Bifocal Biology: Combining Physical and Virtual Labs to Support Inquiry in Biological Systems

Abstract

In this paper we describe a pilot study of an approach to STEM inquiry learning called Bifocal Modeling (Blikstein, 2010) with a group of high school students studying bacterial growth. Students grew real bacteria, and then collaboratively designed a conceptual agent-based model of bacteria to mimic the observed growth. Observations and student notes suggest that the activity helped students demonstrate their knowledge of bacterial growth by formalizing it from a list of unorganized facts into an accurate pseudo-computational model. In completing their task, they also critically reflected on the assumptions built into the modeling activity itself, and demonstrated familiarity with some core principles of complex systems.