Tratamiento antihipertensivo en mujeres con EHE 15

The goal of Operation ARA is to teach scientific enquiry skills, and, in particular, the ability to evaluate research summaries. Understanding proper research methodology is not only important to science students learning their craft, but also to the general public who are exposed to scientific summaries in magazines, newspapers, TV and the Internet. For example, a new study may report the health benefits of a certain food. However, sometimes studies may be done poorly (e.g., poor experimental design), or they may be well-executed but misinterpreted by the author (journalist, blogger) of the write-up. We believe that a person who can properly critique science found in the popular press is both inoculated against believing unfounded interpretations, and accepting of valid conclusion(s) when warranted.

Embedded in Operation ARA is a storyline that is carried throughout the game. At the beginning of the game, the player is told via a video that the “Federal Bureau of Science” (FBS) has alien creatures called Fuaths in captivity. The Fuaths, it seems, are disguised as Human Beings and are covertly publishing bad science in hopes of “dumbing down” Earth’s occupants and turning us into mindless consumers. In addition, there are mysterious events happening across the world, such as the disappearance of oil tankers and large bodies of water, which escalate over the course of the game. The FBS has launched “Operation ARA” in an effort to find and stop the alien intrusion. The goal of the secret operation is for citizens to become FBS agents by teaching them the scientific method. By knowing the scientific method, FBS agents will be able to identify and arrest Fuaths who are authoring the bad research. There are three main modules (or levels) in the game. In the first, called Basic Training, the aspiring FBS agent (player) reads an ebook about the scientific method. It is essentially a brief research methods book. To fit into the storyline, the player is told that the ebook was written by Fuaths for their Fuath spies. The FBS had obtained and translated a copy of the book. The book describes aspects of good science so that their operatives can violate them and write poor science for human consumption (to “dumb them down”). The ebook is segmented into brief lessons, each of which describes a main topic. Main topics include the need for control groups, random assignment, accuracy and sensitivity of the dependent variable, objective scoring, experimenter bias, sample size, sample selection, participant bias, mortality/attrition, replication, and confusing causality and correlation. Each lesson includes multiple choice questions for assessment of learning, and the questions are accompanied by brief tutorial trialogs (Figure 1 presents a screen shot of Basic Training). The trialogs include the player, Dr. Quinn (the teacher) and Glass Tealman (fellow student). The trialog that began this chapter was an example tutorial trialog taken from the game. We will discuss the tutorial dialogs and trialogs more deeply below.

Figure 1: Basic Training

Whereas the purpose of Basic Training is to provide the player with the basic concepts of scientific thinking, the goal of the second module, called Proving Ground, is to give the player practice in identifying flaws in research descriptions. Figure 2 presents a screen shot of Proving Ground. The research descriptions are written like newspaper and magazine articles, and cover topics in psychology, biology, and chemistry. For example, one article described a new procedure to teach dancing, and in another, an experiment testing whether a new plastic is biodegradable in landfills. The former study suffered from no control group, a small sample size, experimenter bias and poor sample selection; whereas the latter study used a dependent variable that lacked sensitivity. The player competes against a snooty and irritating pedagogical agent named Tracy, who is a fellow student. (Glass Tealman is absent from this module because he is looking for his lost brother, which is part of the story line). Tracy and the human player take turns identifying flaws, and they earn and lose points as they produce correct and incorrect answers. Besides Tracy, there are two other pedagogical agents in Proving Ground: Dr. Quinn and Broth, who is a Fuath defector. Both of these agents serve as teaching agents, helping the player to correctly identify flaws. Similar to Basic Training, the players receive brief tutorial dialogs to help their performance.

Figure 2: Proving Ground

The third and last module is called Going Active (see Figure 3 for a screen shot). By the time players reach this module, they have graduated and are now “in the field” as special agents of the FBS. The story line grows more intense. The world authorities have conducted a raid in which a number of suspected Fuaths have been captured. Unfortunately, it is thought that human scientists have also been arrested, a consequence of the Fuaths’ ability to look and act human. It is the player’s job in this module to

interview each suspect regarding their research to determine if it is flawed and whether the scientist follows and understands the scientific method. If there is a flaw or a lack of understanding of the scientific method, then the suspect should be deemed an alien by the player, and if not, the suspect should be deemed to be human by the player and set free. In this module, the player types in questions to be asked of the suspect to Scott, who is an animated agent playing the role of interrogator. Scott interprets the question passed to him by the player and asks the suspect the question. For example, if the player types “Was there a comparison group?” Scott may ask the suspect “I have been meaning to ask you. Was there a control group?” After the suspect answers, Dr. Quinn who is also overseeing the interrogation may pipe in with a clarifying comment. For example, if the suspect answered that there was no control group, Dr. Quinn may say “This is a correlational study, and these usually do not contain control groups. So, I would say “no flaw.” One-half of the suspects reveal flaws if asked the “right” questions during interrogation (i.e., they are aliens) whereas one-half do not (i.e., they are humans).

Figure 3: Active Duty

In sum, Operation ARA begins with teaching the declarative knowledge (encyclopedic knowledge) of main concepts in scientific enquiry in Basic Training. The player then receives guided practice in identifying flawed instances of the concepts in Proving Ground. Lastly, the player learns to distinguish flawed from unflawed research by actively asking questions. These activities occur across the backdrop of a story line in which the player helps to save the world from disaster.