FOLDIT PRACTICE:Science or Gaming?

Theresa Horstman (thorst@uw.edu, @thorst)

Mark Chen (markchen@uw.edu, @mcdanger)

Seth Cooper (scooper@cs.washington.edu)

Philip Bell (pbell@uw.edu, @philiplbell)

University of Washington, Seattle

This work is funded by the DARPA under Award# FA8750-11-2-0102. However, all opinions are strictly our own.

http://fold.it/portal/

Research Questions Are Foldit players

learning science? Do players learn the

biochemistry of protein structures and the principles behind efficient folds?

Are Foldit players engaged in scientific practice?

Project Overview Part of a multi-year, 3 phase research plan Completed phase one in late 2011 Preliminary results include public forum data Phase two will incorporate IRC data

CODING STRANDS1. Sparking and Developing Interest and Excitement

2. Understanding Scientific Knowledge (content)

3. Engaging in Scientific Explanation and Argument

4. Understanding Scientific Enterprise

5. Engaging in Scientific Practices—Using the Tools and Language of Science

6. Identifying with the Scientific Enterprise

7. Navigating Scientific Practice

“….I'll try shifting something else or shifting things in a different directions. Additionally, aromatic (ring-containing)

residue stacking seems to help a lot….. Moving the backbone and/or selecting rotamers so that the rings of tyrosines/phenylalanines stack can help scores significantly…..When the sidechains turn blue using the attractiveness coloring, you know they're set correctly. –Frank”

(11-29-2007)

SCIENCE OR GAME? Organized forum posts by threads

Approximately 2344 posts – 1169 coded Coded posts

Science knowledge content = 217 Game content = 538 Scientific practice = 378

Coded threads

FRAMEWORK FOR K-12 SCIENCE ED Asking questions (science) and defining problems

(engineering) Developing and using models Planning and carrying out investigations Analyzing and interpreting data Using mathematics and computational thinking Developing explanations (science) and designing

solutions (engineering) Engaging in argument from evidence Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating

information

1

“Being totally novice, I think intuition plays a very big part here. I just learned the basic rules and am doing rather well, if I do say so myself. (Rather well being in the top 20 %, but

maybe I was lucky, and struggling) So I would have to say…. that you don't need scientific knowledge to be good at this game…. Just go with what looks and

feels good…. I do hope that even though I'm not top dog, my solutions will be used in the research..….If not, I might as well be playing Battefield, or something.”

–response to OP asking which players have science knowledge

2

“Thanks for telling me about the wiki, however I probably am not going to read through that whole thing and I suspect neither is any ADHD teenage gamer, call me lazy, but I don't

feel… your average gamers who are used to built-in tutorials that cover all the basics (every game I've ever played) are going to spend much time outside the game learning… let's be realistic if we are trying to reach gamers as the target audience for crowd sourcing.…”

–response to OP asking about how to teach new players

“Does the score completely ignore salt bridges, metal ion coordination, disulfide bonds, and hydrogen bonding along the side chain? These are pretty important interactions in proteins.”

“You are obviously more technically aware of this protein folding business then I, but I can tell you by observation that hydrogen bonds are indeed factored both in to the score, and into the behavior of the proteins, as well as shown on your display (If you chose them in the VIEW menu). Indeed, I believe you will find puzzle 44 very interesting. It begins with

a few hydrogen bonds, and you will find you don't score over about 8,900 without making many more.”

3

SCIENTIST | GAMER

Science practice distributedReconfiguration of science content in a new format that allows the technology to carry the science content.

What is science learning:Gamer as scientist

Gamer and scientist

Gamer, scientist & designer

REDEFINING GAMES AND SCIENCE1. Within Foldit, are there practices that are not

scientific?

2. Does player awareness of their lack of science knowledge change how they view science or reinforce existing beliefs?

3. In classrooms, one aspect of engaging in scientific practice is adopting the language of scientists. Does this type of classroom practice mean the same thing in an informal space such as Foldit?

4. What are the consequences of separating science knowledge from scientific practice without inhibiting a persons ability to contribute to a scientific community?

5. How do we value different types of expert knowledge within a scientific community?

CONTINUING WORK: MODIFIED FOR THE CLASSROOM

Foldit (public) Foldit (Educurious)

THANK YOUFoldit Practice:

Science or Gaming?

Theresa Horstman (thorst@uw.edu, @thorst)

Mark Chen (markchen@uw.edu, @mcdanger)

Seth Cooper (scooper@cs.washington.edu)

Philip Bell (pbell@uw.edu, @philiplbell)

University of Washington, Seattle

This work is funded by the DARPA under Award# FA8750-11-2-0102. However, all opinions are strictly our own.