Using simulations for learning Educa Online 2014, oeb14
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CC-By-SA By http://www.slideshare.net/bitjungle/ Slides for a workshop on designing interactive simulation activities. Online Educa 2014 in Berlin.
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Using simulations for learning Educa Online 2014, oeb14
- 1. Using Simulations for Learning Rune Mathisen @bitjungle Online Educa 2014-12-04
- 2. Workshop Goals Learn how to design interactive simulation activities (and learn some chemical engineering as an added bonus)
- 3. Workshop Agenda o Me, NDLA, PhET and Sims o 20 mins learning activity o Summing up o Playing with sims
- 4. Me
- 5. NDLA Map CC BY-SA by Júlio Reis and João David Tereso
- 6. PhET
- 7. Why Sims?
- 9. The Learning Activity 20 mins… Download worksheet from http://fagstoff.no/io-worksheet Join the discussion at http://fagstoff.no/io-discuss
- 10. Time’s up!
- 11. Summing Up the Learning Activity
- 12. Summing Up the Learning Activity
- 13. - What did you like about the learning activity design? - What would you like to improve? 5 mins… Join the discussion at http://fagstoff.no/io-discuss
- 14. PhET Learning Activity Guideline
- 15. Designing a Learning Activity 1. Define specific learning goals
- 16. Designing a Learning Activity 1. Define specific learning goals 2. Give only minimal directions on sim use
- 17. Designing a Learning Activity 1. Define specific learning goals 2. Give only minimal directions on sim use 3. Connect and build on students’ prior knowledge and understanding
- 18. Designing a Learning Activity 1. Define specific learning goals 2. Give only minimal directions on sim use 3. Connect and build on students’ prior knowledge and understanding 4. Encourage students to use sense-making and reasoning
- 19. Designing a Learning Activity 1. Define specific learning goals 2. Give only minimal directions on sim use 3. Connect and build on students’ prior knowledge and understanding 4. Encourage students to use sense-making and reasoning 5. Connect to and make sense of real-world experiences
- 20. Designing a Learning Activity 1. Define specific learning goals 2. Give only minimal directions on sim use 3. Connect and build on students’ prior knowledge and understanding 4. Encourage students to use sense-making and reasoning 5. Connect to and make sense of real-world experiences 6. Design collaborative activities
- 21. Designing a Learning Activity 1. Define specific learning goals 2. Give only minimal directions on sim use 3. Connect and build on students’ prior knowledge and understanding 4. Encourage students to use sense-making and reasoning 5. Connect to and make sense of real-world experiences 6. Design collaborative activities 7. Help students monitor their understanding
- 22. Getting to know PhET
- 23. PhET
- 24. A PhET Simulation Page
- 25. Simulation Teacher Guide and Teaching Ideas
- 27. Go play with the sims! http://phet.colorado.edu Join the discussion at http://fagstoff.no/io-discuss
Editor's Notes
- Welcome to this workshop on using simulations for learning. [NEXT]
- Our goal for this workshop is to learn how to design interactive simulation activities. I want this workshop to be an active and engaging experience for you, and I want you to place yourself in a students position. In a few moments you will start doing a learning activity that I have designed, based on what I believe is best practice. And, as an added bonus to this workshop on learning activity design, you may learn some chemical engineering as well. [NEXT]
- But before we start the learning activity, I will give a brief introduction to myself, NDLA and PhET. I will also say a few words on why I like to use simulations in my classes. Then you will have about 20 minutes for the learning activity. After that I will sum up both the learning activity, and also talk about how I worked when designing the activity. At the end of this workshop I want you to play with sims on the PhET web site, and maybe find inspiration for designing your own simulation based learning activity. [NEXT]
- A few words about myself. I started my working life at this petrochemical plant, working 7 years as a skilled process operator. Quite a few hours, nights and weekends, were spent in this control room.[POINT] Then I did a Master of Science in chemical engineering, and returned to the petrochemical company as a research engineer. In 2007 I began my career as a maths, science and vocational training teacher in an upper secondary school [POINT] (lower right picture). Then, in 2012, I started working for the Norwegian Digital Learning Arena (or NDLA for short). [NEXT]
- NDLA provides students in upper secondary schools with free Creative Commons licensed digital learning resources, and I want to explain the background for this. The Norwegian Education Act gives all youth the right to upper secondary education, and also the right to have digital equipment and access to digital learning resources. Norway is divided into 19 counties, and the county authorities are the owners of the upper secondary schools. This makes the county authorities responsible for providing the students with digital equipment and learning resources. As a response to this, NDLA was initiated by 18 of the 19 county authorities in 2007, to purchase, produce and distribute digital learning materials. [NEXT]
