top of page
AESSSG2014
Second Asia-Europe Symposium on Simulation & Serious Games
Oct 1-2, 2014, Zwolle, The Netherlands
A Germ for Young European Scientists: Drawing-based Modeling
Synopsis: An important movement in European science education is learning by modeling. This is part of the wish to make science education more inquiry oriented in order to interest more people for a career in science and technology. Dynamic models play a central role in science as a main vehicle to express and evaluate our understanding of complex systems. Therefore, the ability to reason with and about models and to create models of dynamic systems is an important higher order thinking skill. In teaching young children how to model, the choice for model representation is an important one. Representations vary from mathematical formula, programming languages and diagrammatic representations.
In the presentation I will present SimSketch, an approach in which children can create dynamic, multi-agent models, based on drawings. By representing systems in drawings, assigning behavior to elements of the drawing and simulate the resulting model, children can express and test their ideas about natural and artificial systems. In the presentation I will both present conceptual and technical issues related to SimSketch as well as studies in which children have used SimSketch to represent systems such as the Solar System, traffic and the spreading of diseases. The role of this approach will be discussed in the context of European programs such as Horizon2020.
Invited Speakers
About The Speaker:
Wouter van Joolingen is professor of Science & Mathematics Education at the Freudenthal Institute, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands and at ELAN, institute for teacher education & science communication. He has a background in physics and educational technology and has been creating and studying several system to support inquiry learning for science.
About The Speaker:
Professor Baohui ZHANG is dean of The School of Education, Shaanxi Normal University, Xian/China. He was a full professor with the Institute of Education, Nanjing University (China), and an assistant professor with the National Institute of Education (Singapore). He received his Master degree in Beijing Normal University in 1994 and PhD in Educational Technology from the University of Michigan, USA in 2003.
Science Learning in Asia
Synopsis: The Learning Sciences is an interdisciplinary field that studies how people from various age groups learn and how to design and implement learning environments based on results of learning research (http://www.isls.org/ISLS_Vision_2009.pdf). The signature methodology of the learning sciences is called “design research”; it is “a systematic but flexible methodology aimed to improve educational practices through iterative analysis, design, development, and implementation, based on collaboration among researchers and practitioners in real-world settings, and leading to contextually-sensitive design principles and theories (Wang & Hannafin, p. 6).” I will present cases from Singapore and China that illustrate how my colleagues and I developed, implemented, and evaluated learning innovations to introduce education changes, especially when using modeling and simulation tools. The presentation will also describe communities who claim to be “learning sciences oriented” but with different traditions. Possibilities and implications for building links between different learning sciences communities will be discussed.
Society of Europe-Asia Partnership on Education & Research
Organized by
Sponsored by
bottom of page