Guiding without feeling guided: Implicit scaffolding through interactive simulation design

While PhET interactive simulations (sims) were historically designed for college students, they are used at lower grade levels, and we are currently developing sims targeted at middle school (MS). In studying how MS students interact with and learn from these sims, we have been extracting insights about design for the middle-grade-levels and across K-16. This collection of work has highlighted the importance of implicit scaffolding, a design framework that reduces the amount of explicit instruction needed to facilitate learning. We present a case study of redesigning a sim – Energy Skate Park (ESP) – for effective use in MS. We conducted think-aloud interviews with MS students to identify successful features, sources of confusion or unproductive distraction, as well as features inconsistent with grade-appropriate learning goals. Drawing on these data and the principle of implicit scaffolding, we developed Energy Skate Park Basics (ESPB). Interviews on ESPB demonstrate increased usability and learning for MS students.