Ryerson professor Ali Mazalek, along with Mike Tissenbaum of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and Sadhana Puntambekar from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW), have been granted a $2.9 million USD grant from the National Science Foundation for their integrative learning research project, SimSnap.
Mazalek is director of Ryerson’s Synesthetic Media Lab and has been teaching at the RTA School of Media since 2013. She and her American colleagues are now diving into their research project SimSnap. SimSnap is a simulation that aims to accomplish a fluid learning environment in middle school classrooms that adapts to the content and the students’ learning needs. The goal is to integrate several interfaces, in the form of tablets that can be snapped together or separated, in order to allow for individual, collaborative, and teacher-led learning.
Mazalek’s interest in merging the worlds of science and art through human-computer interaction developed during her graduate years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
“It’s always exciting to take on a new challenge, especially when most of the proposals you put forward don’t get funded,” she said. “It’s nice to know we’ll have the money and the space to actually do this.”
Mazalek believes that the need for technological advancement in middle school classrooms is especially critical.
“They’re really starting to reason more at a higher level, but they don’t have the tools right now to construct models of their own and test their hypotheses. That ability to reason about complex phenomena is something that technology can help with a lot.”
Since receiving the grant, Mazalek and her colleagues have already started their research remotely. SimSnap has three ultimate goals. The first of these is to increase environmental awareness among K-12 students.
“If we continue to destroy the environment around us, we will create a situation in which it’s very difficult to cultivate plants, so we want to convey this worldview of supporting the environment,” she said.
By partnering with her American colleagues in Chicago, IL and Madison, WI, Mazalek hopes to also bring SimSnap to underserved communities that often lack access to the green space required for growing plants and vegetables. Through these computational tools, students would be able to learn about all the factors that allow for healthy plant growth, from the lower level genetics to overall environmental conditions.
The third element of her grant proposal is an investigation into the appropriate balance between individual, collaborative and instructor-led learning styles. “We’re interested in this dynamic between all three learning styles, because maybe it’s not the same balance for every learning environment. We want to be able to provide this fluid, dynamic change between moments where students can each learn and reflect individually and moments where they can come together as groups to share their simulations.”
Although the research project is still in its beginning stages, Mazalek has already hired two research students and is looking to hire more in the coming months.
When discussing the STEM and education fields in Canada, one of her critiques is that she wishes more undergraduate students would get involved in some form of research for the purpose of developing dynamic, problem-solving skills.
Mazalek admits to working very hard but she uses her time outdoors as a way to rest and process her research so that she comes back to work refreshed.
She carves out the time to go hiking, kayaking and skiing in order to bring balance to her life and advises others to do the same by learning the importance of establishing boundaries.
“Do all the other things that are important to your life. It helps you to re-think the things that you’re willing to do versus what you aren’t. You can say no to certain things and that’s okay.”
Ryerson professor Ali Mazalek, along with Mike Tissenbaum of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and Sadhana Puntambekar from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW), have been granted a $2.9 million USD grant from the National Science Foundation for their integrative learning research project, SimSnap.
Mazalek is director of Ryerson’s Synesthetic Media Lab and has been teaching at the RTA School of Media since 2013. She and her American colleagues are now diving into their research project SimSnap. SimSnap is a simulation that aims to accomplish a fluid learning environment in middle school classrooms that adapts to the content and the students’ learning needs. The goal is to integrate several interfaces, in the form of tablets that can be snapped together or separated, in order to allow for individual, collaborative, and teacher-led learning.
Mazalek’s interest in merging the worlds of science and art through human-computer interaction developed during her graduate years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
“It’s always exciting to take on a new challenge, especially when most of the proposals you put forward don’t get funded,” she said. “It’s nice to know we’ll have the money and the space to actually do this.”
Mazalek believes that the need for technological advancement in middle school classrooms is especially critical.
“They’re really starting to reason more at a higher level, but they don’t have the tools right now to construct models of their own and test their hypotheses. That ability to reason about complex phenomena is something that technology can help with a lot.”
Since receiving the grant, Mazalek and her colleagues have already started their research remotely. SimSnap has three ultimate goals. The first of these is to increase environmental awareness among K-12 students.
“If we continue to destroy the environment around us, we will create a situation in which it’s very difficult to cultivate plants, so we want to convey this worldview of supporting the environment,” she said.
By partnering with her American colleagues in Chicago, IL and Madison, WI, Mazalek hopes to also bring SimSnap to underserved communities that often lack access to the green space required for growing plants and vegetables. Through these computational tools, students would be able to learn about all the factors that allow for healthy plant growth, from the lower level genetics to overall environmental conditions.
The third element of her grant proposal is an investigation into the appropriate balance between individual, collaborative and instructor-led learning styles. “We’re interested in this dynamic between all three learning styles, because maybe it’s not the same balance for every learning environment. We want to be able to provide this fluid, dynamic change between moments where students can each learn and reflect individually and moments where they can come together as groups to share their simulations.”
Although the research project is still in its beginning stages, Mazalek has already hired two research students and is looking to hire more in the coming months.
When discussing the STEM and education fields in Canada, one of her critiques is that she wishes more undergraduate students would get involved in some form of research for the purpose of developing dynamic, problem-solving skills.
Mazalek admits to working very hard but she uses her time outdoors as a way to rest and process her research so that she comes back to work refreshed.
She carves out the time to go hiking, kayaking and skiing in order to bring balance to her life and advises others to do the same by learning the importance of establishing boundaries.
“Do all the other things that are important to your life. It helps you to re-think the things that you’re willing to do versus what you aren’t. You can say no to certain things and that’s okay.”
