Supporting Secondary Students’ Earth Science Knowledge and Engineering Design Skills with Mobile Design Studios

今天的年轻人面临着一个充满挑战的未来，包括获得清洁水、生物多样性日益丧失和气候变化。这些挑战尤其棘手，因为根本问题要么是结构不良的，要么是可以通过多种方式感知的。应对这些棘手的地球科学挑战将需要创造性的解决方案，这就是为什么Mobile Design Studio项目专注于整合科学和工程内容。在这个为期四年的项目中，研究团队将创造一个以计算机为媒介的设计环境，使7-10年级的学生能够协作探索、建立联系、产生和评估应对环境科学挑战的设计想法。该项目的一个独特之处在于，它使用了依赖于设计启发式的人工智能(AI)设计导师，这是一种基于研究的创造力工具，引导学生探索想法，并从学生的设计过程中“学习”，以更好地帮助他们。该项目将考察学生对科学和工程的看法，他们整合学术和个人或社区知识的能力，他们从事工程工作的信心，以及他们的设计思维。该项目将利用前端工程设计工作(即，从事问题定义和解决方案探索)来支持中学生在地球科学、工程设计和社会科学学科技能和内容的交汇点学习。此外，研究地球和环境科学教师和他们的学生如何与人工智能设计导师接触，解决了教师对工程学熟悉度低的持续挑战，并推动了人类技术前沿的研究。该小组将使用混合方法，测试学生的设计思维、工程设计自我效能、对科学和工程的认知和兴趣，以及他们对科学、工程和个人/社区知识的整合。数据来源包括课堂观察、学生设计人工制品、学生在平台上的行动(例如，编辑队友的设计概念)和前后调查。分析方法包括归纳编码、学习分析、序列分析和数据可视化。项目评估将检查团队如何规划、交付和迭代增强MODS平台(例如，AI导师、前端设计活动)、课堂课程(由项目团队和教师创建)、专业发展和其他项目支持材料。该项目的工作将通过工程教育和科学教育领域的会议和期刊分享。研究结果、教师和学校反馈以及项目反思也将通过布法罗大学工程学院外展办公室的大学和拥有4.6万订阅者网络的@Concord时事通讯，与学校领导和教师分享。在最后一年，该小组将在国家和地方各级举办面向公众的迷你研讨会，教授使用创新技术的工程设计。一个专门的网站将免费提供所有设计挑战、教学指南、教程视频和教师和学生提示。该项目由发现研究预科-12项目(DRK-12)资助，该项目旨在通过研究和开发创新资源、模型和工具，显著提高预科-12学生和教师在科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)方面的学习和教学。 -12计划中的项目建立在STEM教育的基础研究和先前的研究和开发工作的基础上，为拟议的项目提供了理论和经验上的证明。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。

Today’s youth face a future riddled with challenges, including access to clean water, increasing biodiversity loss, and climate change. These challenges are particularly thorny because the underlying problems are either ill-structured or can be perceived in multiple ways. Addressing these thorny Earth science challenges will require creative solutions, which is why the Mobile Design Studio project focuses on integrating science and engineering content. In the four-year project, the research team will create a computer-mediated design environment that enables students in grades 7-10 to collaboratively explore, make connections, generate, and evaluate design ideas that address environmental science challenges. A unique feature of the project is its use of an artificial intelligent (AI) design mentor that relies on Design Heuristics, a research-based creativity tool that guides students through exploration of ideas and “learns” from students’ design processes to better assist them. The project will examine students’ perceptions of science and engineering, their ability to integrate academic and personal or community knowledge, their confidence for engaging in engineering, and their design thinking. This project will use front-end engineering design work (i.e., engaging in problem definition and solution exploration) to support secondary students’ learning at the intersection of Earth science, engineering design, and socio-scientific disciplinary skills and content. Further, studying how Earth and environmental science teachers and their students engage with the AI design mentor addresses the ongoing challenge of low teacher familiarity with engineering and advances research at the human-technology frontier. Using mixed methods, the team will examine students’ design thinking, engineering design self-efficacy, perceptions of and interests in science and engineering and their integration of scientific, engineering, and personal/community knowledge. Data sources include classroom observation, student design artifacts, student actions in the platform (e.g., editing a teammate’s design concept) and pre/post surveys. Analytic methods include inductive coding, learning analytics, sequence analysis and data visualization. The project evaluation will examine how the team plans, delivers, and iteratively enhances the MODS platform (e.g., AI mentor, front-end design activities), class lessons (created by the project team and teachers), professional development, and other project support materials. The project’s work will be shared through conferences and journals in the engineering education and science education fields. Research findings, teacher and school feedback, and project reflections will also be shared with school leaders and teachers through the University at Buffalo’s College of Engineering Outreach Office and through the biannual @Concord newsletter, which has 46,000 subscriber network. In the final year, the team will hold public-facing, mini-workshops on teaching engineering design with innovative technology at the national and local levels. A dedicated website will make all design challenges, instructional guides, tutorial videos, and teacher and student tips, freely available. This project is funded by the Discovery Research preK-12 program (DRK-12), which seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models and tools. Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects. 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.