11 research outputs found
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Exploring Ecosystems from the Inside: How Immersive Multi-user Virtual Environments Can Support Development of Epistemologically Grounded Modeling Practices in Ecosystem Science Instruction
Recent reform efforts and the next generation science standards emphasize the importance of incorporating authentic scientific practices into science instruction. Modeling can be a particularly challenging practice to address because modeling occurs within a socially structured system of representation that is specific to a domain. Further, in the process of modeling, experts interact deeply with domain-specific content knowledge and integrate modeling with other scientific practices in service of a larger investigation. It can be difficult to create learning experiences enabling students to engage in modeling practices that both honor the position of the novice along a spectrum toward more expert understanding and align well with the practices and reasoning used by experts in the domain. In this paper, we outline the challenges in teaching modeling practices specific to the domain of ecosystem science, and we present a description of a curriculum built around an immersive virtual environment that offers unique affordances for supporting student engagement in modeling practices. Illustrative examples derived from pilot studies suggest that the tools and context provided within the immersive virtual environment helped support student engagement in modeling practices that are epistemologically grounded in the field of ecosystem science
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EcoMOBILE – Designing for contextualized STEM learning using mobile technologies and augmented reality
The ubiquity of mobile technologies can unlock new opportunities for “anytime, anywhere” learning, and some argue that portable mobile platforms will inherently lead to more contextualized learning experiences. However, the meaning of contextualization and how to achieve it in mobile designs bears further examination, as the greater the level of contextualization, the more difficult it may be to scale mobile designs. Context is a product of the interaction among learners, the personal, social and physical resources at hand, and mobile technologies. We examine how, through the affordances of mobile technologies, designers might emphasize different aspects of social and physical context in order to support learning. In particular, augmented reality enables students to interact—via mobile wireless devices—with virtual information, visualizations, and simulations superimposed on real-world physical landscapes.
The EcoMOBILE activity considered here involved student participation in an outdoor field trip near their school using mobile broadband devices running augmented reality software. We present a case study highlighting two designs focused on a similar middle- grades science learning goal of exploring the local watershed – a place-dependent, collaborative design (“Take a Tour”) and a place-independent, individual design (“Follow the Flow”). We implemented these designs with two different teachers each with four classes of students. We present detailed comparison of the design logic and features of each experience, and a summary of feedback from interviews and student focus groups with attention to feelings of contextualization, engagement and support for learning. Our results showed little difference in student comments related to the contextualization of the experience, which suggests that carefully constructed, yet minimalist designs may support a perception of contextualization that comes from the perspective of the user rather than from the device. A place-independent mobile learning experience may, with minimal modification, be used in a location other than the one in which it was designed, and may still have positive effects on feelings of contextualization, engagement and support for learning among participants
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Teacher Perceptions of the Practicality and Effectiveness of Immersive Ecological Simulations as Classroom Curricula
Recent research with Multi-User Virtual Environments (MUVEs) in education has shown that these platforms can be effective and engaging for students; however, educators and administrators have practical concerns about the adoption of MUVE-based curricula. This study looks at implementations of EcoMUVE, a MUVE-based curriculum designed to support middle school learning of ecosystem concepts and processes. Research questions looked at teacher perceptions of the curriculum’s implementation feasibility, alignment with curricular objectives and standards, and perceived value. Results showed that EcoMUVE was very well-received, and technical issues were manageable. Teachers felt the curriculum was effective, aligned well with standards, and compared favorably with a non-MUVE alternative. Particular technological and curriculum features that contributed to EcoMUVE’s perceived value included student-directed learning, an inquiry, role-based pedagogy, immersion in the virtual environment, and the ease of collecting and comparing data with graphs
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Atom tracker: Designing a mobile augmented reality experience to support instruction about cycles and conservation of matter in outdoor learning environments
We describe a mobile augmented reality (AR) experience called Atom Tracker designed to help middle school students better understand the cycling of matter in ecosystems with a focus on the concept of conservation of matter and the processes of photosynthesis and respiration. Location-based AR allows students to locate virtual "hotspots," where they interact with multiple representations including vision-based AR animations of virtual atoms during ecological processes such as photosynthesis and physical LEGO® -based representations of molecules. This design case describes the design rationale, the iterative design process, the context for implementation, and reflections on the success and limitations of the Atom Tracker AR experience. An augmented reality interface was chosen due to theoretical support for its utility in supporting interaction with multiple representations (both physical and virtual) of atoms and molecules, the ability to condense and expand temporal and spatial scales associated with ecological processes, and its ability to explicitly situate these representations in real-world contexts that could support learning. Two significant design challenges that we recognized were (a) appropriately leveraging narrative, student engagement and agency when designing around the topic of atoms and molecules, which are inanimate and invisible; and (b) designing for engagement with both virtual and physical resources available during the experience
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Using Mobile Location-Based Augmented Reality to Support Outdoor Learning in Undergraduate Ecology and Environmental Science Courses
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EcoMOBILE: Integrating augmented reality and probeware with environmental education field trips
Positioned in the context of situated learning theory, the EcoMOBILE project combines an augmented reality (AR) experience with use of environmental probeware during a field trip to a local pond environment. Activities combining these two technologies were designed to address ecosystem science learning goals for middle school students, and aid in their understanding and interpretation of water quality measurements. The intervention was conducted with five classes of sixth graders from a northeastern school district as a pilot study for the larger EcoMOBILE project, and included pre-field trip training, a field trip to a local pond environment, and post-field trip discussions in the classroom.
