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| Troy's Athletic Club- Little League Team (circa 1961) |
GbCC
is a collaborative agent-based modeling program based on NetLogo (Wilensky, 1997). These agent-based
models allow students to engage in simulations that explore how actions and
interactions of autonomous agents have an effect on the system as a whole. This
platform empowers students to take agency in their own learning by controlling
variables, making changes to code, and sharing changes with classmates
anonymously. GbCC addresses diversity and inclusion in the classroom by
providing a platform that allows all students to participate in real-time
modeling of scientific content.
Using
the GbCC segregation model, students have investigated how small changes in
simple variables, such as wanting neighbors similar to yourself, can result in
emergent segregation of society. Dr. Sepehr Vakil and doctoral student Jason
Harron have used this tool to discuss complex social challenges associated with
the gentrification of East Austin with pre-service STEM teachers in the UTeach
course, Classroom Interactions. Pre-service teachers were able to learn about
redlining - the legal process of denying services based on geographic location
- and modify the NetLogo code to alter the functioning of the model.
Since
the environment is authorable, GbCC provides students with a low-threshold to
begin exploring with little or no programming background knowledge. As students
advance in their programming skills, the platform continues to provide room for
growth (high-ceilings) allowing students to create more sophisticated models
(Myers, 2000). During
the Fall of 2017, models developed by undergraduate Computer Science student
Mica Kohl and curricula developed by graduate student Max Sherard were
used to teach students about ecosystem species interactions in a week-long unit
exploring how wolves shape rivers in Yellowstone National Park (“How Wolves Change
Rivers [Remastered],” 2017). The models were used at two school sites with almost 400
students in fifth and sixth grade level science classrooms, with approximately
two-thirds of students being economically disadvantaged. Continued partnership
with these two teachers is planned for the Spring of 2018.
The
GbCC for STEM Education is a National Science Foundation funded project that is
the product of collaboration between four universities: Northwestern,
Vanderbilt, University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, and the University of
Texas at Austin. Dr. Anthony Petrosino coordinates the implementation,
development, and demoing of GbCC Model-based curricula with (1) the UTeach
program and pre-service teachers, (2) graduate students in STEM Education, (3)
in-service teachers, and (4) learning science and education conference
attendees around the country. This past summer, Dr. Petrosino and Dr. Walter
Stroup of the University Massachusetts at Dartmouth presented progress on
developing 12 open-source GbCC models lesson to attendees at the annual
convention of the American Society of Engineering Education (Petrosino, Stroup,
Harron, & Sherard, 2017). Most recently, Dr. Petrosino implemented segregation
models in his graduate course Systemic Reform. Graduate students engaged with
the segregation model to discuss how this tool could be used to inform systemic
initiatives related to equity in school reform.
GbCC
models are designed with the capacity to simulate complex problems; however,
these models are only as sophisticated as the learning experiences in which are
used. The work of Dr. Anthony Petrosino and his colleagues seeks to design
meaningful learning experiences with individuals, contexts, and equitably
access to learning in mind.
Project: Group-based Cloud Computing for STEM Education
Project: Group-based Cloud Computing for STEM Education
