This article describes the redesign of a project-based course on soft and biological materials to include computational modeling. Including the construction of computational models in the course is described as a shift from constructivism—a theory that characterizes the development of formal reasoning, to constructionism—a theory that focuses on learning while constructing artifacts. This shift ameliorated two drawbacks in the original course: the limited conceptualization of entropy resulting from an unproductive use of the disorder metaphor, and the dependence of most students on the teacher for writing theoretical explanations for their final papers. In the redesigned curriculum, computer simulations provide concrete dynamic representations that students can draw upon for developing nuanced, formal reasoning on entropy and the 2nd law of thermodynamics. In addition, core computational models act as a flexible web that can be extended and modified, and allow a significant proportion of the students to build theoretical models on their own. We conclude that while the new design reflects a shift towards constructionism, we did not adopt a fully constructionist approach, rather a blend of constructivist and constructionist approaches.

中文翻译：

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改变学习方式：通过建构主义的视角重新设计基于项目的软物质课程

本文介绍了有关软性和生物材料的基于项目的课程的重新设计，其中包括计算建模。在课程中包括计算模型的构建被描述为从建构主义（一种表征形式推理发展的理论）到建构主义（一种专注于在构造人工制品时进行学习的理论）的转变。这种转变减轻了原始课程中的两个弊端：因无序使用隐喻而导致的熵概念化有限，以及大多数学生依赖老师为最终论文撰写理论解释。在重新设计的课程中，计算机模拟提供了具体的动态表示形式，学生可以利用它们来开发细微的，熵的形式推理和热力学第二定律。此外，核心计算模型是一个灵活的网络，可以扩展和修改，并允许很大比例的学生自行建立理论模型。我们得出的结论是，尽管新设计反映了向建构主义的转变，但我们并未采用完全的建构主义方法，而是将建构主义和建构主义方法结合在一起。