ROLE: Facilitating the Understanding of Complex Adaptive Systems Through Computer Simulations

Indiana University, Bloomington IN

Investigators

Abstract

Interactive computer simulations are increasingly being used to teach students scientific principles, but relatively little systematic research has done on the factors that make a simulation pedagogically effective. This research explores how to design a computer simulation so that students learn the scientific principle underlying it, and transfer this principle to new domains. Principles from the interdisciplinary science of complex adaptive systems are chosen because these mathematical formalisms are applicable across a wide range of domains. Laboratory experiments with students will explore how active exploration of one simulation benefits or hinders understanding of a subsequently presented simulation based on the same principle. Experiments will explore the roles of concreteness and idealization, simulation similarity, and individual differences in abstract transfer. The scientific goal of the inquiry is to gain an understanding of how perceptual experience can lead to abstract conceptual understanding, and how conceptual understanding can change perceptual experience. The practical goal is to translate this understanding into general educational principles for integrating computer simulations into classroom activities.