Local Environmental Modeling: A Toolkit for Incorporating Place-Based Learning into Virtual Internships - A Scalable, Informal STEM Learning Environment

本地环境建模：将本地学习融入虚拟实习的工具包 - 可扩展的非正式 STEM 学习环境

• 批准号: 1713110
• 负责人: David Shaffer
• 金额: $ 199.97万
• 依托单位: University of Wisconsin-Madison
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-09-01 至 2021-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1713110&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Local; Environmental; Modeling; Toolkit; Incorporating

In this project, education researchers, environmental scientists, and educators will develop a computer tool to let STEM educators and curriculum developers build local environmental science models. The system will use data about land use to automatically construct map-based simulations of any area in the United States. Users will be able to choose from a range of environmental and economic issues to include in these models. The system will create simulations that ask students to change to patterns of land use -- for example, increasing land zoned for housing, or open land, or industrial development -- to try to meet environmental and social goals. As a result, students will be able to learn about the interaction of environmental and economic issues relevant to their own city, town, neighborhood, or region. These map-based simulations will be incorporated into an existing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education tool, Land Science, in which learners work in a fictional planning office to study how zoning affects economic and environmental issues in a community. Research has shown that Land Science is mode effective when learners are exploring issues in an area near their home, and the current study will investigate how and why local simulations improve environmental science learning. This project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program which supports work to enhance learning in informal environments by funding innovative research, approaches, and resources for use in a variety of settings. In this project, the research team will build, test, and deploy a toolkit that will allow informal STEM educators and developers of informal STEM programming to easily adapt an existing environmental science learning environment, which consists of a place-based virtual internship in urban planning and ecology, to their local contexts, learning objectives, and learner populations. Land Science is a virtual internship in which young people explore the environmental and socio-economic impacts of land-use decisions. To do so, they play the role of interns at an urban planning firm developing a new land-use proposal for the city of Lowell, Massachusetts: they read reports, virtually visit sites, determine stakeholder priorities, and use a geographic information system (GIS) model to evaluate the socio-economic and environmental impacts of land-use choices. No one plan can satisfy all stakeholders, so learners must compromise to create an effective plan and justify their decisions. Land Science has been shown to improve civic engagement, interest in eco-social issues, and understanding of scientific models, but it is most effective when the location of the virtual internship is in or near the learners' home town. To improve the accessibility and impact of this effective learning intervention, the interdisciplinary research team, which includes learning scientists, land-use experts, and informal STEM educators, will develop a Local Environmental Modeling toolkit, which will allow educators to change the location of the simulation and the stakeholder groups, zoning codes, and environmental and socio-economic indicators included in the land-use model. The system will ensure that the model produced is functional, realistic, and appropriately complex. The localized versions of Land Science produced by informal STEM educators will be used in a range of contexts and locations, allowing the research team to study the effects of an online, place-based learning intervention on environmental science learning, STEM interest and motivation, and civic engagement.

在这个项目中，教育研究人员，环境科学家和教育工作者将开发一种计算机工具，以使STEM教育者和课程开发人员建立本地环境科学模型。该系统将使用有关土地用途的数据自动构建美国任何区域的基于地图的模拟。用户将能够从一系列环境和经济问题中进行选择，以包括这些模型。该系统将创建模拟，要求学生更改土地使用模式，例如，增加了用于住房，开放土地或工业发展的土地，以尝试实现环境和社会目标。结果，学生将能够了解与自己的城市，城镇，邻里或地区有关的环境和经济问题的相互作用。这些基于地图的模拟将纳入现有的科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）教育工具，土地科学，其中学习者在虚构的计划办公室工作，以研究分区如何影响社区中的经济和环境问题。研究表明，当学习者正在探索他们家附近地区的问题时，土地科学是有效的，当前的研究将研究当地模拟如何以及为什么改善环境科学学习。该项目是由前进的非正式STEM学习计划（AISL）资助的，该计划通过为在各种环境中使用创新的研究，方法和资源提供资金来支持在非正式环境中增强学习的工作。在该项目中，研究团队将建立，测试和部署一个工具包，该工具包将允许非正式的STEM教育者和非正式STEM编程的开发人员轻松适应现有的环境科学学习环境，该环境科学学习环境包括基于地方的城市规划和生态学的虚拟实习，对当地的环境，学习目标和学习目标和学习者的种群。土地科学是一种虚拟实习，年轻人探索土地利用决策的环境和社会经济影响。为此，他们在一家城市规划公司中扮演实习生的角色，为马萨诸塞州洛厄尔市开发了一项新的土地利用建议：他们阅读报告，几乎访问网站，确定利益相关者的优先级，并使用地理信息系统（GIS）模型来评估土地用途选择的社会经济和环境影响。没有一个计划能够满足所有利益相关者，因此学习者必须妥协以制定有效的计划并证明他们的决定是合理的。已显示土地科学可以改善公民参与，对生态社会问题的兴趣以及对科学模型的理解，但是当虚拟实习的位置在学习者的家乡或附近，这是最有效的。为了改善这种有效学习干预的可及性和影响，包括学习科学家，土地使用专家和非正式STEM教育者在内的跨学科研究团队将开发当地的环境建模工具包，这将使教育工作者能够更改模拟的位置和利益相关者群体，以及分区和环境和社会经济指标中的模型。该系统将确保生成的模型功能，现实且适当复杂。非正式STEM教育者生产的局部土地科学版本将在一系列环境和地点使用，从而使研究团队能够研究基于地方的学习干预对环境科学学习，STEM兴趣和动机以及公民参与的影响。

项目成果

Zone It! A mobile application for practice- and place-based learning

区域它！

• 发表时间: 2019
• 期刊: Learning Sciences Graduate Student Conference
• 作者: Siebert-Evenstone, A;Swiecki, Z;Eagan, B;Sung, H;Brohinsky, J;Fogel, A;Wang, Y;Shaffer, D.W
• 通讯作者: Shaffer, D.W

Localizing Socio-Environmental Problem Solving

本地化社会环境问题解决

• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: Computersupported collaborative learning
• 作者: Ruis, A. R.;Siebert Evenstone, A. L.;Brohinsky, J.;Tan, Y.;Hinojosa, C.;Cai, Z.;Marquart, C.;Lark, T.;Barford, C.;Shaffer, D. W.
• 通讯作者: Shaffer, D. W.

Accuracy, Bias, and Improvements in Mapping Crops and Cropland across the United States Using the USDA Cropland Data Layer

• DOI: 10.3390/rs13050968
• 发表时间: 2021-03-01
• 期刊: REMOTE SENSING
• 影响因子: 5
• 作者: Lark, Tyler J.;Schelly, Ian H.;Gibbs, Holly K.
• 通讯作者: Gibbs, Holly K.

Understanding when students are active-in-thinking through modeling-in-context

通过情境建模了解学生何时积极思考

• 发表时间: 2019
• 期刊: British journal of educational technology
• 影响因子: 6.6
• 作者: Swiecki, Z;Ruis, A. R;Gautam, D;Rus, V;Shaffer, D.W.
• 通讯作者: Shaffer, D.W.

Location, location, location: The effects of place in place-based simulations

位置，位置，位置：基于地点的模拟中地点的影响

• 发表时间: 2019
• 期刊: and Embedded Learning in Collaborative Settings:13th International Conference on Computer Supported Collaborative Learning
• 作者: Siebert-Evenstone, A. L;Shaffer, D. W.
• 通讯作者: Shaffer, D. W.