1. MUSHI-Life Presenter Richard Joiner Designer : Chris Quintana

2. AERA – San Francisco 20062 MUSHI-Life MUSHI-Life is a multi-user simulation with integrated handheld devices Groups of students assume roles as environmental entomologists. A tablet computer shows a simulation

3. AERA – San Francisco 20063 MUSHI-Life The simulation contains different insect- like bugs with different physical characteristics

4. AERA – San Francisco 20064 MUSHI-Life A set of rules describes how the bugs reproduce, feed, and interact with other bugs in the environment. The survival ability of a given bug is governed –its phenotype, –different characteristics of the environment, –characteristics of other bugs it may encounter in the simulation.

5. AERA – San Francisco 20065 MUSHI-Life Students can view the overall simulation on the tablet computer Use individual PDAs to "capture" and "release" individual bugs Use them to view magnified, detailed portions of the global environment, such as the interaction of a given set of bugs or the characteristics of a given bug.

8. AERA – San Francisco 20068 MUSHI-Life MUSHI-Life is designed to support students' explorations of questions surrounding natural selection and adaptability. It may be used in an observational investigation to identify behavioral patterns related to survival within native contexts.

9. AERA – San Francisco 20069 MUSHI-Life It can be used to directly observe the effects of moving a bug to a non-native environment Users can explicitly manipulate bug characteristics to experimentally determine their relationship to adaptation and survival.

10. AERA – San Francisco 200610 MUSHI-Life MUSHI-Life provides a framework to give learners multiple linked representations of a simulation They can explore and manipulate a scientific simulation See different aspects of the simulation at different levels of granularity.

11. AERA – San Francisco 200611 MUSHI-Life See that there are different levels to understanding in complex simulations Understand how local interactions can impact the global behavior of the simulation. Engage in more reflective thinking Engage in the types of social interactions that can positively impact learning.

12. AERA – San Francisco 200612 MUSHI-Life The first prototype of MUSHI-Life was completed in June 2005. Initial focus group testing with students ranging from sixth to eight grade will begin in the late 2005, classroom-based research studies scheduled for early 2006.

13. AERA – San Francisco 200613 MUSHI-Lenses Representation of phenomena MUSHI use multiple and linked representations. Bug eyed representation through the hand held computer Overall view with the tablet computer.

14. AERA – San Francisco 200614 MUSHI-Lenses Design of activity structure for investigating these phenomena The learners engage in systematic observation for the purpose of discovery and or problem solving. The activity is an inquiry learning activity

15. AERA – San Francisco 200615 MUSHI-Lenses 1.students assigned a bug and asked to record the preferred food sources 2.survey the food sources 3.survey for a second time but the sources had been changed 4.predict which bugs would survive in the new conditions

16. AERA – San Francisco 200616 MUSHI-Lenses Incorporate instructional scaffolds to support learning MUSHI scaffolds the learner in a number of ways Roy Peas (2004) framework What and Why of Scaffolding –Fading

17. AERA – San Francisco 200617 MUSHI-Lenses How of Scaffolding Channelling –Recruitment – Getting the students interest –Reduction in the degrees of freedom – This involves simplifying the task –Direction maintenance – Keeping them in pursuit of a particular objective –Marking critical features – marking certain features of the task that are relevant –Frustration control – Making the activity less stressful Modelling solutions of a task

20. AERA – San Francisco 200620 MUSHI-Lenses How of Scaffolding Channelling –Recruitment – Getting the students interest –Reduction in the degrees of freedom – This involves simplifying the task –Direction maintenance – Keeping them in pursuit of a particular objective –Marking critical features – marking certain features of the task that are relevant –Frustration control – Making the activity less stressful Modelling solutions of a task