How the Introduction of Content Relates to Performance in a Middle School Modeling and Simulation Environment

Modeling and simulation activities are common in secondary technology and engineering education classrooms. Virtual simulations are used to integrate engineering design into classroom instruction. The quality of a student’s final virtual design depends on their ability to apply the knowledge they have learned during the lesson. When applying what they learned to the virtual design, a student may reach the limit to which the theoretical knowledge can be applied. At this point, students may resort to other problem-solving processes to improve the design, such as trial and error. The activity in this study is a bridge-building project where the students use virtual modeling software to design a truss. This study measures the performance outcomes of students introduced to the content in different formats to determine how the introduction of knowledge impacts their performance within a virtual simulation. Data was collected through the simulation program and a statistical analysis was used to compare the efficiency of truss designs of students initially introduced to the engineering content to those students not originally introduced to the engineering content. The results of the statistical analysis show that students with more exposure to the content at the beginning of the activity have significantly better performance outcomes in the initial designs. However, students that receive less content initially can perform equally well if given enough opportunities to engage in the simulation activity.