Collaborative Research: Developing a Modeling Orientation to Science: Teaching and Learning Variability and Change in Ecosystems

合作研究：发展科学建模方向：教学和学习的变异性和生态系统的变化

• 批准号: 2010155
• 负责人: Alison Miller
• 金额: $ 51.52万
• 依托单位: Bowdoin College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-09-01 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2010155&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Developing; Modeling; Orientation

This project engages middle-school students in building and revising models of variability and change in ecosystems and studies the learning and instruction in these classroom contexts. Students construct and critique models that they and peers invent and – through the lens of models –develop foundational knowledge about the roles of variability and change in ecosystem functioning, as well as the roles of models and argumentation in scientific practice. The context for students’ work is a set of citizen science-based investigations of changes in ecosystems in Maine conducted in twelve collaborating classrooms. The project studies how and to what extent students’ use of different forms of modeling emerges from and informs how they investigate ecosystems. A parallel research effort investigates how and to what extent the development of teachers’ comfort and proficiency with modeling changes students’ engagement in these forms of modeling and students’ understandings of ecosystems. A key contribution of the project is capitalizing on the Gulf of Maine Research Institutes’s Ecosystem Investigation Network's citizen science field research to ground for middle school students the need to invent, revise, and contest models about real ecosystems. The understandings that result from the project’s research provide evidence toward first, scaling the learning experiences to the network of 500+ teachers who are part of the Ecosystem Investigation Network, and, second, replication by programs nationally that aim to engage students in data-rich, field-based ecological investigations.The investigation takes place in twelve collaborating middle-school classrooms, drawn from the network of 500+ Maine teachers trained in Maine's Ecosystem Investigation Network. Over the course of their field investigations, students engage in the construction, critique, and revision of three forms of modeling that play central roles in ecology: microcosms, system dynamics, and data modeling. Two innovations are introduced over the course of the project. The first is focused on enriching classroom supports for engaging in multiple forms of modeling. The second involves enhancing middle school teachers’ learning about modeling, especially in the context of large data citizen science investigations. The study uses a mixed methods approach to explore the impact of the innovations on the experiences and understandings of both teachers and students. Instruments include teacher interviews and questionnaires, student interviews, and classroom observation. The understandings that result from the project’s research will inform the design of professional development for teachers around data analysis and interpretation, and around how student understanding of modeling develops with sustained support, both of which are practices at the heart of scientific literacy. The Discovery Research preK-12 program (DRK-12) seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics by preK-12 students and teachers, through the research and development of new innovations and approaches. 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 the projects. This project is jointly funded by DRK-12 and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).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.

该项目吸引了中学生，以建立和修改生态系统的可变性和变化模型，并研究这些课堂环境中的学习和指示。学生和同伴发明的学生以及通过模型的镜头建立和关键模型 - 开发基础知识，了解可变性和生态系统功能的变化的作用，以及模型和论证在科学实践中的作用。学生工作的背景是一系列基于公民科学的投资，用于在十二个合作教室进行的缅因州生态系统变化。该项目研究了学生对不同形式的建模的方式以及在何种程度上介绍了他们如何研究生态系统的方式。一项平行的研究工作调查了教师的舒适度和熟练程度的发展如何以及在何种程度上改变了学生对这些形式的建模形式和学生对生态系统的理解的参与。该项目的一个主要贡献是利用缅因州研究机构的生态系统调查网络的公民科学领域研究，以使中学生的公民科学领域研究需要发明，修改和竞争有关真实生态系统的模型。该项目研究产生的理解提供了首先的证据，将学习经验扩展到500多个教师的网络，这些教师是生态系统调查网络的一部分，其次，在全国范围内复制，旨在使学生参与基于数据丰富的基于领域的生态投资。这项投资是在十二个中学教师中进行的，从事欧洲网络的十二次协作，在500多个网络中进行了培训，这是由500多个培训培训。在他们的现场投资过程中，学生从事构建，批判性和修订三种形式的建模，这些建模在生态学中起着核心作用：缩影，系统动力学和数据建模。在项目过程中引入了两项创新。第一个专注于丰富课堂支持，以参与多种形式的建模。第二个涉及增强中学教师对建模的学习，尤其是在大型数据公民科学调查的背景下。该研究使用一种混合方法来探索创新对教师和学生的经验和理解的影响。乐器包括教师访谈和问卷调查，学生访谈和课堂观察。该项目研究所产生的理解将为教师围绕数据分析和解释而设计的专业发展设计，以及学生如何理解对建模发展的持续支持，这两者都是科学文献核心的实践。 Discovery Research Prek-12计划（DRK-12）试图通过新的创新和方法的研究和开发来大大增强PreK-12学生和教师对科学，技术，工程和数学的学习和教学。 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，这些研究为项目提供了理论和经验的理由。该项目由DRK-12共同资助和启发竞争性研究的既定计划（EPSCOR）。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响审查标准，通过评估诚实地认为是诚实的支持。