- Daniel Brenner
- Principal Investigator
- Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
- WestEd
- Barbara Buckley
- Former Principal Investigator (retired)
- Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
- WestEd
- Andrew Grillo-Hill
- Co-Principal Investigator
- Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
- WestEd
SimScientists Human Body Systems
NSF Awards: 1020264
2016 (see original presentation & discussion)
Grades 9-12
The SimScientists Human Body Systems project provides online exemplars of evidence-centered designed modules for fostering and assessing important science learning aligned with the NGSS. The suite aims to help students integrate what they have learned into nested mental models of human body systems and make connections between the various systems levels in order to deepen an understanding of body processes such as exercise and homeostasis. By completing task sets in the three instructional modules, students build and use models of human body systems at different levels of scale to investigate phenomena that will help them to understand the overall system and develop a mental model of the complex systems underlying body functions. A benchmark assessment tests how well they can do that following the completion of the modules. The Human Body Systems suite was used in an RCT study with high school biology students. Preliminary analysis of some constructed response data shows that treatment students demonstrate more of an integrated understanding of the connections versus control students who write more isolated structure-function statements that convey little sense of how these components work together.
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Barbara Rogoff
It’s great to see the use you are making of simulation and modeling to bring people inside of specialized knowledge! I hope that such efforts will grow and make use of the new technologies that go beyond talking heads and still stick diagrams! Thank you. Barbara Rogoff
Daniel Brenner
Principal Investigator
Hi Barbara,
We couldn’t agree more, Barbara. Thank you! It is our aim to use simulation-based instructional and benchmark assessments to help students better visualize and integrate what they know, and therefore allow them to better demonstrate their understanding of the underlying concepts and practices. We have targeted curriculum areas where we can use multi-faceted representations (e.g., animations, simulations, graphs, and interactive data tables) to connect various aspects of scientific phenomena.
Brian Drayton
A very rich environment, with a lot of possibilities for expansion (and not just in biology).
The video refers several times to students’ building models, but what I saw was models within which the students can manipulate values of the parameters present in the model, so as to test and run various experiments in a pretty engaging way. On the other hand, it means that the model has been built. I know you can’t do everything at once, and this is excellent as-is, but do you engage the students at all in the process of creating models (perhaps qualitative, perhaps on paper or something)? Or maybe down the road this will be part of your work?
Barbara Buckley
Former Principal Investigator (retired)
Hi Brian,
The question of how to engage students in building models while constraining them enough to make it possible for us to provide feedback and coaching required many hours of discussion. We didn’t want to reinforce incorrect models with untrue behavior, so we provide components that students must assemble into a model. However, the simulation does not ‘play’ if their model is incomplete or incorrect. For instance, when students try to run an incomplete model of a body system the action stops at the missing or incorrect organ and students are asked given some guidance and asked to try again.
We encourage teachers to focus on the complex systems aspect of HBS when they address weaknesses identified in the progress reports they and their students receive after each instructional module. We agree that model-based learning and complex systems are applicable to a wide range of phenomena.
Thank you!
Richard Hudson
Senior Executive Producer
The video does a good job of showcasing how you’ve created complex models in software. I wondered if the project ties the digital simulations to real-world labs in any way?
Barbara Buckley
Former Principal Investigator (retired)
Thank you, Richard.
Although real-world research does inform our simulations, we have not tied HBS simulations to real world labs in the classroom.
It would be an interesting project to work with a group of teachers who are skilled in lab work with their students.
One of the possible outcomes might be getting students involved in making predictions based on their work with HBS and testing them in labs.
For instance, our glucose metabolism simulations do not involve insulin. Figuring out how insulin is involved in glucose metabolism might stimulate students to elaborate the two glucose models (with and without glycogen) we provide in HBS.
Jerry Valadez
CEO
Greetings presenters. Great video work that introduces your progress to date. I also agree that extensions into disease states and effects on homeostasis would add good critical thinking and analysis opportunities for students. Engagement could also increase if they have family or friends with these disease states, such as diabetes.
I do have a question about the narration by Marina. Towards the end of the video she refers to the “question” they will further research. Can you clarify what the actual question is?
