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April 15, 2002 ( 2 articles run over 2 pages) THE NEW SCIENTIFIC METHOD
'Wearable computers' bring unique opportunity to Santa Fe
Technology accompanies complexity theory into the classroom
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First article of two:
THE NEW SCIENTIFIC METHOD
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'Wearable computers' bring unique opportunity to Santa Fe David Thomson, left, and Adam Valdez, right, use the wearable computers during their Integrated Science class while Science instructor Greg Malone watches on Wednesday morning. Willie J. Allen Jr./The New Mexican |
By Jeff Tollefson/The New Mexican April 15, 2002
Seemingly healthy students mingled about the room, exchanging smiles and teenage pleasantries. All seemed well until one youth became sick. And then another. By the time their teacher had gathered them into a circle, the sickness had reached epidemic proportions: More than half of the students were ill.
"In nature, does everybody get sick at exactly the
same time?" asked Greg Malone, who is team teaching the Integrated
Science class with Mary Fusco at Capital High School.
No, came the reply.
"Wow, what happened there?" Malone asked, pointing to yet another ill student. And another.
When all was said and done, 16 of 19 students were "sick." They knew it because of the bright-red lights on the cassette-sized "wearable computers," or badges, strung around their necks like so many necklaces. The first phase of the Virus Badge Game, in which students mingle so their computers can talk to each other and exchange information, was complete. What remained was a mystery.
These students might not have known it, but wearable computers represent some of the simplest, yet most-advanced technology for education in the science of complexity. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed the badges; only a few institutions have them. With a little help from the Santa Fe Institute and a teacher at Santa Fe Preparatory School, schools in Santa Fe have unique access to their own set.
What these badges provide is an interactive lesson in the scientific process, deductive logic and problem solving. The focus is on "decentralized systems," a modern scientific term that loosely translates to "real life." Each badge operates individually according to a simple set of rules that can be programmed for different activities. It's up to participants to figure out what the rules are. In this case, the students had to figure out how this virus works, much as health officials in New York had to track down and describe what turned out to be the West Nile Virus in 1999.
"I think one person got me sick, and then I started getting other people sick," said ninth grader Joel Nava.
So what about the three people who didn't get sick? According to their badges, they encountered just as many people as everybody else. "Maybe they are immune," suggested fellow classmate Amanda Montaņo. Malone's class produced several questions and designed an experiment to answer one. They hypothesized that the same number of students would get sick, ran through the exercise again and discovered they were right. Conclusion for the first lab report: The hypothesis was true, but further testing is needed to verify the results.
"That's exactly what would happen if you were working for a company doing scientific work," Malone said. "You would make a conclusion, and usually it would recommend more testing." And as it turned out, the badges that didn't pick up the virus in the first round again remained healthy in the second, providing strong evidence in support of Montaņo's theory. Rather than stopping there, the students quickly completed a third experiment before class ended. After being bombarded yet again by sick people, the three virus-free students remained healthy. With more time, the class might have followed up on an idea by Yaneth Tena and a few classmates, who suggested that the class break into smaller groups and interact that way. In that scenario, the illness would have been limited to only one group - an indication that the virus might well have begun with one person, as suggested by Nava. Further experimentation might have revealed how long it takes for an infected person to show outward signs of the illness - namely the red lights.
But, as Malone reminded his students, and as his students once reminded him, the scientific process should be used to answer one question at a time.
"That's the beauty of it. It keeps everything clean and clear," Malone said.
2nd Article:
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Technology accompanies complexity theory
into the classroom |
| Their aim is to not only expand the curriculum but also
excite these young minds and promote critical thinking about
"decentralized systems" - ecosystems, evolutionary biology, human
behavior. These are systems in which individuals do what they do,
without a master plan, and organization emerges naturally. In short,
complexity takes a broad view of the real world. "We want them to feel comfortable with science. It's not just somebody walking around in a white lab coat. It's a curiosity about the world," Fusco said after wrapping up a recent class. By providing a scientific approach to everyday issues that don't fit neatly into the laboratory, she added, the science of complexity is perfectly suited this task. And although complexity is cutting-edge science, she noted that it has yet to break into secondary schools. "Santa Fe is really a hub for this sort of activity," said Eric Klopfer, director of the Teacher Education Program at MIT, during an Integrated Science class on Thursday. Computer scientists at MIT developed the "wearable computers" and StarLogo, a simple program that allows students to manipulate and create models of everything from termite colonies to forest fires. This technology is part of an effort by MIT and the Santa Fe Institute to advance complexity science in secondary schools. Klopfer often travels around the country to see teachers in action. He smiled while watching a class of mostly ninth graders work through "The Cooperation Game" on Thursday. The rules allow students to earn a dollar each if everybody cooperates during a private vote. If only one person votes to defect, that person collects the entire pot - in this case $35 from the class lab fees - but nobody earns anything if more than one person defects. After reproaching four defectors in the first round, the class played the game again, this time doubling the stakes. In the second round, those four cooperated but a another three people defected. Net result: zero payout. Although the class as a whole pushed for altruistic cooperation, where everybody benefits, ninth grader Anthony Garcia suggested that the appearance of cooperation itself will create a greater temptation for individuals to be greedy. "So then more people are going to defect," Garcia said. Klopfer said this kind of deductive reasoning is at the heart of science, which is really about looking for patterns, dissecting problems, developing hypotheses and designing experiments to find hidden meaning. "It teaches you about thinking, about analyzing systems and analyzing processes," he said. "And that hopefully will carry on to their lives beyond here." Klopfer said sees places like Santa Fe as pilot projects for a much larger effort introduce complexity to students around the world. Although access to the wearable computers is limited to a few school systems, the StarLogo modeling software is available for free at MIT's Internet site. Texas A&M University has already trained 70 teachers on the program, and MIT is working with schools as far away as Mexico and Brazil. This effort began in earnest four years ago when the Santa Fe Institute and MIT began holding teacher workshops on complexity. Although the modeling program had been developed, many of the ideas now incorporated into StarLogo had their roots in that meeting. Fusco, who attended one such workshop last year, and Malone used many of these ideas to create the Integrated Science class. The duo decided to team-teach the class and began working with Santa Fe Preparatory School teacher James Taylor, who also oversees educational outreach for the Santa Fe Institute. He conducts wearable-computer activities with various schools in the region as well as with kids at the Santa Fe Boys and Girls Club, where the computer lab is equipped with StarLogo. He is currently organizing this summer's free student workshop at the institute. For Malone, once a computer programmer by trade, complexity theory and computer modeling fit neatly into his efforts to merge computer technology in the classroom. He puts the class agenda, assignments and many course materials on the class's Internet site at http://www.electrickiva.com/. Using a digital camera, Malone posts pictures of student activities on the site as well. Students have even taken their tests on the Internet. Results from multiple-choice sections are immediately tallied when the tests are submitted. Parents can track the class and check their kids' grades on-line. "It's really a key art of the new equation," Malone said after a recent lab on computer modeling. "I think any good science education should be done with computers at the heart of it." Until this year, however, the science program didn't have its own computer lab. Crediting the school for getting the current computers up and running, Malone said Capital has set aside a new room for a real computer lab. Working with Taylor and the Santa Fe Institute, Capital is now looking for grants and other private funding to provide 25 new computers that would be dedicated to the science department. For more information about bringing complexity to a classroom near you or about the summer-school workshop for students, e-mail James Taylor at Jtaylor@sfprep.org.
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| ŠSanta Fe New Mexican 2002 |