ARIES
PI: Keith Millis (Northern Illinois University)
Co-PI: Diane Halpern (Claremont McKenna College)
Co-PI: Art Graesser
ARIES (Acquiring Research Investigative and Evaluative Skills) is a learning environment
with conversational agents that hold trialogs with the human learner who is acquiring
critical reasoning skills on science. The learner holds conversations with two animated
pedagogical agents while solving a number of engaging problems in the social and physical
sciences. ARIES is embedded in a game environment with an electronic textbook, multiple
choice questions, and the trialogs. Science teachers in both high school and higher
institutions could assign ARIES as homework, if they decide not to devote class time
to it.
Past Funding:
- ARIES: Acquiring Research Investigative and Evaluative Skills for Scientific Inquiry. PI (UM): Art Graesser. Funding Agency: IES (Art Graesser PI on Memphis subcontract). $640,000.
Selected Publications:
- Forsyth, C.M., Graesser,A.C. Pavlik, P., Cai, Z., Butler,H., Halpern, D.F., & Millis, K.(in press). OperationARIES! methods, mystery and mixed models: Discourse features predict affect in a serious game. Journal of Educational Data Mining.
- Halpern, D.F., Millis, K., Graesser, A.C., Butler, H., Forsyth, C., & Cai, Z. (2012). Operation ARA: A computerized learning game that teaches critical thinking and scientific reasoning. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 7, 93-100.
- Kopp, K., Britt, A., Millis, K., & Graesser, A. (2012). Improving the efficiency of dialogue in tutoring. Learning and Instruction, 22, 320-330.
- Millis, K, Forsyth, C., Butler, H., Wallace, P., Graesser, A., & Halpern, D. (2011) Operation ARIES! A serious game for teaching scientific inquiry. In M. Ma, A. Oikonomou & J. Lakhmi (Eds.) Serious games and edutainment applications (pp.169-196). London, UK: Springer-Verlag.