{"pk":28951,"title":"Learning by doing: Supporting experimentation in inquiry-based modeling","subtitle":null,"abstract":"Inquiry-based modeling plays an important role in science; Science makes progress through formulating and evaluatingquestions, hypothesis, and arguments. The inquiry-based modeling approach also enhances learning about science. How-ever, engaging in modeling requires domain knowledge as well as quantitative skills. The Virtual Ecological ResearchAssistant (VERA) is an interactive learning environment that supports inquiry-based modeling for citizen and studentscientists. VERA provides a visual language for conceptual modeling in the domain of ecology and an AI compiler forautomatic generation of agent-based simulations in the process of constructing, evaluating, and revising the models. Weconducted a pilot study with college-level biology students (N=15) using VERA for modeling ecological phenomena. The2-hour pre- and post-test study demonstrates gains in the learning of ecological content knowledge. We also found that theuse of the Encyclopedia of Life as a source of domain knowledge helped students create more complex models.","language":"eng","license":{"name":"","short_name":"","text":null,"url":""},"keywords":[],"section":"Poster Presentations with Abstracts","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/67t4g7fj","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Sungeun","middle_name":"","last_name":"An","name_suffix":"","institution":"Georgia Institute of Technology","department":""},{"first_name":"Robert","middle_name":"","last_name":"Bates","name_suffix":"","institution":"Georgia Institute of Technology","department":""},{"first_name":"Jennifer","middle_name":"","last_name":"Hammock","name_suffix":"","institution":"Smithsonian Institution","department":""},{"first_name":"Spencer","middle_name":"","last_name":"Rugaber","name_suffix":"","institution":"Georgia Institute of Technology","department":""},{"first_name":"Emily","middle_name":"","last_name":"Weigel","name_suffix":"","institution":"Georgia Institute of Technology","department":""},{"first_name":"Ashok","middle_name":"","last_name":"Goel","name_suffix":"","institution":"Georgia Institute of Technology","department":""}],"date_submitted":null,"date_accepted":null,"date_published":"2019-01-01T18:00:00Z","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/28951/galley/18822/download/"}]}