ABSTRACT

This multiple case study focused on the implementation of a computer-aided design (CAD) simulation to help students engage in engineering design to learn science concepts. Our findings describe three case studies that adopted the same learning design and adapted it to three different populations, settings, and classroom contexts: at the middle-school, high-school, and pre-service teaching levels. Although the classroom orchestration of the particular learning design was customised for specific audiences and contexts, findings from this study suggest that the core components of the learning design, such as content, assessment, and pedagogy, and their alignment among them, resulted in students’ learning. Specifically, results from a pre-post science assessment suggest that the three student groups arrived at similar understanding post-intervention levels, along with a significant aggregate growth in their scientific understanding. Regarding design performance, students in different groups demonstrated different levels of success in meeting design constraints. The findings also suggest that students’ success rate in meeting the design constraints directly influenced their final design performance, where middle-school students had better performance than students in the other groups. That is, across the board, students increased their conceptual understanding of heat transfer, Earth, and solar science and were able to produce feasible designs. Implications of the study include how learning experiences with engineering and science simulations should be designed so that teachers can adopt and adapt materials for their specific audiences, contexts, and settings.

摘要

这个多案例研究侧重于计算机辅助设计 (CAD) 模拟的实施，以帮助学生参与工程设计以学习科学概念。我们的研究结果描述了三个案例研究，它们采用了相同的学习设计，并将其应用于三种不同的人群、环境和课堂环境：中学、高中和职前教学水平。尽管特定学习设计的课堂编排是为特定受众和环境定制的，但本研究的结果表明，学习设计的核心组成部分，如内容、评估和教学法，以及它们之间的一致性，导致学生的学习。具体来说，前科学评估的结果表明，三个学生群体在干预后达到了相似的理解水平，并且他们的科学理解总体上有了显着的增长。在设计表现方面，不同组别的学生在满足设计约束方面表现出不同程度的成功。研究结果还表明，学生满足设计约束的成功率直接影响了他们最终的设计表现，其中中学生的表现优于其他组的学生。也就是说，学生们全面提高了对传热、地球和太阳能科学的概念理解，并能够产生可行的设计。