Authors: Jason Elliot, Lori Adams, Amy Bruckman

The Authors discuss a short evaluation (8 classroom days total) of their software AquaMoose. AuqaMoose is a video-game like (though not enough like one to appease the requirements of highschool students) microworld, in which students use mathematical formulae to navigate the space and pass “rings” / gates. The software is intended to teach concepts in 3D math, parallel coordinates, etc. There is a great Papert quote about why the math curriculum looks like it does:

As a result every educated person vaguely remembers that y=x^2 is the equation of a
parabola. And although most parents have very little idea of why anyone should know this, they become indignant when their children do not. They assume that there must be a profound and objective reason known to those who better understand these things…Very few people ever suspect that the reason for what is included and what is not included in school math might be as crudely technological as the ease of production of parabolas with pencils!

The evaluation had a pre-test, a content test at the end of the unit, and some interviews with students in the experimental and the control conditions. The system also logged interactions. Basically every hypothesis that they tested was false. Here are the first 8. Only #7 was found to be true.

1. Students with higher visual ability will be more likely to benefit from using the AquaMOOSE software.
2. Students’ attitudes toward math and math learning will be more likely to improve in the experimental class than in the comparison class.
3. Students in the experimental class will report a more positive experience learning these topics.
4. Students in the experimental class will exhibit more motivation in post-interviews about these topics.
5. Students in the experimental class will be more likely to remember this particular unit in the end-year survey.
6. The experimental class will show an improvement in their assessment of their teacher’s support for their learning.
7. There will be no changes in the teacher attitude assessment for the comparison class.
8. Students with prior video game interest and experience will benefit more from AquaMOOSE both in math achievement and attitudes.

Lessons learned: Don’t tell students that they’ll be playing a video game. That sets expectations high and your software is sure to disappoint. The failure is a result of trying to shoehorn constructivist software into a traditional classroom. The game was also “too hard to be fun.” The future work plan is to release the software on the internet and let kids share their shapes and stuff. This gives social and constructivist motivation to the learning.