SBIR Phase II: Collaborative game approach to support classroom instruction of difficult-to-teach science concepts

This project will enable students to learn difficult science concepts using a collaborative gaming approach that aims to significantly increase student engagement and understanding. This game is being developed to improve the instruction of photosynthesis and cell respiration, which are required curriculum for high school students in life science courses. These processes are largely invisible, comprised of a complex and interdependent set of interactions, and difficult to teach. By creating educationally sound interactive tools to undertake complicated science subjects, the project aims to increase secondary student involvement and interest in STEM, and to help build the core scientific knowledge and higher-order thinking skills they will need to address the challenges of the 21st Century. The app content and design is based on evidence-based pedagogical approaches to effective science instruction. Developing a more immersive and practicable learning method upholds the NSF's mission to promote exceptional science education and will help attract and prepare more students for STEM-based careers. This work will provide teachers with an instructional tool that conveys accurate details of chemically-based biological processes, enable them to deliver differentiated instruction to their classes, and ensure that all their students, whatever their level of pre-existing knowledge and ability, are able to meet the prescribed national and state-level life science standards. The project proposes to develop and implement a working simulator that produces scientifically accurate output for a virtual lab learning environment, with which students can quickly build practical understanding of the scientific method through trial and error. This enables a) the introduction of legitimate agency into student learning so that their choices drive the learning, b) the generation of meaningful (non-generic) instructional prompts that respond precisely to how each individual interacts with the game, and c) the establishment of a valuable framework for assessing student learning based on their multiple authentic interactions with the simulator. The simulator will represent biological processes using a mathematical model in order to support an arbitrary range of hypotheses. Additional innovations include a) automated tools that differentiate instruction at the classroom level to help teachers address a range of student proficiencies, from remedial to advanced, b) expanded device-to-device student interactions that utilize collaborative assessments and argumentation games, c) app management tools that enable teachers to organize, monitor and assess individual student participation within these collaborative activities, and d) the integration of relevant geohistorical climate data into each player's "reward garden" in order to build aptitude and foster interest in quantitative analysis activities. Classroom testing will be conducted to validate our approach and demonstrate efficacy.