Collaborative Research: Developing an Online Game to Teach Middle School Students Science Research Practices in the Life Sciences

合作研究：开发一款在线游戏来教授中学生生命科学领域的科学研究实践

• 批准号: 1907437
• 负责人: Ryan Baker
• 金额: $ 44.7万
• 依托单位: University of Pennsylvania
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-07-01 至 2024-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1907437&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Developing; Online; Game

The project will develop and research AquaLab 9, an online video game to engage middle school students in learning science research practices in life sciences content. By engaging in science research practices, students will develop intellectual skills that link directly to many state academic standards and are important for developing Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) literacy and pursuing STEM career pathways. Learners will take on the role of a scientist working at an ocean-floor research station, cut off from the surface due to a catastrophe. They must identify problems, design experiments, create models, and argue from evidence to lead the station to survival. Learners will be challenged with highly relevant, contemporary issues such as waste management, energy use/production/storage, and ecological sustainability in the setting of a fantastical story. Designed for Grades 5-8, the game will be playable in 30-minute segments and will work on Chromebooks and tablet computers. The game will involve 40 educators in a yearlong fellowship where they will become co-designers, steer the project to serve the diverse students they represent, learn about games in education, facilitate playtests in their classrooms, and report their experiences to peers. The resulting game, in English and Spanish, will be utilized by at least 162,000 students by the end of the project and hundreds of thousands more after the project is completed. The project will broaden access through digital distribution and minimal technology requirements, which will create a low-cost opportunity for students to engage in science practices, even in schools where time, equipment, or expertise are not available. Learning progressions are the steps that students go through when they are learning about a topic. The project will research how learning progressions can provide a framework for educational game design. These progressions will be empirically derived from large audience game play data. The game can thus be designed to create personalized interventions for students to improve learning outcomes. Project research will use an approach called stealth assessment, which analyzes data from students' game behavior without requiring a disruption or intervention in the game activities. This project will use this approach for developing empirically validated understandings of how different students develop their science practices. Based on this research, the game will be revised to improve student learning by providing individualized feedback to each student.The Discovery Research K-12 program (DRK-12) 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.

该项目将开发和研究Aqualab 9，这是一种在线视频游戏，旨在吸引中学生学习生命科学内容中的科学研究实践。通过从事科学研究实践，学生将发展智力技能，这些技能直接与许多州的学术标准联系起来，对于发展科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）识字和追求STEM职业途径至关重要。 学习者将扮演在海底研究站工作的科学家的角色，该研究站因灾难而从表面切断。他们必须确定问题，设计实验，创建模型，并从证据中争论以带领车站生存。在一个奇妙的故事的环境中，学习者将面临高度相关的当代问题，例如废物管理，能源使用/生产/存储和生态可持续性。该游戏专为5 - 8年级而设计，可在30分钟的细分市场中使用，并将在Chromebook和平板电脑上工作。该游戏将在为期一年的奖学金中涉及40名教育工作者，他们将成为共同设计者，引导该项目为他们代表的多元化学生提供服务，了解教育中的游戏，促进课堂上的Playtests，并向同伴报告他们的经验。在项目结束时，将至少有162,000名学生使用英语和西班牙语的游戏，在项目完成后数十万。 该项目将通过数字分销和最少的技术要求扩大访问权限，这将为学生创造一个低成本的机会，即使在没有时间，设备或专业知识的学校中也可以从事科学实践。 学习进度是学生学习主题时要采取的步骤。该项目将研究学习进步如何为教育游戏设计提供框架。这些进步将从大型受众群游戏数据中得出。因此，可以设计游戏以为学生创建个性化的干预措施，以改善学习成果。 项目研究将使用一种称为隐形评估的方法，该方法可以分析学生游戏行为的数据，而无需干预或干预游戏活动。该项目将使用这种方法来发展对不同学生如何发展科学实践的经验验证的理解。基于这项研究，将通过向每个学生提供个性化的反馈来修订游戏以改善学生的学习。发现研究K-12计划（DRK-12）试图通过PreK-12学生和老师的创新资源，模型和工具的研究和开发。 DRK-12计划中的项目基于STEM教育和先前的研发工作的基础研究，为拟议项目提供了理论和经验的理由。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的审查标准通过评估来进行评估的。