A framework for teaching biology using StarLogo TNG : from DNA to evolution

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2009.Includes bibliographical references (p. 65-66).This thesis outlines a 10-unit biology curriculum implemented in StarLogo TNG. The curriculum moves through units on ecology, the DNA-protein relationship, and evolution. By combining the three topics, it aims to highlight the similarities among different scales and the relationships between them. In particular, through the curriculum, students can see how small-scale changes in molecular processes can create large-scale changes in entire populations. In addition, the curriculum encourages students to engage in problembased learning, by which they are trained to approach questions creatively and independently.by Yaa-Lirng Tu.M.Eng

Rules of the Game: Effects of a Game-based Metaphor on Instructional Activity Design and the Use of Student Mentors on Learning Outcomes in a Middle School General Science Class

This study investigated the effects of a game-like environment on instructional activity design and the use of student mentors on learning outcomes in a middle school general science class. The participants for this study were 165 students, ages 13-14 years old, who were enrolled in 8th grade at a mid-Atlantic middle school. Two research questions were used to conduct the research:;1. Can science content be designed and successfully delivered instructionally using a game-like learning environment?;2. Does the use of student mentors/assistants help direct and maintain the flow of the class away from the technological issues toward the necessary learning outcomes while also increasing the science content understanding acquired by the mentors while also increasing class and student engagement?;For this study an introductory biology unit was designed using a game-like curricular structure. Student mentors were utilized in order to aid focus on the content and not the technology. The results indicated that the instructional design of the unit using a game-like environment was successful and students exhibited learning. The mentor students were instrumental in steering their fellow students away from the Siren\u27s Call of the instrument (in this case StarLogo) and enabled increased focus on the content.;Keywords: Trivial games, Serious Games, Epistemic Games, Student Mentors, StarLogo, Elaboration Theory

Creating a modeling culture : supporting the development of scientific practice among teachers

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2001.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 146-153).This thesis describes the processes of teacher learning and explores the associated changes that take place in classrooms. It describes the Adventures in Modeling Workshops, which we designed and created to introduce teachers to the process of conceptualizing, building, and analyzing their own models of complex, dynamic systems. The Workshops facilitate the growth of a modeling culture among teachers by giving them the tools and the ability to pose, investigate, and answer their own questions. This research examines the development, sustainability, and impact of that culture. It describes how participation in a modeling culture can contribute to a scientific way of thinking, for both teachers and their students, and can help teachers bring authentic science practice into high school classrooms. Employing technological tools developed at the Media Lab, we crafted an introduction to scientific modeling for teachers. These tools, used in concert with a constructionist pedagogy of design and creation, enable teachers to become full-fledged practitioners of modeling. Our workshop structure supports teachers as they learn to act as scientists, creating and exploring models of phenomena in the world around them, evaluating and critiquing those models, refining and validating their own mental models, and improving their understandings. This work serves as a proof of concept for a structure and methodology that increases teachers' individual capacities and helps them integrate aspects of their learning into their own classes. It examines the role that new media plays in supporting new ways of thinking and enabling explorations of new domains of knowledge. It also serves as a platform for examining the details of three components of educational change: 1) the development of technology-enabled materials and activities for teacher and student learning, 2) the construction of a scientific culture among teachers through learning about, gaining fluency with, and exploring modeling technologies, and 3) the paths toward implementation of new content and educational approaches in teachers' classrooms. The results of this project provide one benchmark for evaluating the potential that new ideas and technologies hold for facilitating lasting change in America's classrooms.Vanessa Stevens Colella.Ph.D

Network Clubhouse : a constructive learning environment for children

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1996.Includes bibliographical references (p. 95).by Lorne C. Shih.M.Eng

Languages of games and play: A systematic mapping study

Digital games are a powerful means for creating enticing, beautiful, educational, and often highly addictive interactive experiences that impact the lives of billions of players worldwide. We explore what informs the design and construction of good games to learn how to speed-up game development. In particular, we study to what extent languages, notations, patterns, and tools, can offer experts theoretical foundations, systematic techniques, and practical solutions they need to raise their productivity and improve the quality of games and play. Despite the growing number of publications on this topic there is currently no overview describing the state-of-the-art that relates research areas, goals, and applications. As a result, efforts and successes are often one-off, lessons learned go overlooked, language reuse remains minimal, and opportunities for collaboration and synergy are lost. We present a systematic map that identifies relevant publications and gives an overview of research areas and publication venues. In addition, we categorize research perspectives along common objectives, techniques, and approaches, illustrated by summaries of selected languages. Finally, we distill challenges and opportunities for future research and development

Computer microworld development adapted to children\u27s conceptions : a case study.

