Grounding Computational Modeling Experiences in Fertile Soil: A Design Project With Middle School Science Teachers and Students

• In Event: Bridging Computational Modeling Tools and Practices Into the Existing Structures of K–16 Environments in Science Education

Abstract

Project Goals and Motivation
Science education research and policy suggests learners should engage with rich, meaningful content relevant to their own lives through epistemologically authentic activities (Blair 2009). This project seeks to couple rich science learning with personal agency and local planning by developing a virtual garden ecosystem to promote middle school students’ modeling of and reasoning about their actual physical school garden. Leveraging co-design (Druin, 2002) and design-based (Cobb, et al., 2003) research methodologies, this research explores: (1) Whether and how students’ and teachers’ interactions with and changes to the virtual model can support collaborative sense-making and reasoning about ecosystems (e.g., Manz 2012) across classroom, garden, and computational contexts; and, (2) What scientific reasoning opportunities are afforded at the intersection of virtual and physical contexts.

Design Intervention and Data
A virtual garden model was constructed using NetLogo to highlight ecosystem relationships and outcomes at the micro-level (plant, animal, and human behaviors and interactions) and macro-level (systemic, ecological; Wilensky & Reisman, 2006). The model was presented to four middle school students and four teachers. Two students and all teachers had participated in an active school curricular-garden program at least once. Design conversations with students were exploratory and minimally directed, with the goal of understanding how they oriented to the model, made sense of its elements, and suggested modifications. Semi-structured interviews with teachers in Mathematics, Science, History, and English focused on identifying disciplinary content, challenges, and instructional entry points relevant to the model.

Findings and Conclusions
Analysis of student interviews suggests that the model provided many opportunities for students to exhibit competence with scientific content and practices. In addition to using model-generated feedback as a source of knowledge, students explicitly cited prior experiences in the garden to reason about the models’ functionality, real-world applicability, and to suggest appropriate modifications to the features and design of the model.
Teacher interview data reveals an expectation that students would experience challenges orienting to the virtual model, and engaging with code. Despite this, teachers expressed interest in the intersection of model-building and gardening. The science teacher offered that “Typically, middle school students haven’t ever been asked to develop the model itself... the garden gives them something really tangible to work with, that they can observe phenomena in nature and apply it to this model.” Other teachers described ways to approach their own content standards using the model, and expressed interest in collaborating on the project.

Lessons Learned
Students and teachers viewed the virtual garden as a grounding mechanism to connect across contexts, student experiences, and disciplines. Importantly, these connections emerged at the intersection of virtual and physical, with respect to a specific local context. Typically, computational modeling is used in education as a way of representing and exploring generic systems. This work suggests a need to further examine computational modeling as a way to represent one’s local outside space; a 'sandbox' that allows students to test and revise not only their ideas, but also their specific plans and experiences.

Authors

• Rebecca L. Shareff, University of California - Berkeley

• Michelle Hoda Wilkerson, University of California - Berkeley