- PhET is a great website with lots of interactive simulations and activities for science and math. Everything is free and open source, just like the learning resources from NDLA. You can even download the entire PhET web site and make your own local installation. PhET is a non-profit project at the University of Colorado. All simulations are research based, both in terms on how students learn and how they interact with the simulations. You may find more information on this research at their web site. I really like to use the simulations from PhET. I find them user friendly to operate, but at the same time they are challenging and flexible. I will demonstrate that to you soon, when we use a simulation meant for science education in a vocational training context. [NEXT]
- Now, there’s one question I’d like to answer before we get started on the learning activity. Since you are here at this workshop, you may have reflected on this question already: why do we want to use sims? Isn’t real life better? [NEXT]
- My answer to this question can be summed up in one word: flexibility. Real life isn’t always better, and some times not even available, at least when it comes to experimentation. Consider topics like climate, tectonic plates or radioactive elements. These are topics where experimentation is difficult and maybe even unwanted, but sims gives us the flexibility to do experiments anyway. In my own classes sims give me the flexibility to have many student active at work all the time, rather than waiting for availability of a physical process rig. And a physical rig is often very restricted in itself, there are only a few possible set-ups to work with. Sims gives me the flexibility to do advanced training that is not possible on the physical rig. And of course, using sims means much less spills and mess. [NEXT]
- Enough talk for now, it’s time to start the learning activity. You've all been given a worksheet that you are going to use now. I am going to give you minimal instructions on how to solve the problems, that is up to you to figure out. The topic for this learning activity is “inputs and outputs in unit operations”, where a “unit operation” is a small part of a larger industrial process. The ultimate goal is to learn how to control large industrial processes. On the worksheet you will find a link to both the simulator you are going to operate, and also some scholarly text for the topic in question. You do not need to read all the scholarly text, working with the simulator probably gives you all the answers you need, but the text may be provide additional support. I will give you 20 minutes for this part of the workshop, and I will be available all the time. Please do ask me if you have any questions, but I would also encourage you to cooperate and discuss the problems on the worksheet with each other. As a tool for working together on this activity, I have set up a collaborative text document [POINT TO LINK]. You can also download the worksheet if you want a digital copy of it [POINT TO LINK]. Good luck! [HOLD FOR 20 MINS]
- Ok, put your pencils down. I would like to sum up at this point, and I’ll start with the worksheet that you have been working on for the past 20 minutes. [NEXT]
- This is the system you have been working with. It has four inputs, meaning stuff that you can manipulate to induce changes to the system. It has two outputs, meaning stuff that changes when you manipulate the inputs. [POINT TO INPUTS] The inputs are the valves on the inlet and outlet of the tank, the shaker for adding chemicals to the tank and a heater used for evaporating the solvent. A solvent is a liquid used to dissolve the solid added. [POINT TO OUTPUTS] The outputs are the liquid level in the tank and the concentration of the solute. By solute we mean the dissolved solid. [NEXT]
- All the inputs have different effects on the outputs. One might think that the two valves have opposite effect on the system as they are located on the inlet and outlet of the tank, but that is not the case. Opening the inlet valve will decrease the concentration, but the outlet valve does not have any effect on the concentration. This table shows how all the inputs affect the outputs. A horizontal arrow means that the input does not have an effect on the specified output. Solving the final problem on the worksheet is easiest when you take advantage of all the inputs available in the system. [NEXT]
- Now, before I move on to explain my reasoning behind the learning activity design, I would like you to discuss these questions with your neighbor: * What did you like about this learning activity design? * What would you like to improve on in this learning activity design? Please use the collaborative text document [POINT TO LINK] if you want to give feedback to me on this, or if you want to discuss across the room. Please start your discussions, I’ll be back in 5 minutes. [HOLD FOR 5 MINS]
- Ok, lets get started again. I have followed the guidelines provided by PhET when designing the learning activity that you have just finished, and you have these guidelines in your handouts. I will walk you through the guideline now, relating each of the recommendations to my learning activity design work. [NEXT]
