项目的科学顾问将对不同的解决方案进行创新潜力评估。参与者将被邀请创建展示并拍摄解决方案的视频，以便与朋友，家人和公众分享。通过测量知识的变化，兴趣，并在整个经验中广泛的技术的使用，研究将揭示是否以及在何种程度上的场景吸引学习者，并查明具体的场景属性和功能，是最有影响力的。这些成果将促进对非正式学习最佳做法的了解。他们还将为未来的教育模拟设计提供信息，以促进STEM学习，并使学习者更好地应对美国面临的关键挑战。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

Future challenges that we face as a nation such as the growing need to optimize agricultural output and management of extreme weather conditions will demand armies of imaginative scientists and engineers, equipped with a robust understanding of the ways in which scientific and computational knowledge converge to enhance problem solving. Many of these future scientists and engineers are currently children. The goal of this project is to investigate best ways to prepare the youth to confront future science and engineering problems. A team of educational researchers, science teachers, and scientists will investigate the design of educational digital environments to promote engagement, interest, and learning in computation and science. Middle school aged learners will be presented with science problems inspired by real-world challenges that are hard to solve and particularly suited to computational solutions with creative thinking skills. Learners will be immersed in a "sandbox" virtual environment that encourages experimentation, creativity, and collaboration. By challenging learners in novel ways, the project seeks to provide learners a glimpse of the complexities of the natural world and the opportunities that lie ahead for creativity in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). 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 teaching and learning to prepare the current and future workforce.Over the course of two years, researchers will investigate the design of virtual scenarios and their efficacy for (1) enabling and promoting the simultaneous learning of science and computational thinking, (2) triggering interest in STEM, and (3) encouraging innovation and creativity in solving relevant and futuristic problems. Research will be conducted in afterschool and summer camp settings at three principle locations: the Champaign-Urbana Fab Lab, College of Education at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and Western Center Academy (WCA), an innovative STEM school serving children in 6th-12th grade in Hemet, CA. Scenarios will draw from a range of different areas of STEM, including biology, ecology, agriculture, and civil engineering. Each scenario will first undergo two iterations with small groups of learners, followed by a larger scale evaluation at the end of the project focusing on the entire set of scenarios and interconnections between them. Science and computer science teachers at WCA as well as project scientific advisors will provide guidance and input at all stages focusing on key aspects of the scenarios, including fidelity of the underlying simulation models and fine-tuning the right level of difficulty. To assess computational thinking skills, relevant scientific knowledge, and interest, a mixed methods approach will be adopted. Specifically, learners will complete short surveys, knowledge assessments, and be interviewed during and after the intervention. Log file data from the simulation will allow researchers to investigate relevant learner behaviors such as what revisions learners make to their solutions and how often they experiment with different techniques. To assess creativity, researchers will identify novel aspects of solutions and scientific advisors on the project will rate different solutions for innovative potential. Participants will be invited to create showcases and capture video of their solutions for sharing with friends, family, and the public. By measuring changes in knowledge, interest, and use of a wide range of techniques throughout the experiences, research will reveal whether and to what extent the scenarios engage learners and pinpoint specific scenario properties and features that are most influential. These outcomes will lead to advancement in knowledge in best practices for informal learning. They will also inform future designs of educational simulations that foster STEM learning and better prepare learners to address critical challenges that lie ahead for the United States.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.