Scaffolding an Agent-Based Participatory Simulation to Teach Complex Systems Components

• In Event: Exploring What Motivates Undergraduates in Learning Science

Abstract

Components of complex systems apply across multiple subject areas and teaching these components may help students build unifying conceptual links. Complex systems are often complicated and counterintuitive and instruction may benefit from a combination of agent-based participatory simulation and scaffolding. This study of 96 college students tested both whether such a simulation improved student understanding, and whether different types of scaffolding might help. Students made small significant improvements in two components due to the intervention, but only after receiving ontological scaffolding. These results support the use of agent-based participatory simulations and the need for ontological scaffolding in teaching complex systems.

Authors

• Christopher Rates, University at Buffalo SUNY

• Bridget K. Mulvey, Kent State University- Kent

• Jennifer L. Chiu, University of Virginia