Paulo Blikstein, Ph.D - US grants

This CISE EAGER project supports the development of a resource model that allows educators to effectively find and leverage existing curricular materials, particularly computer science and computational thinking curricular materials. While many previous efforts have attempted to build repositories of course materials, these efforts have been hampered by factors such as a lack of efficient search facilities, a dearth of available/stored materials, an inability to find quality materials, or the user perception of commercial interest in the repository. The overall goal is to create a framework to address four critical issues that have hampered the utility of such repositories thus far: a better search interface, easily usable by computing teachers (especially K-12 teachers), a critical mass of materials, a rating mechanism by teachers, and a system that will appeal to teachers. This project seeks to address the shortcomings of existing repositories by providing the appropriate affordances for search and user feedback/ratings. Moreover, by proactively seeking an initial set of content, this project can help to break the lack-of-content/ lack-of-usage cycle that plagues most existing systems. This Eager project proposes to develop a prototype along these lines with enough content to be a proof-of-concept for such a system. Based on initial results and usage profiles, this project can lay a foundation for how to best proceed in making such a system more broadly used by the computing educational community.

The intellectual merits of this project lies in the strong team and vision for improvement in the field of resources for computing educators. This project should provide a model for development of a digital resource system that is valued and used by educators, particularly K-12 educators. This represents a significant contribution as an enhancement over the current situation in computer science where the existing digital libraries are not widely used. By providing an alternative approach towards searching for high quality computing curricular materials, this project plans to allow high quality computing curricular materials to be accessed and used by a much wider segment of computing teachers. The team is strong, including computer science faculty, K-12 computing educators, educational specialists, and researchers with academic and industry experience with the development of searchable resources.

The broader impacts of this project lie in the potential for long-term benefit to the computing community and to computing educators. If this project is successful, the computing disciplines will have a portal that can be comparable in usability to the successful portals in other STEM disciplines. It will provide an effective dissemination vehicle for high quality curricular materials, developed as through funded and non-funded sources. This project has the potential to improve the teaching of a wide variety of computing topics and courses by becoming a single source computing teachers go to when needing to find high quality curricular materials.

This four-year Full Research and Development project develops and assesses the effectiveness of integrating three computation-based technologies into curricular modules: agent-based modeling (ABM), real-world sensing, and collaborative classroom networks. The team brings together researchers from Northwestern, Vanderbilt and Stanford universities in collaboration with a commercial partner, Inquire Learning. The STEM disciplines addressed are life sciences and physical sciences at middle and high school levels, specifically Evolution, Population Biology/Ecology, Kinetic Molecular Theory, and Electromagnetism.

The project proceeds in two phases: The first phase is a design experiment for the iterative creation of ABM-only and enhanced-ABM modules field tested with fourteen teachers drawn from seven schools. In the second phase, an experiment is conducted that aims at providing quantitative data to help characterize the different effects of various components of the intervention and to prepare the way for future efficacy and scaling research. Between 40 and 80 teachers participate in the experiment and are assigned to immediate or lagged treatments. The four topic areas were selected because they are scientifically important; they are difficult for students, provoking significant misconceptions; they are amenable to a complex-systems and modeling approach; and prior work has prepared the PIs to develop high-quality curricular materials on these topics. The evaluation is led by a member of the advisory board which is constituted to provide guidance on the project evaluation.

The products are research findings on the achievement, engagement and attitudes of students as a result of the deep use of computational modeling technologies in science. In addition, four fully developed classroom-ready modules with teacher support materials are deployed and disseminated through a broad network of educational communities.

