A Study in Engaging Students with Complex Topics through Knowledge Graphs

该项目旨在通过改善本科生在普通教育水平上的可持续科学教学和学习来服务于国家利益。对子孙后代进行可持续发展科学教育是人类共同未来的一个关键问题。认识到这一主题的重要性，许多学院和大学已经建立或正在开发关于可持续发展科学的通识教育课程，每个学生都必须选修。该项目将通过开发和研究教育模块的有效性来改善本科生的STEM教育，这些模块让来自许多不同专业的学生参与可持续发展科学，并帮助他们应对主题的复杂性。它基于这样一个关键观察：知识图是一种新兴的以计算方式存储信息的方法，它提供了一种潜在的方法来跨越学科，一次一层地拆解复杂性。它们允许学生解决比传统技术更准确地代表可持续发展科学挑战的问题。该项目的贡献包括：(1)一种新的基于知识图谱的方法，以支持学生学习可持续发展科学的概念，解决了可持续发展教育领域的一个关键缺陷；(2)评估了这种方法在帮助学生学习可持续发展的关键概念方面的参与度和有效性；该项目的中心目标是评估三个核心研究问题：(1)基于知识图的教育模块能否帮助学生提高他们对领域内和跨领域的可持续发展概念的理解？(2)学生对共享知识图的贡献能否为以后的教学活动形成有用的基础？(3)学生能否通过他们的课程向全球公共知识图贡献准确和相关的可持续发展信息？该团队将通过开发一种新型的教育计算平台并将其部署到两所大学的2000多名学生中来研究这些问题。作为这项资助的一部分，该平台将使学生能够根据课程内容制作自己的知识图表，并将他们的图表与同龄人的图表结合起来，以及在修改集体图表的基础上完成进一步的活动。评估将包括对课程模块及其对学生学习的影响的定量和定性评估，以及对集体构建的图表的计算分析。NSF IUSE：EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生的STEM教育的有效性。通过参与的学生学习路径，该计划支持有前景的实践和工具的创建、探索和实施。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project aims to serve the national interest by improving sustainability science instruction and learning at a general education level for undergraduate students. Educating future generations about sustainability science is a critical problem for humanity’s collective future. Recognizing the importance of this topic, many colleges and universities have established or are developing general education courses on sustainability science that every student must take. This project will improve undergraduate STEM education by developing and studying the effectiveness of educational modules that engage students from many different majors with sustainability science and helping them grapple with the complexity of the topic. It is based on the key observation that knowledge graphs, an emerging means of storing information computationally, provide a potential way to span across disciplines and unpack complexity one layer at a time. They allow students to engage with problems that more accurately represent the challenges of sustainability science than traditional techniques. The contributions of the project include: (1) a new knowledge graph-based approach to supporting student learning of concepts in sustainability science that addresses a critical shortcoming in the sustainability education landscape; (2) assessments of this approach in terms of engagement and efficacy at helping students learn key concepts in sustainability; and (3) a publicly available computational scaffolding for this technique.The central goal of the project is to assess three core research questions: (1) Can knowledge graph-based educational modules help students improve their understanding of sustainability concepts within and across fields? (2) Can student contributions to a shared knowledge graph form a useful foundation for later pedagogical activities? (3) Can students contribute accurate and relevant sustainability information to a global, public knowledge graph through their coursework? The team will investigate these questions by developing a novel computational platform for education and deploying it with more than 2,000 students across two universities. The platform developed as part of this grant will enable students to make their own knowledge graphs based on course content and integrate their graphs with those of their peers, as well as complete further activities based on revising the collective graph. Assessment will involve both quantitative and qualitative evaluations of the course modules and their effect on student learning, as well as computational analyses of the collectively-constructed graph. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.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.