Fifth graders have a new science study partner: Betty.
Betty’s Brain, an animated “learning-by-teaching” computer program developed in part by a Vanderbilt professor, is helping some Nashville and Californian public school students learn science by teaching the cartoon Betty about river ecosystem processes such as photosynthesis and the food chain.
Professor of computer science and computer engineering Gautam Biswas and collaborators at Stanford University, with the support of the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education, created the system under the theory that students are motivated to “learn more deeply” when they monitor someone else’s learning.
“They do this in the context of a bigger story,” Biswas said. “Betty is a middle school student who wants to join the high school science club, but she doesn’t know enough to join the club yet, so the students are trying to teach her enough so that she can join.”
And unless students periodically check whether Betty understands the concepts and relations, she will refuse to take the test. In this way, Biswas has built in the strategy of self-monitoring.
“They’re not just learning a particular topic but learning how to learn,” Biswas said. “You’re not telling them to pay attention to XYZ but teaching them to monitor their understanding of concepts along the way and develop general metacognitive strategies for learning, independent of the topic.”
Betty’s Brain was developed in response to the crisis in science education and the need for innovative computer-based learning environments, according to the Teachable Agents Group at Vanderbilt Web site.
“There have been lots of reports that standards and achievement in science and math education in the U.S. are falling,” Biswas said. “On the other hand, we’re becoming more technologically advanced, so something needs to be done to make science education more fun and change the way things are done.”
So far the program has been incorporated into classrooms at Meigs Magnet School in Nashville and at schools in the Palo Alto and Los Altos school districts in California.
Sharon Melton, a teacher at Meigs, has already noticed changes in the classroom as a result of the program.
“I have found that students that struggle in science pay greater attention when they see their concept maps appear during front of class,” Melton said. “I think it is an invaluable tool to show students the work they have completed and let them see what others have done. It helps students that struggle see themselves as not alone.”
Barbara Rector, another teacher at Meigs, has found the program to be beneficial not only for students but for her as a teacher as well.
“The computers are great motivators and useful for the students to receive feedback, but there is still a need for student-teacher interaction,” Rector said. “The development of the teacher tools has helped me pinpoint the areas I need to address with my students.”
