Mr. Vetro: A Collective Simulation Framework

Growing science apathy at the K-12 education level represents an alarming development with potentially devastating consequences at individual, societal and economic levels. Surprisingly, student apathy is increasing while the general public increasingly reads popular science books and watches science TV programming. We have begun creating a new kind of infrastructure, called Collective Simulations, uniquely combining social learning pedagogies with distributed simulation technology. This infrastructure creates immersive learning experiences based on wirelessly connected handhelds. As part of the Mr. Vetro prototype, students learn about physiology through technology-enhanced role-play. Each group controls physiological variables of a single organ on their handheld computer. A central simulation gathers all the data and projects them. Collective Simulations allow students to learn about the intricacies of interdependent complex systems by engaging in discourse with other students and teachers. Problem: Science Apathy and Its Consequences Education has never been more important. The information society thrives on the ability to acquire, grow and process knowledge. However, our perceptions of knowledge are gradually changing. Thanks to information technology, factual knowledge is now easy to access. The quality of information may vary widely, but by and large most facts taught at K-12 institutions can be accessed through a Web search engine such as Google. In contrast to many hopes and predictions, the mere accessibility of factual information has had little impact on students’ interest in science. In 1994, when the Web had practically no presence in public education, The Scientist [1] reported that researchers were alarmed by the public’s lack of scientist knowledge. In 2004 The Scientist [2] reported little change, at a time when 92% of public schools have Internet access for instructional purposes [3]. Young students are turned off by mathematics and science. This science apathy is an imperative problem at a number of levels: Personal level: Health science apathy can lead to bad decisions in early life regarding physical exercise, nutrition and habits such as smoking and drinking. Obesity, for instance, has become a worldwide crisis. For the first time in human history, as many people are over-nourished people as are undernourished. Economic level: Science apathy negatively impacts the economic leadership of this country. Apathetic K-12 students are not motivated to enroll in science-oriented university programs. Dropping science enrolment aggravates the scientific personnel shortage in vital and growing industries such as biotech. The software development outsourcing phenomenon threatening the US Information Technology industry may soon be joined by scientific outsourcing. The lack of trained individuals is already increasing industrial scientific recruitment from countries such as India, which put a much larger emphasis on science education than does the United States [4]. Next generation teaching level: The consequences of science apathy for teaching are perhaps even more worrisome. Students that dislike science are not apt to become science teachers. This will have long-term consequences that are still hard to qualify, but certainly pose an amplifying effect that could turn an already bad situation even worse. However, there is some good news. The general public’s strong and growing interest in science illustrates that science apathy is not intrinsic to science, but is instead perhaps a consequence of how science is experienced in school and how tools such as information technology are being used. Our educational institutions need a new combination of pedagogy and tools that genuinely excites K-12 students about science, and helps them understand highly complex and interacting systems such as a human being. Solution: Collective Simulations Our goal is to create Collective Simulations as a conceptual framework that integrates social learning pedagogical models with distributed simulation technical frameworks in order to enable meaningful learning. This conceptual framework both allows and actively encourages meaningful learning by supporting discovery-oriented social learning processes. In a Collective Simulation, an entire group of students and their teacher – acting as a discourse facilitator – participate in a distributed simulation that unfolds in real time on a set of networked computers running distributed simulations. These computers are smart artifacts or tools that augment discourse and support the discovery-oriented scientific process.