During the field experience, students used mobile wireless devices with FreshAiR™, an augmented reality application, to navigate the pond environment and to observe virtual media and information overlaid on the physical pond. This AR experience was combined with probeware, in that students collected water quality measurements at designated AR hotspots during the experience. We studied the characteristics of learning and instruction using measures of student attitudes, content learning gains, and opinions teachers provided via written and verbal feedback. We observed gains in student affective measures and content understanding following the intervention. Teachers reported that the combined technologies promoted student interaction with the pond and with classmates in a format that was student-centered rather than teacher-directed. Teachers also reported that students demonstrated deeper understanding of the principles of water quality measurement than was typical on prior field trips without these technologies and that students had expanded opportunities to engage in activities that resemble scientific practice. Overall, results of the students' surveys and teacher feedback suggest that there are multiple benefits to using this suite of technologies for teaching and for learning
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Turning Transfer Inside Out: The Affordances of Virtual Worlds and Mobile Devices in Real World Contexts for Teaching About Causality Across Time and Distance in Ecosystems
Reasoning about ecosystems includes consideration of causality over temporal and spatial distances; yet learners typically focus on immediate time frames and local contexts. Teaching students to reason beyond these boundaries has met with some success based upon tests that cue students to the types of reasoning required. Virtual worlds offer an opportunity to assess what students actually do in a simulated context. Beyond this, mobile devices make it possible to scaffold and assess learning in the real world. Situating learning outside, in the target contexts, bypasses many of the challenges of transfer. A study investigated the learning of fifth and sixth graders (n = 38) while they used a virtual world called EcoMUVE, designed to support learning of ecosystems concepts and complex causal dynamics, and mobile broadband device (MBDs) components, designed to assess and support learning and transfer in a real pond ecosystem. The experiences of two classes were contrasted as reference populations; one class participated in the MBD experience first, followed by the learning components in EcoMUVE; the other participated in EcoMUVE first, followed by the MBD components. Rich and triangulated data was collected to illuminate how students experienced and responded to the curriculum components. Both classes made learning gains in EcoMUVE. Students who completed EcoMUVE prior to their MBD experience transferred concepts to their pond explorations. Both classes made learning gains at the pond following the MBD support and revealed more expert reasoning about the importance of change over time and distant drivers in ecosystem dynamics
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Simplifying Causal Complexity: How Interactions Between Modes of Causal Induction and Information Availability Lead to Heuristic-Driven Reasoning
This article considers a set of well-researched default assumptions that people make in reasoning about complex causality and argues that, in part, they result from the forms of causal induction that we engage in and the type of information available in complex environments. It considers how information often falls outside our attentional frame such that covariation falls short, mechanisms can be nonobvious, and the testimony that others offer is typically subject to the same constraints as our own perceptions. It underscores the importance of multiple modes of causal induction used in support of one another when discerning and teaching about causal complexity. It considers the importance of higher order reflection on the nature of causality that recognizes the challenging features of complex causality and how it interacts with human causal cognition
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EcoXPT: Designing for Deeper Learning through Experimentation in an Immersive Virtual Ecosystem
Young people now must compete in a global, knowledge-based, innovation-centered economy; they must acquire not just academic knowledge, but also character attributes such as intrinsic motivation, persistence, and flexibility. To accomplish these ambitious goals, the US National Research Council (2012) recommends the use of “deeper learning” classroom strategies. These include case-based learning, multiple representations of knowledge, collaborative learning, apprenticeships, life-wide learning, learning for transfer, interdisciplinary studies, personalized learning, connected learning, and diagnostic assessments. Immersive media (virtual reality, multi-user virtual environments, mixed and augmented realities) have affordances that enhance this type of learning. EcoXPT is an inquiry-based middle school curriculum on ecosystem science that invites students into immersive experimentation with scaffolding tools that support deeper learning. This includes a case-based approach situated in an unfolding eutrophication scenario in which students learn new information from their observations over space and time, speaking with virtual characters in the world, and gathering information in the field guide and other sources. Diagnostic assessments of students’ progress are based on multiple sources, including process data from various types of logfiles. Multiple varied forms of representation convey perceptual, graphical, and experimental data, enabling students to investigate relationships between variables. Students are apprenticed in the ways of knowing of ecosystems scientists, which involves interdisciplinary knowledge. Students collaborate in teams of two, subdividing the tasks of gathering evidence
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A multi-user virtual environment to support students' self-efficacy and interest in science: A latent growth model analysis
Using latent growth models, we explored: (a) The effect of middle school students' (n = 189) pre-intervention science self-efficacy and science interest on their initial interest in an Ecosystems Multi-User Virtual Environment (EcoMUVE) and the rate of change in their interest in EcoMUVE; and (b) the mediating effect of students' initial interest in EcoMUVE and rate of change in interest on students' post-intervention science self-efficacy and interest in science. Results showed that: (1) students' pre-intervention self-efficacy for science had an effect both on students' triggered situational interest for EcoMUVE and on students' maintained situational interest for EcoMUVE; (2) both triggering and maintaining situational interest in EcoMUVE were important in developing students' science self-efficacy. In fact, maintained situational interest was the stronger predictor; and (3) maintained situational interest for EcoMUVE translated into individual interest for the science content. Results support and extend social cognitive theory as well as models of interest development