EU innovation to stimulate science studies for youth
EU-funded researchers have developed a new software tool that uses semantic resources to help students form conceptual models of the scientific subjects they are studying, regardless if they are working alone or with others. This innovative workbench is an outcome of the DYNALEARN ('Engaging and informed tools for learning conceptual system knowledge') project, which has clinched EUR 2.45 million under the 'Information and communication technologies' ICT Theme of the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). The device allows students to store and compare these models with other standard models, according to the researchers. The main objective is to give students the support they need to define concepts relating to a field of knowledge. Students will use this information to enhance their models, which in turn will fuel their understanding of the represented domain. They will also be able to learn independently without losing any rigour and make considerable progress in the study of a subject. The University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands is coordinating the DYNALEARN project. The other seven partners are from Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Germany, Israel, Spain and the UK. Kicked off in 2009, DYNALEARN is stimulating the integration of well-established technological developments and bolstering European youth's interest in studying scientific disciplines. According to the consortium, DYNALEARN uses external semantic resources as a source of information. DBpedia is one such source, and it extracts information from Wikipedia to construct a semantic version of the Web-based encyclopaedia. The researchers said DBpedia 'is a community effort at extracting structured information from Wikipedia', effectively making it accessible from the web. The compiled knowledge can be used computationally, they said, adding that existing applications already connect with DBpedia. The outcome is better interoperability and establishment of common vocabularies. Thanks to DBpedia, DYNALEARN can also find equivalences between the terms entered by students and stored in this source. The partners said students can verify during the modelling whether or not the definitions extracted from DBpedia for the terms they entered are what they think they should be. Not only does this give terminology a boost, but it also fixes any potential errors. Models set up by students, instructors and others for a model repository are saved because of this application. The researchers said future students could use these models to enhance their own modelling. A student model is compared with another model that belongs to the same domain and is used as a standard. When the comparison is completed, users can identify similarities and differences between the models. The tool could also be used to recommend possible improvements by the students, the team pointed out. At the end of the day, the students will use the information to improve their models and understand the domain much better. DYNALEARN is both easy to use and very interactive. It stimulates interest and accelerates the assimilation of new knowledge. This innovative software provides insight to students who wish to expand their knowledge on the behaviour of scientific systems. Interested parties can find the latest version of the tool on the project's website. Registration is required to access the semantic repository.
Countries
Austria, Bulgaria, Brazil, Germany, Spain, Israel, United Kingdom