Communications of the ACM
Creative, On-Line Learning Tool Helps Students Tackle Real-World Problems
The ThinkSpace project allows "students [to] apply material from previous classes to a plausible, real-world situation," says Iowas State University professor Ann Marie VanDerZanden.
Credit: Bob Elbert / Iowa State University
Iowa State University researchers have developed ThinkSpace, a computer interface that helps students use what they have learned in horticulture classrooms and apply it to real-world problems.
ThinkSpace was designed to help students solve ill-structured problems, which may have multiple ways to arrive at a correct answer. "It forces students to take this piece of information, and that piece of information, and another piece of information, and then figure out what is wrong — in this case with a plant," says Iowa State professor Ann Marie VanDerZanden. She says the process leverages the classroom experience into something that students can use after they graduate.
VanDerZanden and her research team recently received a grant to develop ThinkSpace for use in other academic fields in conjunction with faculty members at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; the University of Wisconsin, Madison; and Kansas State University, Manhattan.
From Iowa State University News Service
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