Community College Journal - October/November 2010

... ATE SHOWCASE
Igniting a SPARK
ATE simulation program underscores
the value of guided practice

BY JOHN CHAMBERLAIN, PAUL HORWITZ, AL KOON, AND TRUDI LORD

As a teacher, there is a certain feeling you get when you look around the room and realize a lesson is going great. The students are attentive and interested. They nod their heads with clear understanding and engage in discussion. It’s clear by looking in their eyes that an idea is taking hold. Then it comes time for a quiz or a lab—and the bottom falls out. A student uses the wrong component,
overworks the machinery, or omits a crucial step in procedure.

All educators know from experience how easy it is to overestimate what students are learning. This is especially true when teaching students about the use of technical machinery and electronics.

Practice alone doesn’t make perfect. Students need feedback to make adjustments and to learn from their mistakes.

If only they’d had a chance to use the multimeter, or run the PCR machine, or troubleshoot the fuel injector a few more times. They knew what they were supposed to do; they just didn’t have enough practice doing it. Right?

Well, maybe. But simply giving students more time with those devices might not have helped much. Without expert guidance, they would most likely have blown the fuse, or contaminated the DNA, or mistuned the fuel injector. Without some kind of mental model of how those devices work, simply tinkering aimlessly with them is an inefficient way to learn.

Technology Can Help

Enter the age of computer simulation. With it, educators can create models: graphic representations of systems or devices linked to an interactive model that implements their function.

Instructors can program computers to generate a series of challenges that require students to use the simulation for a particular purpose—measuring a voltage, sequencing a gene, or tuning an engine, for instance. Knowing what challenge the students faced, the computer can analyze their actions and provide practical feedback, point out errors, offer suggestions, and even present a brief tutorial on difficult topics. It can also score their performance and encourage them to repeat a challenge (with randomly generated variations), seeking both improved scores and increased understanding.

Of course, no matter how well students score on these artificial tests, they also need to practice on real equipment. No one wants to hire a biotechnician, for instance, who has never worked with a PCR cycler. The simulation, no matter how realistic, is intended to supplement the real world, not supplant it. The extra practice and deeper understanding provided to students who use online formative assessments give them an advantage in the classroom and in the job market.

Light a SPARK

This understanding led to the creation of the Simulations for Performance Assessments that Report on Knowledge and Skills (SPARKS) Project. With support from the National Science Foundation’s Advanced Technological Education program, SPARKS creates formative assessments for electronics instruction.