VenomSquad: Building skills and interest in STEM with collaborative augmented reality

VenomSquad：通过协作增强现实培养 STEM 技能和兴趣

• 批准号: 10662084
• 负责人: Jessica Ochoa Hendrix
• 金额: $ 82.78万
• 依托单位: KILLER SNAILS LLC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-07-01 至 2024-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10662084
• 关键词: VenomSquad; Building; skills; interest; STEM

American students perform at a lower level and express less interest in STEM than students in other countries (Fayer et al., 2017). Additionally, Women, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), and people with disabilities are underrepresented as both students and professionals in STEM fields (Rotermund & Burke, 2021; Hamrick, 2021). To address the dire need to prepare students with key skills like communication and collaboration, and increase interest in health and medicine careers especially among BIPOC, Killer Snails, a science-focused educational technology company, will create VenomSquad, an augmented reality (AR) learning experience for 6-8th grade. We will foster an interest in STEM and future careers by creating an AR experience using mobile phones where students take on roles as scientists working collaboratively in teams to understand how venom can be used to make therapeutic drugs. VenomSquad will be a 5-day curriculum supplement that combines AR game play, an interactive web-based digital science journal that reflects student interactions, and an innovative assessment dashboard for educators which highlights student collaboration across platforms. In VenomSquad students will take on roles of scientists collaboratively solving a real-world problem: finding new, non-addictive pain therapies based on the venom of extreme creatures like snakes and cone snails. While the content we propose for VenomSquad is unique, the underlying technology and principles of multimedia design for learning are generalizable to other content areas. VenomSquad has three innovative features: (1)Technical advancements in collaborative mobile AR. The creation of VenomSquad will require new technical advancements (addressing bandwidth, latency, loss of connection) to ensure a high level of collaboration for the student teams using AR. (2)Multiplayer design engine. The proprietary design engine powering the digital science journal enables collaborative behaviors like communication and sharing resources between students with different information based on their roles, while maintaining common ground within the group. (3)Educator dashboard optimized for timely, contextual feedback. We will create an educator dashboard to display actionable learning analytics drawn from qualitative and quantitative information about individual student work and collaborative interactions between students in the digital science journal and the AR scenes. This display will highlight evidence of successful collaboration or the need for support from the educator. This feature of the dashboard will help educators assess each student and group’s AR and digital experience, addressing pain points for educators using collaborative activities in classroom settings. Taken together, these features ensure VenomSquad will be unlike existing Life/Physical Science materials on the market and will create a niche in which Killer Snails can grow. Our iterative approach to the design and testing of VenomSquad will examine how these features contribute to students’ learning experiences. Our evaluation partner WestEd will conduct an RCT examining the extent to which VenomSquad can affect students’ use of science and engineering practices, especially ability to effectively collaborate, and interest in STEM careers, and educators’ ability to monitor and support students during collaborative activities.

与其他国家的学生相比，美国学生的表现较低，对 STEM 的兴趣也较低 （Fayer 等人，2017）此外，女性、黑人、原住民和有色人种 (BIPOC) 以及残疾人。 STEM 领域的学生和专业人士的比例都不足（Rotermund & Burke，2021；Hamrick，2021）。 满足学生培养沟通和协作等关键技能的迫切需要，并提高他们的兴趣 健康和医学职业，尤其是 BIPOC、Killer Snails（一家专注于科学的教育技术公司） 将创建 VenomSquad，这是一种面向 6-8 年级的增强现实 (AR) 学习体验。 我们将通过使用手机创建 AR 体验来培养对 STEM 和未来职业的兴趣 学生扮演科学家的角色，通过团队合作来了解如何使用毒液 VenomSquad 将是一个为期 5 天的课程补充，结合了 AR 游戏、 基于网络的交互式数字科学期刊，反映学生的互动，以及创新的评估仪表板 强调学生跨平台协作的教育工作者在 VenomSquad 中，学生将扮演科学家的角色。 合作解决现实世界的问题：基于极端疼痛的毒液寻找新的、非成瘾性疼痛疗法 虽然我们为 VenomSquad 提出的内容是独一无二的，但其基础技术却很独特。 多媒体学习设计的原则可以推广到其他内容领域。 VenomSquad具有三大创新特点：（1）协作移动AR的技术进步。 VenomSquad 的创建将需要新的技术进步（解决带宽、延迟、连接丢失问题） 确保使用 AR 的学生团队的高水平协作。 (2) 专有设计引擎。 为数字科学期刊提供动力的引擎可实现沟通和共享资源等协作行为 学生之间根据各自的角色获得不同的信息，同时保持小组内的共同点。 (3)针对及时的上下文反馈而优化的教育者仪表板我们将创建一个教育者仪表板来显示。 可行的学习从有关个别学生作业的定性和定量信息中进行分析， 该展示将突出数字科学期刊和 AR 场景中学生之间的协作互动。 成功协作的证据或需要教育工作者的支持的证据将有所帮助。 教育工作者评估每个学生和小组的 AR 和数字体验，解决教育工作者的痛点 总而言之，这些功能确保 VenomSquad 与现有的不同。 市场上的生命/物理科学材料将为杀手蜗牛创造一个可以生长的利基市场。 我们设计和测试 VenomSquad 的迭代方法将检查这些功能如何有助于 我们的评估合作伙伴 WestEd 将进行随机对照试验，检查其程度。 VenomSquad 可以影响学生对科学和工程实践的使用，特别是有效协作的能力，以及 对 STEM 职业的兴趣，以及教育工作者在协作活动中监控和支持学生的能力。