The PI proposes to advance the idea of "bifocal modeling" to promote understanding of how and why things work. In bifocal modeling, learners build a model of a device or phenomenon in the real world and attach sensors to it, and they build a virtual model (on the computer) of the same device or phenomenon using one of several modeling platforms. They run both models, and explore and investigate the function and behavior of the device or phenomenon using both models. The approach is designed to help learners construct explanatory mental models of phenomena and devices they encounter. The need to reconcile the differences between the models focuses learners on details they might not have noticed if working with just one model. As they engage in bifocal modeling activities, learners encounter issues concerning the purpose and veracity of models, human error, sensors, and science practice. Thus, in addition to facilitating learning of the science behind the phenomenon they are exploring, learners have opportunities to learn about the roles of models in science and how to design, construct, and use models scientifically. Engaging for a sustained period of time is necessary for such learning, and the approach has learners engage in bifocal modeling in the context of exploring phenomena and devices that they have grown curious about in the context of science or technology activities. The approach has potential to be used in school or out of school, and it might be used to cover targeted science or to supplement classroom activities. The project has phases that include investigating the efficacy and feasibility of bifocal modeling in a variety of circumstances, identifying the ways it might be productively used in school and to supplement school, understanding how learning happens when learning in the context of bifocal modeling, iteratively designing curriculum modules based on findings (and testing them), and iteratively refining the software and hardware that goes with those curriculum models so as to come to better understand of how to use them to promote learning.

The proposed work has potential to help young people (and perhaps others) learn the science behind phenomena of interest and become better scientific reasoners. Citizens who understand the roles of models in science and who can design, construct, and/or use them to reason scientifically will be able to take part in the discussions of our democracy and be ready to prepare for scientific careers.

In this Cyberlearning: Transforming Education DIP project, the PIs are building and evaluating a technological and curricular infrastructure to empower scalable, low-cost experimentations for undergraduates and K-12 students in the life sciences. The infrastructure exploits two technologies that have been developed by the PIs: biotic systems, which enable low-cost remote experimentation in biology, and bifocal modeling, which motivates students to engage in deep scientific inquiry by comparing physical and virtual models in real time. Using a low-cost local or remote Biological Printing Unit (BPU), learners will 'print' organisms into petri dishes and run experiments with live materials. Each learner will have control over the empirical apparatus for as long as needed, due to the low cost and scalability of the system. The living material itself has a small footprint, and ever-advancing high-throughput technologies, such as automated microscopy and DNA sequencing, enable cost-effective, automated multiplexing of massive numbers of simple, learner-guided experiments, allowing learners to each personally carry out successions of experiments. The second innovation is juxtaposition, in real time, of the physical experimentation with computer modeling, known as Bifocal Modeling, allowing students to observe and explore the real-world growth, interactions, and characteristics of their organisms in parallel with observing outcomes of models representing their understanding of the biological phenomena underlying organism activity and subsequently refine their explanations and understanding. Research focuses on cognitive affordances and constraints of this new bifocal epistemic form, the supports needed by learners to handle the complexities of this potentially powerful approach, and the progressions in student proficiency in design and execution of experiments when they have both real and virtual models available.

The PIs are addressing the significant challenge of how to bring modern bioscience into classrooms and informal learning environments, at low cost and with substantial variety. The platform they are creating, which integrates Biological Printing Devices with Bifocal Modeling, provides for more open exploration and realism in what learners can experience than is possible simply with simulations and virtual experiments. Schools and universities will be able to integrate more advanced biology experiments into their lab curricula as a result of this investigation, broadening exposure of all students, especially the less privileged, to the life sciences.

In this Cyberlearning: Transforming Education EAGER project, the PI proposes a research program and set of events for educators, policy makers, students, designers, researchers, and makers to present, discuss, investigate, and learn about digital fabrication in education. Digital fabrication and "making" is a new chapter in the process of bringing powerful ideas and expressive media to schoolchildren. Yet the making that happens in classrooms is usually disconnected from what is known about promoting learning from such making. The PI is organizing a series of activities aimed at better understanding what is needed so that teachers will be better able to use making activities to promote learning and what research and development needs to be done to meet those needs. Activities include (1) a conference as a venue for stakeholders (including educators, students, researchers, and others) to present, discuss, and learn about digital fabrication, the culture around it, and what is known about learning from making; (2) a summer institute that would help teachers deepen their fabrication skills and learn more about learning and assessment; (3) a research summit to share findings, receive feedback, and develop collaborations; and (4) a fellow program to support teachers in activity planning and curriculum development. Throughout, the PI and team will be taking notes and convening discussions with an eye toward formulating a research agenda around promoting learning in classrooms in the context of design and fabrication activities.

