An Interview With Wouter van Joolingen [4]

渔夫之

<h3><font style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Professor Wouter van Joolingen is scientific director of Freudenthal Institute, Utrecht University, The Netherlands. A professor of science and mathematics education, Wouter is a leading researcher in Europe on Simulation-based Learning.<br><br>On Sept 8th, Yiyu had an online interview with Professor Wouter van Joolingen.<br></font></h3> <h3><font style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Yiyu: Hello Wouter, Thank you for accepting my interview invitation. Would you tell us more about your Institute?<br><br>Wouter: The Freudenthal Institute is part of the Science Faculty of Utrecht University, The Netherlands. It is the largest institute for research in Mathematics and Science Education in the Netherlands and one of the largest in this area in the world. We specialize in developing and testing new way of approaching mathematics and science learning and have a special eye for the use of modern technology to support learning by inquiry and developing scientific literacy in students in the context of science.<br></font></h3> <h3><font style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br>Yiyu: Please would you share us a little bit on your research.<br><br>Wouter: My research focus on modeling, the approach to teaching in which students create computer models of scientific phenomena. My aim is to make students aware of the roles of models in science and providing them with an experience of joy and achievement in scientific endeavor. For this I develop software that makes computer modeling accessible to young learners, from the age of about 10. Students create computer models that can actually be simulated by drawing and adding qualitative behavior to elements in the drawing. We call this approach drawing-based modeling. So far we have had 12 year olds creating models of evolution, 10 year olds explaining traffic congestion by creating models and older students exploring the mechanisms in nerve cells. And there is much more to come.<br><br></font></h3> <h3><font style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Yiyu: You have a paper published in Science Magazine. Please would you let us know some detail about the paper?<br><br>Wouter: The paper in Science concerns one of my previous projects, called SCY, Science Created by You. The project resulted in an integrated environment for inquiry learning and was developed with partners in Norway, Estonia, Germany, Canada and the Netherlands. The innovation of this system was that we made tools work together mediated by emerging learning objects, learner created items that moved from tool to tool to represent the learning process. Also we developed methods for creating teaching and learning scenarios supported by simulation and modeling technology. One of the SCY applications won an innovation prize that led to the publication in Science.<br></font></h3> <h3><font style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Yiyu: The 3rd Asia-Europe Symposium on Simulation and Serious Games will be held in China on 3 Dec 2016. And you are the symposium chair. Can you talk more about the symposium?<br>  <br>Wouter: In the symposium we hope to bring together scholars from an educational background with researchers and developers with a more technical background in the area of simulation, serious games, and VR technology. I see enormous potential in the technology for the realization of inquiry learning and really hope that this symposium will lead to fruitful exchange of ideas and further collaboration for educational applications of VR, simulation and serious games.<br><br></font></h3> <h3><font style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">For more information about the Third Asia-Europe Symposium on Simulation and Serious Games, please visit us at https://a.meipian.me/4slfmpq<br><br><br><br><br><br></font></h3>