MR. VETRO: A COLLECTIVE SIMULATION APPLICATION FOR PHYSIOLOGY EDUCATION

Alexander Repenning*, Andri Ioannidou, AgentSheets, Inc., 6560 Gunpark Dr., Suite D, Boulder, CO 80301, U.S.A.

Christof Daetwyler, Drexel University, College of Medicine, 2900 Queen Lane, Room 114L, PA 19129-1096, U.S.A.

PURPOSE: Technology has become prevalent in K-12 science education without fundamentally improving test scores or student attitudes. We claim the core of the problem is how technology is being used in schools. The standard computer lab hides students behind large monitors and ignores social aspects of learning, while promising technologies such as simulations are not used to their full potential. For instance, physiology simulations often follow textbooks by sequentially exposing individual systems, leaving out essential comprehension of interdependent complex systems. Our main objective is to create engaging discovery-oriented science learning modules that uniquely combine social learning pedagogies with distributed simulation technology.

METHODS: We have begun creating a new kind of infrastructure, called Collective Simulations, which creates immersive learning experiences based on wirelessly connected handheld computers. This enables radically different classroom learning experiences that engage students and teachers simultaneously. As part of Mr. Vetro collective simulation prototype, students learn about physiology through technology-enhanced role-play. Each group controls physiological variables of a single organ on their handheld computer. A central simulation gathers all the data and projects them. In an example activity, the heart and lungs teams collaborate and engage in a teacher-facilitated discourse to adjust parameters and reach homeostasis.

RESULTS: Preliminary results from feasibility studies are encouraging in that students using Mr. Vetro to learn about physiology show higher learning gains than students taught the same material with traditional means.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS: We will implement a blood-centric view and add systems such as the renal and digestive system to Mr. Vetro.