The Cyberlearning and Future Learning Technologies Program funds efforts that will help envision the next generation of learning technologies and advance what we know about how people learn in technology-rich environments. Cyberlearning Exploration (EXP) Projects explore the viability of new kinds of learning technologies by designing and building new kinds of learning technologies and studying their possibilities for fostering learning and challenges to using them effectively. This project's technology innovation is a haptic (force-feedback) toolkit to be used in learning science and engineering content that involves forces. The toolkit the team is developing will allow learners (K-12 and beyond) to manipulate simulations and models through touch-sensitive devices and to directly feel resulting forces. Learning and using the science of forces is quite complex, as the ways forces actually combine and have effects are not always consistent with what people experience. Understanding forces, however, is essential for pursuits as varied as engineering, rehabilitative medicine, and construction and for understanding concepts and phenomena in biology, chemistry, physics, and engineering fields. The kind of direct engagement with forces at the micro-level that the proposed toolkit will allow has potential to foster better scientific understanding across this whole set of fields. Research in the context of this technological innovation focuses on the extent to which and the conditions under which such embodied experience with phenomena fosters deeper understanding.

The role of embodied experiences in learning is both an important issue in learning how to better foster learning and a newly-emerging possibility for learning technologies. In this project, the PIs examine the potential for haptic technology to expand and transform student learning. The haptic interface being developed is a mechatronic device programmed with force-displacement relationships that a user experiences through the sense of touch. The project aims to demonstrate the ways the programming and use of haptic devices as a part of lab experiences can impact learning. The PI is a mechanical engineer who is expert in materials and devices. The co-PI is a learning scientist engaged closely with the maker movement and with helping learners learn from simulation and modeling experiences. Through an iterative, design-based research approach, new haptic devices and accompanying visual programming software are being created to enable interactive hands-on virtual laboratories for biology, chemistry, and physics, and experiments are being carried out to understand both how to use such devices well to foster learning and the affordances of haptics in learning force-related concepts and its added value in the context of learning through modeling and simulation.

This National Robotics Initiative project will test a series of liquid handling robots in school biology and chemistry classes to determine the range of learning opportunities that can be supported through the instructional use of collaborative robots. Low-cost robots using the Lego Mindstorms platform will be used to implement classroom activities ranging from artistic expression using colorful arrangements of liquids to performing experiments using dilution series, density gradients, and spectral measurements. The aim is to make biotechnology more tangible and relevant to students while supporting interdisciplinary learning as recommended by the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). This innovative approach to engaging students in biology and chemistry will be tested with teachers and students in grades 6-12, with a range of user studies being employed to examine learning outcomes and guide the development process. The goal is to integrate liquid handling into educational robotics to enhance current science curricula by enabling deeper inquiry, more variety in learning experiences, and increased attention to interdisciplinary and project-based education.

The research of this project will focus on two themes: students' sense making as they engage in inquiry activities using the platform, and the pedagogical and infrastructural support needed for sustainable deployment and implementation. Multimodal data collected from students running experiments will be combined with traditional qualitative and quantitative methods to answer three primary questions related to the two research themes: 1) How effectively does the system capture the practices and inquiry activities of real scientists using similar tools? 2) How do the affordances identified by the first question map onto the learning goals of engaging in extended inquiry cycles within the context of limited amounts of time available to 6-12 grade science teachers? And 3) What implementation challenges are associated with our proposed curricular distribution model which relies on software and instructions being downloaded and fabricated in local Makerspaces or Lego/Arduino kits being used in schools? The research plan for the project will progress over three years from Microgenetic design and testing during the first year to controlled study of in-class effectiveness during year 2. In the final year of the project, teacher-led in-class effectiveness will be examined.