Good work. Thank you.
Barbara Buckley
Former Principal Investigator (retired)
Hi Jerry and thank you!
One of the questions in the HBS benchmark that elicits evidence of integrated understanding is the question included in the video, “How do these cellular components work together to enable athletic performance?” The research question we are investigating is whether the use of HBS instructional modules leads to more integrated understanding of the multiple levels of human body systems than business as usual. To do that we are coding students’ constructed responses, blind to treatment or control condition, and analyzing the extent of student models expressed in their responses in terms of how cellular components interact to support athletic performance. We are also coding for integrated vs fragmented statements. That work is currently underway. Stay tuned.
Robert Tinker
This application has high graphic value and provides nice interactions for students to explore the micro environments. I would like to know more about how the different levels of systems interact and how these ideas are developed.
Barbara Buckley
Former Principal Investigator (retired)
Hi Bob,
Thank you; developing the graphics was a major effort for the HBS project. We worked closely and interactively with Digital Artefacts to create representations that contextualize phenomena, too often presented abstractly, in the relevant structures of the human body — at multiple levels of scale. Part of that challenge was making representations accurate enough while not overloading the learner with distracting details. In addition, we used multiple representations on most screens and placed the action (after an initial run) under the control of the student to give students time to make connections between different representations and different levels of scale.
All of these were woven into a story of how molecules from the food we eat are extracted and transported to cells where the work of the human body is actually performed.
Daniel Brenner
Principal Investigator
How might assessment reports aligned to the NGSS be most useful to you? For the SimScientists HBS suite, teachers and students receive reports following the completion of the modules. For the benchmark, a Bayes net uses diagnostic variables from the tasks in the assessment to inform a student model and create the report. The reports provide information about student performance along two dimensions of the NGSS—the disciplinary core ideas and the science and engineering practices.
From a practical perspective, how might this information best be translated into a single overall grade that reflects what a student knows and understands?
Jianwei Zhang
This looks like a great simulation! In my research to engage elementary students in sustained inquiry and collaborative discourse focusing on core scientific topics, we have been focusing on human body systems in each school year. Do you think this tool can be used by Grade 5 students?
Barbara Buckley
Former Principal Investigator (retired)
Thank you, Jianwei, for your comment and question. The reading level might be a bit challenging for 5th graders, but with additional scaffolding by the teacher, it would be worth a try. We use the interface to help learners connect the graphics and language. In our professional development, we encourage teachers to review class progress reports and lead discussions or other group activities that help students to better understand challenging concepts or practices.
By the way, the SimScientists group at WestEd has developed and is testing middle school life science modules for human body systems, cells, and ecosystems. For more information visit simscientists.org.
Best wishes for your important work with elementary students.
Jianwei Zhang
Thanks Barbara. I looked at your website, and noticed another simulation: “Climate includes developing an understanding of the relationship between the latitude and differential heating and how it affects climate patterns. Students describe and interpret observations, predict relationships, vary model parameters to simulate climate characteristics.” I wonder how I can access these simulations. Are they online, open access?
Daniel Brenner
Principal Investigator
The climate suite is still being developed under a different project, SimScientists Crosscutting Concepts: Progressions in Earth Systems also funded by NSF (REAL). The project goal is to determine how learning of crosscutting concepts of Systems, Scale, and Cycles progresses across three topics in middle school Earth science: Geosphere, Climate, and Ecosystems. If you would be interested in participating in that study, you can contact Edys Quellmalz at equellm@wested.org.
Daniel Brenner
Principal Investigator
Would using the SimScientists HBS suite be more appealing if it were available in HTML5 rather than Flash? Our simulation-based suites were originally programmed in Flash by Charlie Brown, and more recently in conjunction with the team from Digital Artefacts who are also responsible for the incredible artwork and animations in our modules. Charlie and Dave Brown are converting the HBS suite to HTML5. The modules are being tested in classrooms this month and will be available in the fall of the 2016-2017 school year. Please let us know if you are interested in using these in your classes!
Further posting is closed as the event has ended.