Re-presenting Complex Scientific Phenomena Using Agent-Based Modeling in Engineering Education

Abstract

A chronic problem in engineering education is that students' knowledge is superficial, fragmented, and ungenerative. I embark from the conjecture that these shortcomings result from cognitive discontinuity between intuitive forms of sense-making that deal with objects and actions and algebraic formulas traditionally used in this discipline. I propose and that a new form of representation, agent-based models, may offer greater cognitive continuity from sense-making to disciplinary knowledge. Study 1, an analysis of textbook content and lecturer practice, confirmed the cognitive-discontinuity conjecture by implicating the epistemic challenges of converting sense-making into formulas. Study 2 was a longitudinal evaluation of an agent-based, complementary curricular unit for materials science undergraduates. A micro-ethnographic case study of one student's progress through this unit documents the challenges and achievements of appropriating the agent based perspective as means of empowering sense-making.