- The first thing I did when designing this learning activity, was to find relevant competence goals from the Norwegian curriculum. From these competence goals I defined specific learning goals for the activity. Remember that most PhET simulations are very open and flexible, and that you can adjust them for your needs by making well-defined learning goals. In my case, I repurposed a simulation made for science education into a useful tool in vocational training by defining the right learning goals for the activity. [NEXT]
- I wanted to facilitate active thinking when designing the learning activity. I wanted you to explore and use sense making. I did not want you to just reproduce things I demonstrated to you. That's why you were left on your own at the start of the learning activity, and that's why I did not give you a manual for the simulator. [NEXT]
- You should of course always build on students prior knowledge and understanding. I knew little about you and your prior knowledge in advance, so I had to take some risks here. I knew you where adults, probably working in the education sector, and I assumed that you had no experience in chemical engineering. This particular learning activity was originally designed for 16 year olds that aspire to be chemical process plant operators, but I assumed that you had sufficient background and motivation for completing the learning activity. [NEXT]
- What do you do when the tank is full, and you want to lower the concentration even more? That's one of the questions you were asked to find the solution to in the learning activity. You can find the answer to that by reasoning and experimentation using the simulation. I did not want you to simply fill in pre-defined check boxes for the right answers, but rather encourage you to use your understanding and reasoning. [NEXT]
- Students learn more when they experience something that feels relevant to them. The solid shaker and the overall layout of the simulator we have used in our learning activity may not feel relevant for a chemical engineer. But at an introductory level, this simulator will be experienced by the learners as far more relevant than an industrial strength simulation tool. [NEXT]
- Students learn more when they communicate their ideas and reasoning to each other. At the start of the learning activity I encouraged you to cooperate and discuss the problems. At the same time I stepped back from the podium, giving you room to talk to each other. I also gave you a tool to share thoughts and ideas across the room (that was the collaborative text document). [IMPROVISE HERE, DEPENDING ON HOW THE COLLABORATION WORKED] [NEXT]
- The final problem in the worksheet was adjusting the system so that you have exactly 0.7 liters of liquid in the tank, and a concentration of exactly 2.000 mol/liter. That question was designed so that you could do a self-assessment. In order to solve the problem effectively, you need a good understanding of how the simulation works, and an understanding of how the inputs and outputs are related. Trial-and-error will also (eventually) work, but if that was your solution strategy I hope you will reflect around other possible strategies. [NEXT]
- For the final minutes of this workshop, I want you to play around on the PhET web site. Familiarize yourself with the resources available there, and maybe get inspiration for designing your own learning activities. But let me give you a few tips in using the web site first. [NEXT]
- On the PhET front page there is a large and nice HTML5 logo. PhET simulations are available in different technologies: Java, Flash and HTML5, and PhET are in the process of converting older Java and Flash simulations to HTML5. On the bottom of this page you find all available languages. Right now, the web site Is available in 37 languages. If you don’t find your language there, you may help translating the web site or individual simulations. Finally, you find the sims by pressing the “Play with sims…” button. But before we do that, I’ll show you how to navigate sim page. [NEXT]
- Here is a typical simulation page on the PhET site. This is the page for the simulator I had embedded on the NDLA page you used for the learning activity. On the PhET site, there are a couple of things I want you to be aware of. First, when you start a simulation, look for a “Run in HTML5” button. If it’s there, that’s the preferred way to start the simulation. Second, you really should scroll down on a simulation page, chances are good you will find valuable resources further down the page.[NEXT]
- As an example, her are the teaching resources for the concentration simulation. You will find a useful teachers guide for the simulation, and also a collection of teaching ideas. When I get home, I will of course submit my learning activity to this page. [NEXT]
- One of the sections of the PhET site that you want to have a look at, is the ”For Teachers” pages. There you will find teacher-contributed activities, and many good tips for using PhET. I recommend that you take a look at the material there. You will find many really good videos and other resources that will enable you to make optimal use of the simulations in your class. [NEXT]
- And finally, here is the web link to the PhET web site. Lets go. If you find something interesting that you would like to share with me or the others, please use the collaborative text document [POINT TO LINK]