Exploration-Driven Online Science Education: Habitable Worlds 2.0

探索驱动的在线科学教育：宜居世界 2.0

• 批准号: 1225741
• 负责人: Ariel Anbar
• 金额: $ 59.89万
• 依托单位: Arizona State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-01-01 至 2019-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1225741&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Exploration; Driven; Online; Science; Education

Society's response to climate change and many other challenges hinges on public understanding that science is not a body of facts and certainties in tidy disciplines, but rather a process of reasoning which often crosses disciplines and which narrows the uncertainties of knowledge. Unfortunately, the way science is taught to non-science students at most large universities tends to reinforce misconceptions. For example, many students satisfy their general science requirement in very large introductory lecture courses based on traditional disciplines. While some of these courses are excellent, they often emphasize facts rather than scientific reasoning. Lectures are often supplemented by laboratories to address this gap. However, when class sizes reach the hundreds, laboratories often feature scripted "cookbook" activities that do not teach students to reason scientifically.In this project, the investigators are deploying and assessing a large-enrollment undergraduate general education science course that places scientific reasoning and multidisciplinary perspectives at the heart of the experience. This model is possible because of developments in online, computer-assisted education (cyberlearning). The project builds on Arizona State University's semester-long "Habitable Worlds" course, which is organized around the search for intelligent life beyond Earth. Motivated by the question "Are we alone?" students explore key science concepts from astronomy to sustainability using online tutorials that employ interactive simulations and immersive, media-rich "virtual field trips" (VFTs). Video lectures are embedded in the tutorials, but as scaffolding rather than as centerpieces. The tutorials utilize an intelligent software platform that responds adaptively to student input--essentially, a virtual tutor--and collects data on students' actions and inputs useful for learning research and course development. Such platforms that can be programmed by the instructor are now becoming commercially available. The investigators' thesis is that for large student populations this model is superior to conventional lecture-based online and face-to-face courses."Habitable Worlds" was piloted in Fall 2011 and will have been offered to about 800 ASU students online by the end of Fall 2012. In this project, the investigators, in collaboration with Maricopa Community College District (MCCD) faculty, are deploying and assessing a new version, "Habitable Worlds 2.0," which is optimized to scale to even larger and more diverse student populations. In this revised course, tutorials follow a learning progression from less to more mathematically involved, and are better aligned with K-12 education standards for pre-service teachers enrolled in ASU's Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College (MLFTC). Data collected by the tutoring platform is being used for research on student problem-solving. The investigators are also comparing the effectiveness of VFTs to physical field trips and are rigorously evaluating course effectiveness using both formative and summative methods.Because of the size of ASU and MCCD, this project could have far-reaching effects on undergraduate science education nationwide. Because "Habitable Worlds 2.0" is part of the redesigned teacher preparation program at MLFTC, which is one of the largest teacher preparation programs in the United States, the project is also likely to have a broad impact on K-12 education.

社会对气候变化的反应以及许多其他挑战取决于公众理解，科学不是整洁学科中的事实和确定性的体系，而是一种经常跨越学科并缩小知识不确定性的推理过程。不幸的是，在大多数大型大学中，向非科学学生讲授科学的方式往往会加剧误解。例如，许多学生在基于传统学科的非常大型的介绍课程中满足他们的一般科学要求。尽管其中一些课程非常出色，但它们通常强调事实而不是科学推理。实验室通常会补充讲座，以解决这一差距。但是，当班级大小达到数百个时，实验室通常会采用脚本的“食谱”活动，这些活动不教学生科学推理。在该项目中，研究人员正在部署和评估大型注册本科通识教育科学课程，这些课程将科学推理和多学科观点授予这项经验的核心。由于在线，计算机辅助教育（网络学习）的发展是可能的。该项目以亚利桑那州立大学为学期的“可居住世界”课程为基础，该课程围绕着地球以外的智能生活而组织。受到“我们一个人吗？”的问题的动机。学生使用在线教程探索从天文学到可持续性的关键概念，这些教程采用交互式模拟和沉浸式，媒体丰富的“虚拟实地考察”（VFTS）（VFTS）。视频讲座嵌入了教程中，但作为脚手架而不是作为核心。这些教程利用了一个智能软件平台，该平台对学生的意见进行适应性响应 - 基本上是虚拟导师 - 并收集有关学生的行为和输入的数据，可用于学习研究和课程发展。可以由讲师编程的这样的平台现在已成为商业上可用。调查人员的论文是，对于大型学生人群，该模型优于基于传统的在线和面对面的课程。“可居住的世界”于2011年秋季进行了试验，并将在2012年秋季在网上向约800名ASU学生提供。优化以扩展到更大，更多样化的学生人数。在经过修订的课程中，教程遵循从较少数学上涉及的学习进步，并且与入学的ASU玛丽·卢·富尔顿教师学院（MLFTC）的职前教师的K-12教育标准更好地保持一致。辅导平台收集的数据正在用于研究学生问题的研究。研究人员还将VFT的有效性与物理野外旅行进行比较，并使用形成性和总结方法严格评估课程有效性。由于ASU和MCCD的规模，该项目可能会对全国的本科科学教育产生深远的影响。因为“可居住的世界2.0”是MLFTC重新设计的教师准备计划的一部分，该计划是美国最大的教师准备计划之一，因此该项目也可能对K-12教育产生广泛影响。