TY - JOUR
T1 - Statistical mechanics for secondary school
T2 - The gaslab multi-agent modeling toolkit
AU - Wilensky, Uri
N1 - Funding Information:
The preparation of this paper was supported by the National Science Foundation (Grants RED-9552950, REC-9632612, REC-9814682, REC-0126227). The ideas expressed here do not necessarily reflect the positions of the supporting agency. I would like to thank Seymour Papert for his overall support and inspiration and for his constructive criticism of this research in its early stages. Walter Stroup has been a close collaborator throughout the GasLab project. His ideas and contributions have been invaluable. Mitchel Resnick and David Chen gave extensive support in conducting the original GasLab research. I would also like to thank Josh Mitteldorf, Ed Hazzard, Christopher Smick and Seth Tisue for extensive discussions of the GasLab models and of the ideas in this paper. Wally Feurzeig, Nora Sabelli, Richard Noss, Ron Thornton, and Paul Horwitz made valuable suggestions to the project design. Seth Tisue, Brent Collins, Matt Goto, Sharona Levy, Ed Hazzard, Meridith Bruozas, Paul Deeds, Rob Froemke, Ken Reisman and Daniel Cozza contributed to the design and implementation of many of the more recent GasLab models. Bruce Sherin, Donna Woods and Dor Abrahamson made valuable comments and suggestions on a draft of this paper. Eric Betzold provided needed technical help with the figures.
PY - 2003
Y1 - 2003
N2 - In the Connected Learning projects, we are studying students' learning of content through exploring and constructing computer-based models of that content. This paper presents a case study of a high school physics teacher's design and exploration of a computer-based model of gas molecules in a box. We follow up the case study with shorter vignettes of students' exploration and elaboration of the Gas-in-a-Box model. The cases lead us to analyze and discuss the role of model-based inquiry in science and mathematics education as well as to draw some general conclusions with respect to the design of modeling languages and the design of pedagogies and activities appropriate for model-based inquiry in classroom settings.
AB - In the Connected Learning projects, we are studying students' learning of content through exploring and constructing computer-based models of that content. This paper presents a case study of a high school physics teacher's design and exploration of a computer-based model of gas molecules in a box. We follow up the case study with shorter vignettes of students' exploration and elaboration of the Gas-in-a-Box model. The cases lead us to analyze and discuss the role of model-based inquiry in science and mathematics education as well as to draw some general conclusions with respect to the design of modeling languages and the design of pedagogies and activities appropriate for model-based inquiry in classroom settings.
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U2 - 10.1023/A:1025651502936
DO - 10.1023/A:1025651502936
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0013327006
VL - 8
SP - 1
EP - 41
JO - International Journal of Computers for Mathematical Learning
JF - International Journal of Computers for Mathematical Learning
SN - 1382-3892
IS - 1
ER -