Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Teachers College Educational ...

Learning Science Systems with Graphic Computer Simulations
Na Li, Mengzi Gao, Haofei Shen, Yuyang Guo, Daniel Lee,
Teachers College, Columbia University, 525 W. 120 th street, New York, 10027
Email: nl2284@tc.columbia.edu, mg3220@tc.columbia.edu, hs2670@tc.columbia.edu,
yg2282@tc.columbia.edu, dyl2119@tc.columbia.edu
Abstract: Graphic computer simulations have great advantages in teaching abstract
system concepts. Instructional scaffolding is very essential for learners to benefit from
these simulation-based learning environments. In this project, multiple simulation models
at different abstract levels are designed as learning materials teaching three ideal gas
laws (a chemical system). 36 adult learners without strong background in science
participated in a pilot study; 10 middle school students from a public school in NYC
participated in the usability testing study; and 58 middle school students from a public
school in NYC participated in our current study. Data from preliminary research show that
a top-down function-centered scaffolding strategy could produce better learning
performance than a bottom-up structure-centered scaffolding strategy; and learning tasks
encouraging learners to model system causality can be very effective under the functioncentered
scaffolding condition, but not under the structure-centered scaffolding condition.
Research Background
Studies have demonstrated that systems learning goes through several sequential stages before learners
are able to grasp a network of mechanics-function relations (e.g.,Assaraf & Orion, 2005). Explaining
mechanism and causality is usually difficult for learners especially when the systems have hierarchical
levels (Duncan & Reiser, 2007). Computational modeling and visualizing technology makes it possible to
show the invisible lower-level mechanism of systems, and allows inquiry-based instructional design
(Wilensky& Resnick, 1999). One important pedagogical implication from these studies is to provide
hierarchical instructional scaffolding in the learning process and help learners iteratively modify their
conceptual representations of a system (Liu & Hmelo, 2009).
Instrument
A computer simulation environment with three simulation models has been designed for this research
project. The first simulation model is realistic visualizations of three ideal gas law phenomena. The
second simulation is a gas molecular activity model which is more abstract, with which learners are able
to conduct virtual experiments to test hypotheses (one example, see Figure 1). The third simulation is an
abstract flowchart model which the learners use to model causality and explain the mechanism of the
system (see Figure 2). These three simulations demonstrate the system function and mechanism at
different abstract levels. Some techniques are used to reduce cognitive load and scaffold information
integration a). Simulations can set to be displayed on separate pages or on the same page in any
combination. If two simulations are displayed on the same page, they are dynamically linked which
means as the learner interact with one simulation, the other changes accordingly. b). The realistic
simulation and the gas molecular activity simulation are functionally and structurally mapped, so it’s very
easy for the learners to compare two models for cross-level reasoning.
Figure 1: A concrete representation of ideal gas law phenomena & a more abstract molecular
activity model.
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