Modeling is a core scientific activity in which a difficult-to-observe phenomenon is represented, e.g., visually or in a computer program. Research has shown that sustained experience with modeling contributes to sophisticated understanding, learning, and engagement of scientific practices. Computational modeling is a promising way to integrate computation and science learning. Yet computational modeling is not widely adopted in science classrooms over sustained periods of time because of difficulties such as the time required for students to become adept modelers, the need to better integrate computational modeling with other scientific practices, and the need for teachers to experience agency in using these modeling tools. This Design and Development project investigates how to support sustained engagement in computational modeling in middle school classrooms in two ways: 1) Design and develop an accessible modeling toolkit and accompanying thematically linked curricular units; and, 2) Examine how this toolkit and curriculum enable students to become sophisticated modelers and integrate modeling with other scientific practices such as physical experimentation and argumentation. The project will contribute to the conversation around how to support students and teachers to incorporate computational modeling together with valued scientific practices into their classrooms for sustained periods. For three years, the project will work with six sixth and seventh grade teachers and approximately 400 students.

Through iterative cycles of design-based research, the project will design a computational modeling tool and six curricular units for sixth and seventh-grade students. The team will work closely with two teacher co-designers to design and develop each of the six curricular units. The goal is to investigate: 1) How students become sophisticated modelers as they shift from using phenomenon-level primitives to unpacking and modifying these primitives for extended investigations; 2) How classroom norms around computational modeling develop over time. Specifically, how do student models become objects for classroom reflection and how students integrate modeling into other practices such as explanation and argumentation; 3) How data from physical experiments support students in constructing and refining models; and, 4) How sustained engagement supports students? conceptual learning and learning to model using computing tools. The team will collect and analyze video and written data, as well as log files and pre/posttests, to examine how communities of students and teachers adopt computational modeling as an integral practice in science learning. For video and text analysis, the team will use qualitative coding to detect patterns before, during, and after the activities. For the examination of logfiles from the software, the project will use learning analytics techniques such as the classification and clustering of students? sequences of actions. Finally, the team will also conduct pre/post-tests on both content and meta-modeling skills, analyzing the results with standard statistical tests.

This project is supported by NSF's Discovery Research PreK-12 (DRK-12) program, in the Directorate for Education & Human Resources. 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.

Understanding science is critical for preparing students to make sense of the world around them, make informed decisions, and participate in civic society and in the workforce. However, for many youth, science is a mysterious body of knowledge that feels disconnected from their lives. This project aims to bring science into middle school students’ homes, allowing them to see the science behind everyday objects and transforming lived environments into engaging learning spaces. Students will work on inquiry-based learning units on mobile phones that explore STEM phenomena topics like diffusion, electricity, and simple machines that are present in their kitchens, bedrooms, and local parks. They will be able to take photos and videos of their home and neighborhood, and computer vision algorithms will augment these images with diagrams, models, and simulations that illustrate the principles and mechanisms that explain the STEM phenomena. These overlays will allow students to observe, experiment with, and make predictions for phenomena such as tea diffusing in hot water or heat traveling through walls. The project will capitalize on existing technological devices, such as camera phones, to create “lenses” which enable students to see the science that is all around them.<br/> <br/>By committing to such low-cost solutions, the project aims to make science education accessible to more students, and enable at-home learning while avoiding undue pressures on family resources. Operating in diverse, low-resource environments motivates fundamental advances in computer vision: First, algorithms must automatically build up a 3D and temporal representation of a scene of a given physical phenomenon. Second, the system must expose hooks for educators to decide which graphics should be overlaid at which time and in which place atop this scene. Further, the project will engage in human-centered design to bring cutting-edge technologies to youth in ways that are accessible, easy to use, and achieve educational goals. Investigators will conduct extensive interviews with parents, students, and teachers about the aspects of students’ out-of-school lives that they would be willing to share with researchers, peers, and teachers. These data will enable the team to realize the benefits of equitable science education that builds on students’ lives and cultures. This research will help foster the development of a more agentic, inclusive way of engaging in science inquiry at home, encouraging students to have a personal connection with science from a young age. This is particularly important for students most at risk to perceive science as disconnected from their lives, and whom can benefit most from seeing science at work in their lives and community.<br/><br/>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.