Stimulating Young Scientists To Engage, Motivate and Synthesize (SYSTEMS)

美国要在科学、技术、工程和数学领域进行全球竞争，必须在解决问题和提高青年思维能力方面取得巨大进步，必须鼓励更多代表性不足的少数民族学生在这些领域从事职业。该项目通过测试以下假设来解决学生管道开始时的这些问题，小学：科学素养和高阶思维技能的发展将增加三年级学生的基本生物概念，使用沉浸式，基于探究的数字学习环境，整合数学和英语和语言艺术学习目标。这将通过创建，现场测试，改进和评估互动，基于探究的数字学习环境来实现，学生在其中探索健康和疾病中身体系统的基本结构，功能和整合。为了让学生参与学习过程，3D模型，动画和嵌入式评估项目的组合将被纳入这些学习环境中，学生将探索健康猫的器官系统，然后是患有糖尿病的肥胖猫。在这样做的过程中，学生们不仅将接触到身体的正常组成部分，而且还将有机会亲眼目睹肥胖和糖尿病的有害影响。随着这些环境的发展，我们的团队将与教师合作伙伴一起创建可应用于学生数学和英语及语言艺术课程的课程材料。为了确定这种方法是否显着提高学生的成绩，自我效能和对科学的态度，我们将比较从使用传统方法教的学生相同数量的结果。在这个项目的前三年，当学习环境正在创建和实地测试，我们将涉及约150名本科理科学生在格鲁吉亚大学谁正在参加一个完善的科学推广伙伴关系计划，他们与小学教师在学校有高比例的代表性不足的少数民族学生。我们开发这些学习环境的精神如下：解决问题是一种技能，技能可以通过实践来磨练，解决问题和发展高阶思维技能的关键是科学实践。在这个为期五年的项目中，将有1 830名三年级学生和27名三年级教师参加，在设计这个项目时使用逻辑模型将确保适当的、可衡量的成果，这将大大增加目前关于技术对小学科学、数学、英语和语言艺术成就的影响的信息。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): For the US to compete globally in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, dramatic improvements must be made in the problem-solving and higher order thinking skills of our youth, and more under-represented minority students must be encouraged to pursue careers in these fields. This project addresses those issues at the beginning of the student pipeline, elementary school, by testing the following hypothesis: Scientific literacy and development of higher order thinking skills will increase in third grade students taught basic biological concepts using immersive, inquiry-based digital learning environments that integrate mathematics and English & language arts learning objectives. This will be achieved by creating, field-testing, refining and evaluating interactive, inquiry-based digital learning environments in which students explore the basic structure, function and integration of the body's systems in health and disease. To engage the students in the learning process, a combination of 3D models, animations and embedded assessment items will be incorporated into these learning environments, in which the students will explore the organ systems of a healthy cat and then an obese cat with diabetes. In doing so, the students will be exposed not only to normal components of the body, but also will have the opportunity to see first-hand the deleterious effects of obesity and diabetes. As these environments are developed, our team will work with the teacher partners to create curricular materials that can be applied to the students' mathematics and English & language arts lessons. To determine whether this approach significantly improves student performance, self-efficacy and attitudes towards science, we will compare the results obtained with those from an equal number of students taught using traditional methods. During the first three years of this project when the learning environments are being created and field-tested, we will involve approximately 150 undergraduate science students at the University of Georgia who are participating in a well-established science outreach partnership program in which they work with elementary school teachers in schools having high proportions of under-represented minority students. Our ethos for developing these learning environments is as follows: problem solving is a skill, skills can be honed through practice, and the keys to solving problems and developing higher order thinking skills are scientific practices. Over this five-year project, 1,830 third grae students and 27 third grade teachers will participate, and the use of a logic model in the design of this project will ensure appropriate, measurable outcomes that will add significantly to the paucity of information currently available regarding the effects of technology on achievement in science, mathematics, and English & language arts in elementary schools.