ITR: Atomic-Scale Models in Two Year Colleges: Bridging Science and Technology with Atomic-Scale Models

Concord Consortium, Concord MA

Investigators

Abstract

This project addresses using technology to teach science in an effective and agile manner at the Community College level. As jobs requiring science and math increase in numbers, the burgeoning bio-technologies being only one example, future workers will be asked to learn new skills rapidly. The NSF-funded Molecular Workbench Project (REC 9980620), now in its final year of research and testing, has developed several powerful atomic-level models. These models, together called the Molecular Workbench, when combined with a scripting language that 'talks with" our model, and with Berkeley's WISE program that delivers on-line projects in inquiry science, can illuminate some of the hardest-to-teach concepts in chemistry, biology and physics. Community Colleges are a critical gateway not only to career training but also, for many, to college itself. Infusing science courses with the powerful interactivity of models will allow students not only to master science, but facilitate their transfer to specialty courses. The overall goal of this project is to develop and evaluate the use of complex, interactive computational models in the real-world situations encountered in two-year college technical programs. The project will develop and evaluate flexible atomic-scale modeling software as well as the software architecture that supports the rapid development and deployment of educational materials that utilize this model. The Molecular Workbench software is capable of underpinning key physics and some chemistry concepts. It is situated between the rigor of professional science and the simplifications required by good teaching. This project proposes to develop the modeling software's capacity to model chemical bonds, and photon interactions as well as new computational and visualization algorithms needed to model different features of larger biomolecules (e.g. steric ligand-receptor interactions at active sites). Working together with science advisors and a set of community college educators, this project will not only enhance the Molecular Workbench software, but will also develop classroom activities using the models, and carefully evaluate their use and efficacy. This technology will be pilot tested in two-year college courses by providing a range of hypermodels, or scaffolded models, that use atomic-scale models to illustrate key science topics in the context of typical technical specialties. The principle investigators will identify a set of key science topics typically taught in biology, chemistry, and physics courses at this level and generate hypermodels for each that are based on technologies and processes used in specialty programs. They will capitalize on an existing platform for inquiry science projects that has been developed at the University of California, Berkeley. The Web-based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE) supports students as they work collaboratively on inquiry projects. Using WISE, the hypermodels will be integrated into complete online instructional units that faculty can adapt to their needs without significant changes in the organization or learning objectives of current instruction. They will all, however, have a consistent, atomic-scale approach that could be the basis of a new, interdisciplinary approach to the core sciences. The materials will be developed in collaboration with faculty at two-year colleges and curriculum experts, including Springfield (MA) Technical Community College (STCC) and others throughout the US recruited through the Center for Occupational Research and Development (CORD) and their Community College Presidents Council. The PIs will make all grant-supported code available as open source as part of their Open Source Library of Educational Technology (OSLET) initiative.