Inventive Learning
These projects have the goal of supporting the development of early knowledge.
PhET Simulations
We are working in partnership with the University of Colorado, Boulder, to expand their highly successful PhET Interactive Simulation project (100+ simulations available in 61 languages, with over 15 million sim downloads & counting!) to support middle school science and math learning.
Simulations are designed to make invisible processes visible, portraying systems which are too big, too small, too slow, too fast, or too complex for the naked eye. As such, they are excellent tools for inventive learning that allow open-ended exploration of phenomena. We are working on user-interface designs and instructional approaches which best leverage the interactive affordances of simulations for use with invention activities, as well as choice-based assessments.
Relevant publications:
- Chase, Shemwell, & Schwartz. (2010). Explaining across contrasting cases for deep understanding in science: An example using interactive simulations. Proceedings of the 9th International Conference of the Learning Sciences, Chicago.
- Chi, M., Dohmen, I., Shemwell, J.T., Chin, D.B., Chase, C.C. & Schwartz, D.L. (2012). Seeing the Forest from the Trees: A Comparison of Two Instructional Models Using Contrasting Cases. Proceedings of the American Educational Research Conference, Vancouver, B.C.
