Supporting Feedback Loop Learning in Natural and Social Science Courses

该项目旨在通过提高本科生理解复杂系统的能力，以及这些系统可能如何被“影响”以达到理想的结果，从而服务于国家利益。该项目的重点是反馈回路，这是一个系统，在这个系统中，最初的行动会触发一系列影响，这些影响要么放大，要么抵消最初的行动。反馈回路驱动许多重要的自然系统和工程系统。它们可能会促进生长/衰退/不稳定(如在大流行疾病传播、核连锁反应或环境变化中)或稳定性(如在汽车的巡航控制系统或捕食者/猎物系统中)。随着反馈循环思维变得越来越普遍，社会将在不同的环境中受益。例如，每次一个人能够辨别出他们可能陷入了一个破坏性的反馈环路并制定了一条出路；或者每次一个领导者使用反馈环路思维为一个令人担忧的情况带来稳定；或者每次一个专业人士使用反馈环路思维来催化增长以实现理想的结果。这是一个1级项目，在国际教育、科学及文化组织的学生参与学习轨道上，解决让所有本科生都能接触到反馈循环思维的挑战。该项目的学习目标是，当学生在不熟悉的环境中遇到反馈循环时，他们将能够识别反馈循环，并使用反馈循环思维来解释、预测和改进他们关心的系统的行为。一个跨学科团队将设计、开发和现场测试一套六个迷你课程，这些课程可以适用于目前至少教授一个反馈循环的任何本科课程。这些课程旨在将学生从理解一个反馈环路作为一门课程中一个现象的解释机制，提升到掌握反馈环路作为适用于多个学科的可概括的解释策略。最初的教学材料的试验台是心理学、种族和性别研究、环境科学和神经解剖学课程。为了评估第一个学习目标(在不熟悉的环境中识别反馈环路)，项目组正在开发和验证一种新的工具，在该工具中，参与者阅读简短的叙述，并说明每个短文是或不是一个积极或负面的反馈环路。第二个学习目标将通过每节课的学生产品和教师在每节课后的反思日记进行评估。外部咨询委员会将通过一年两次的会议，就该项目的学术价值和更广泛的影响提供评价指导。该项目产生的见解和材料将通过为教育工作者举办的讲习班和网络研讨会以及通过一个广泛使用的网络门户网站传播，该门户网站提供和审查本科生教学资源。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 undergraduates’ ability to understand complex systems and how such systems may be "influenced" towards desirable outcomes. The project focuses on feedback loops, which are systems in which an initial action triggers a chain of influences that either amplifies or counteracts the initial action. Feedback loops drive many important natural and engineered systems. They may foster growth/decay/instability (as in pandemic disease spread, nuclear chain reactions, or environmental change) or stability (as in a car’s cruise control system or a predator/prey system). As feedback loop thinking becomes more common, society will benefit in different settings. For example, each time an individual is able to discern that they may be trapped in a damaging feedback loop and strategize a way out; or each time a leader uses feedback loop thinking to bring stability to a fraught situation; or each time a professional uses feedback loop thinking to catalyze growth towards a desirable outcome. This is a Level 1 project, in the IUSE Engaged Student Learning Track, tackling the challenge of making feedback loop thinking accessible to all undergraduates. The project's learning goals are that students will be able to recognize feedback loops when they encounter them in an unfamiliar context, and use feedback loop thinking to explain, predict and improve the behavior of systems they care about. An interdisciplinary team will design, develop, and field test a suite of six mini-lessons that can be adapted for any undergraduate course in which at least one feedback loop is currently being taught. These lessons aim to elevate students from understanding one feedback loop as an explanatory mechanism for one phenomenon in one course, to grasping feedback loops as a generalizable explanatory strategy applicable across multiple disciplines. Test beds for the initial instructional materials are in psychology, race and gender studies, environmental science, and neuroanatomy courses. To assess the first learning goal (recognize feedback loops in unfamiliar context), the project team is developing and validating a new instrument, in which participants read short narratives and state whether each is or is not a positive or negative feedback loop. The second learning goal will be assessed via student products from each lesson and instructors’ reflective journaling after teaching each lesson. An external Advisory Board will provide evaluative guidance on both the intellectual merit and the broader impacts of the project through twice-yearly meetings. Insights and materials emerging from the project will be disseminated by workshops and webinars for educators, and through a widely-used web-based portal that serves and reviews undergraduate instructional resources. 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.