Group items tagged

Scott, K. (2012, July 19). Wake Up Your Class With Simulation! Retrieved from http://ingeniousteaching.blogspot.com/2012/07/wake-your-class-up-with-simulations.html  This blog site was created by Kimberly Scott, a history teacher from Memphis, Tennessee.  On this site, Scott lists different websites you can go to that she has evaluated for the effectiveness, cost and attractiveness of design or appearance.  She lists what topic the simulation is helpful in and what you will find on the site.  As she discovers more, she posts them on this blog site.  It is a compiled list of simulations that have worked well for her.

Winsberg, E. (2009). Computer Simulation and the Philosophy of Science. Philosophy Compass, 4(5), 835-845. This scholarly journal addresses the use of computer simulations as a scientific tool in many areas of science.  There are many differing opinions as to the accuracy and reliability of these simulations.  Computer simulations take a multitude of mathematical computations to create.  Many philosophers of science have deemed these simulations to be insufficiently supported for philosophy and scientific use.  In this article, Winsberg proceeds to show that there are misconceptions in this thinking.  He proceeds to support the use of simulations as a benefit for several fields of science if used appropriately.  

Gende, D. (2011, April 1). Science Simulations: A Virtual Learning Environment. [web log post]. Retrieved from http://plpnetwork.com/2011/04/01/science-simulations-a-real-way-to-learn/ This post is from an educator who published in The How of 21st Century Teaching.  Gende explains how time and money are always an issue in science education.  Technology simulations can be used as a helpful tool to supplement and enhance scientific learning within the classroom.  This is with the stipulation that it should not be a replacement for hands on lab work, but to be used as an engaging tool to support learning.  She explains how research has supported this idea, listing the advantages of using simulations.  Gende then proceeds to instruct on how to implement science simulations in the classroom with a multitude of website resources to assist anyone who would like to explore and use them.

University of Colorodo. (2013). Simulations. Retrieved from https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/category/by-level/elementary-school This website has several science simulations that can be run immediately. All simulations are labeled with a title that expresses the scientific topic it will be covering. They are placed into categories; elementary, middle school, high school. When running the program, you are given all of the tools, but you must explore on your own. This would be great to let the kids go and see what they come up with in regards to why and what that experiment was accomplishing.

Keller, H. (2009, June 2). Can Virtual Labs Replace Hands-On? Science Education. Retrieved from http://etcjournal.com/2009/06/02/can-virtual-labs-replace-hands-on/ This journal sums up the opinion of an educator who has used both labs and simulations to teach science education.  He has discovered that using a combination of both computer based science simulations hands-on experiments is the best method of science investigation education for students.  Since there are simulations that can be affected by the environment, the simulations can't all stand on their own.  By participating in a hands-on experiment students can witness the change in data due to environmental change.  Simulations supply a lot that we can manipulate, but they don't always have every aspect necessary. 

Cherry, G., Ioannidou, A., Rader, C., Brand, C., Repenning, A. (n.d). Simulations for Lifelong Learning. Department of Computer Science, University of Colorado, Boulder. Retrieved from http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~ralex/papers/PDF/NECC99.pdf  The authors looked at simulation integration at all levels (elementary through the professional level) using VAT (Visual Agen Talk).  They base their thoughts on the idea that simulations are used the show how or why something works.  It gives them the opportunity to engage in scientific inquiry, and test their theories.   They believe that by using these simulations teachers support student collaboration and support science inquiry in the classroom.

Quellmalz, E. S., DeBarger, A. H., Haertell, G., Schank, P., Buckley, B. C., Gobert, J., Horwitz, P., and Ayala, C. (n.d.). Exploring the Role of Technology-Based Simulations in Science Assessment: The Calipers Project. Retrieved from http://calipers.sri.com/downloads/CalipersAERA07.pdf The Caliper Project has developed assessments to show evidence of growth using scientific simulations. They focus on science-based simulations, and believe that they can be used for testing content, providing inquiry, formative assessment, and curriculum embedding. They strive to provide evidence of the usefulness, technical aspect, and the service of science-based simulation assessments. Keeping in mind that this is a more affordable option for educators and school districts.

Simulation. 2014. In Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved October 16, 2014, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/simulations Definition of Simulation.

Jong, D. T. (1998) Scientific discovery learning with computer simulations of conceptual domains. (Review of Educational Research). SAGE Publications., 68, pp 179-202. This literature review addresses simulations and the effectiveness of their use in discovery learning.  The author lists several short coming of simulations, as well as ways to balance out these negative issues.  In the end, it is discovered that with combined instruction and simulation use, you will have the best outcome for student learning, understanding and growth.

National Research Council of the National Academies. 2014. Learning Science Through Computer Games and Simulations. 87-92. Retrieved from http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=13078&page=R1 Chapter 5 focuses on assessing science-based simulations for their potential to support student learning and to assess their understanding of the concepts addressed. In the end further research is required to assess the effectiveness of simulations and playing games since the technology is moving faster than we can keep up with. Effectively assessing them is still fairly new, so it needs to be explored more.

Schwarz, C. V., Meyer, J., Sharma, A. (2007, February 1). Technology, Pedagogy, and Epistemology: Opportunities and Challenges of Using Computer Modeling and Simulation Tools in Elementary Science Methods. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 18, 243-269. Doi:10.1007/s10972-007-9039-6 http://kristine.s.tripod.com/fulltext.pdf This article goes into explaining the importance of training our "preservice" teachers to be computer literate in their own schooling to assist in their role in passing the knowledge down to their students. Their hypothesis was that computer modeling and simulations might be a meaningful way to help "preservice" elementary and middle school teachers learn about these technologies in their own education, thus showing them the effectiveness it could have on their future students. They concluded that there was some conflict in ideas. In the end, time and money also stood in the way of this becoming an approach for training "preservice" teachers. It being left to districts to advance their own software for use in the classroom.

Smeaton, D. (n.d.). Minecraft as a Teaching Tool- A Statistical Study of Teachers' Experience Using Minecraft in the Classroom (Graduate Dissertation). Available from Academia.edu. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/2624927/Minecraft_As_A_Teaching_Tool_-_A_Statistical_Study_of_Teachers_Experience_Using_Minecraft_In_The_Classroom  Academia.edu is a site that you can join for free which gives you access to academic papers written by others.  You can place your own papers on this site for others to see as well.  I looked up the above title through this site (it gives you a download copy of the dissertation).  This study reported on 17 teachers who took a survey that delved into whether these teachers who used Minecraft simulations in the classroom felt about the outcome of its use.  

CITEd Research Center. (n.d.). Using Multimedia Tools to Help Students Learn Science. Retrieved from http://www.cited.org/index.aspx?page_id=148 CITEd - Center for Implementing Technology in Education believes that students need to learn to think like scientists, that we need to be "scientifically literate" to be able to function well in our current society. CITEd has been looking into how students learn best, by doing. They feel that we need to expose students to science inquiry through technology tools since this is what adult scientists use. This is with the understanding that teachers learn how to evaluate the technology and decide what best works for their students, classroom, curriculum, and style of teaching. They listed multimedia tools for science, with the understanding that research shows science and math simulation to be the most effective.