EAGER: A Low-Cost Integrated Agent-based Modeling and Physical Computing Platform

Northwestern University, Evanston IL

Investigators

Abstract

The 21st century workforce needs to have high levels of technological literacy, including skills ranging from computer use to software and hardware development. There are many barriers to the development of such skills including the high cost and inaccessibility of computing platforms, the relative lack of curriculum to learn computing, and the opportunity for learners to apply these skills in informal ways before using them in the workforce. In particular, while the cost of software development is decreasing, and curriculum for software development are beginning to emerge, there are extremely few learner-centric environments that allow people to explore the connection between technology software and hardware. This project modifies an existing, proven, learner-friendly software environment called NetLogo to run on cheap $25 computers instead of expensive desktop computers. In addition, the project will develop and test curriculum for youth to learn about the connections between hardware and software by building circuits that connect to these computers. The project will likely help increase opportunities to learn about the connection between hardware and software, due to the low cost and increasing popularity of these inexpensive computers. The intellectual merit of this project rests in the technical development of this novel hardware/software environment, in studying whether and how agent-based modelling platforms can be used to support learners in computational thinking, and in documenting the affordances of the single-board computing platform for teaching computer science and engineering principles at the intersection between hardware and software. In addition to porting the NetLogo programming language to the Raspbian operating system for the Raspberry Pi single board computer, the project will develop curricula (covering basic programming, circuits, and agent-based modelling), and conduct research on how curricula to teach these concepts should be developed in the future. The thirty hour curriculum will be reviewed by experts, and pilot tested through two rounds of design trials in the lab and one field trial with young learners. These results are expected to inform both the field of learning sciences and the field of human-computer interaction research; and have broader impact through the dissemination of the curricula and bundling of the software with the Raspberry Pi low cost computers.