This research studied changes in ten middle school students\u27 scientific conceptions during interaction with a computer microworld designed adaptively for exploring phases of the moon. Following direct observations of lunar phenomena, five students participated in the development of the computer microworld. The researcher implemented software design requests from the students based on their real world and microworld experience. Five different students used the final revised microworld and provided additional feedback. All sessions were transcribed and analyzed. Evidence from this case study suggests that this constructionist activity was a good catalyst for inducing conceptual change in learners—especially the five who had considerable ownership in the software development. Implications for classroom teaching strategies and suggestions for future research are offered

Constructing Meanings by Designing Worlds: Digital Games as Participatory Platforms for Interest-Driven Learning and Creativity

This study emerges from the observation of an increasing divide between generations: a lack of a shared ground that carries profound social, cultural, and educational implications. In particular, the broadening differences between academic and “grassroots” approaches to learning and creativity are transforming formal and informal enterprises into seemingly incommunicable realms. This clash between different (and distant) practices, inside and outside of school, is inhibiting the construction of a common language between teachers and students, and, more broadly, between generations, thus hindering the development of any educational discourse. In this study I inquired into an online participatory space in order to advance our understanding on how its participants, driven by their interest for gaming and game design, discursively constructed learning and creativity. In particular, I looked into a community dedicated to designing, sharing, and critiquing digital game levels (i.e. “mini-games”) created with LittleBigPlanet (a digital game and creative tool for the PlayStation 3 game console) and discussed in the “Forum” section of the LittleBigPlanet Central website (www.lbpcentral.com). In this qualitative study I applied a hybrid intertextual methodology based on discourse analysis, studio critique, and design process analysis to analyze discursive texts (threads/posts in the discussion forum), interactive artifacts (user-generated game levels), and constructive practices (deigning, sharing, and critiquing game levels). The findings of this study show that participants socially construct and negotiate learning and creativity by enacting specific discursive functions that entail the use of humor and specialist language and the negotiation of effort and self-appreciation. By engaging in multimodal and intertextual practices in an attentive and competent community, users create a safe social space that fosters reciprocal trust, togetherness, participation, planning, and reflectivity. By furthering our understanding of a situated interest world, this research advances our knowledge on informal participatory spaces in which learning and creativity emerge as intertwined phenomena that develop through social-constructive endeavors that spur from people’s interests and passions

Narrative Threads: supporting young people in developing writing skills through narrative-based game creation

This thesis examines how narrative-based game creation can be used as an activity to improve writing skills for young people aged 11-15, and how additional representational support in a game creation tool can increase the benefits of the activity. Creating narrative-based games can involve traditional writing skills as well as requiring the 21st century skills of multimodal and interactive writing. Toolsets make it possible for young people to create 3D role-playing games with a commercial look and feel, but they do not provide support for the complex task of interactive and multimodal narrative creation. To investigate the desirable features of a tool that would support this task and the associated learning, an extensive learner-centred design process was conducted. This involved teachers and young people, and also incorporated relevant theory synthesised into a design model. A suite of tools, Narrative Threads, was designed and developed through an iterative process to provide the support highlighted as important. Two evaluative studies were conducted in different learning contexts; a secondary school and a vacation workshop. A mixed-methods approach was used to examine the overall potential for the activity to support writing skills development and the impact made by additional representational support. Comparative studies between groups showed some evidence that writing skills were improved for those taking part in game creation, and there were further benefits for groups using Narrative Threads in the workshop setting, but not in the school setting. Additionally, a multimodal analysis of the games created showed that many participants demonstrated a developing proficiency in using 3D graphical elements, text and sound to convey an interactive narrative. The findings indicate promise for the approach, although additional curricular and pedagogical support would be crucial if the potential is to be actualised in a classroom context

Models, Rules and Behaviours: Investigating Young Children’s Modelling Abilities Using an Educational Computer Program

A model can be built to represent aspects of the world establishing at the same time a world on its own. It might be considered in terms of its relation to the world or as an\ud artefact having an identity related to the nature and kind of the modelling tool used to make it. The present research focuses on models being built by a computer-based modelling tool called WorldMaker (WM), which allows models to be built in terms of objects and the actions they perform. It is intended to be accessible to younger pupils. Therefore, children from the last years of primary and the first years of secondary education (aged 10-14) participated in the research.\ud The research was carried out in three stages. The preliminary study aimed to explore children’s ability to use WM, as well as possibilities for the kinds of tasks that might be used with it. The first main study focused on rules, which define actions in WM, and their meaning for children. It mainly investigated children’s understanding, use and thinking about models in the form of WM rules. The second main study looked into children’s ability to think of situations in terms of structures as well as their\ud understanding about the relation between models and reality. Its primary concern was to find out if children think about situations presented as stories or computer\ud models in the ‘modelling’ way required by WM, that is, in terms of objects and the actions they perform. In the research tasks the children were called on to approach\ud the modelling process by creating or exploring a model, as well as by describing and explaining the formal behaviour of a model or interpreting the meaning of it.\ud It was found that the children were able to use WM as a modelling tool; they could represent actions in the form of a WM rule and they were able to think of situations\ud in terms of objects and actions. Besides, the relation between models and reality is an issue when young children are involved with the modelling process