The MEME software tool is designed to help students articulate and model their understanding of scientific concepts using concept maps and evidence maps. Concept maps have previously been used to allow students to express how the elements within a system are interrelated (Hmelo-Silver et al, 2017). Evidence maps have been successfully used to explicitly indicate how different aspects of a scientific model are grounded in disparate forms of evidence (Toth, Suthers, & Lesgold, 2002). Within MEME, students will both model their understanding and indicate the sources of evidence (e.g., simulation and empirical) for specific aspects of the model. Students will also have the opportunity to rank their different sources of evidence based on their confidence level in how each source supports an aspect of their model, helping them to reflect on the relationship between evidence and models.
The software is designed to work in a classroom setting. The core software runs as a node.js application on a server (a reasonably powered laptop will suffice). Students log into the server via web browsers on their laptops and chromebooks. The node.js application can be compiled and deployed as a standalone Electron application.
Note: this software is a work in progress, and is provided as-is. While we have tested it succesfully in our own context, we make no warranty about how it will run in your context nor about its security (we recomend using de-identified data only if you are not using it in a secure environment). Please evaluate it on your own before implementing.
See the 1.3.1 and 1.3.0 Release Notes for information on the latest features. You can also view all Release Notes by browsing Tags.
See the Wiki Home for End User Instructions.
Please visit modelingandevidence.org for more information about the MEME project.
MEME is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.
Running the system involves building and packaging the application, and starting up a local server, admin interface, and student devices. These instructions assume you're familiar with working with Git and Node and using npm
in the terminal.
This assumes you've already installed NodeJS. If you haven't, we recommend using nvm. This will allow you to select different Node versions. As of November 2019, we are currently using Node Version 10.9.0.
dev
branch.nvm
, type nvm use
to auto-load the recommended Node version (10.9.0). You may also need to type nvm install
to install 10.9 if it's not already installed on your machine.npm ci
-- You might need to install some packages before doing a clean.npm run clean:all
-- Remove all existing database and node modules.npm ci
-- Install node modulesThe pdf and netlogo simulation resources are not currently in the repo. You will need to download them from the source (ask Joshua for them) and place them in the boilerplate/src/app-web/static/dlc
folder.
You should build and run the local server first just to make sure everything is working.
npm run dev
http://localhost:3000/
-- You should see the MEME login screen.If you want to run the server in a production environment, such as a Digital Ocean server, use a different start script.
npm start
http://<server_ip>:3000/
-- You should see the MEME login screen.This will start the local server and load the existing meme
database.
You can also create and use arbitrary databases. E.g. to create a new database, you would:
datasets/_blank
, e.g. name it fall2020
DATASET
environment parameter, e.g. DATASET="fall2020" npm start
DATASET="fall2020" npm start
and the data will be retained.Once you verify the local server is running, you can build and deploy a standalone Electron application for distribution to teachers, so all they have do to start a MEME server in their classroom is to double click on the MEME.app.
If you want to seed (no pun intended) a MEME Electron application with sample data, e.g. configure teachers, classrooms, and groups, example models, etc, you can just run the MEME application, make the changes, and then duplicate and the MEME.app.
The one thing that can't be easily changed via the admin interface are the resources, so generally it's best to download them first. (Technical note: By running the Electron app, you're automatically loading the db.js
files in system/datasets/meme
. If you want to edit the db.js
files by hand for the Electron app, edit those.
To build and run the Electron app:
boilerplate/src/app-web/static/dlc
folder.npm run package
boilerplate/dist/meme-darwin-x64/meme.app
meme.app
file to start it.http://localhost:3000/
-- You should see the MEME login screen.You can copy and distribute the meme.app
file by itself. But first, you might want to set up some template admin settings. See the "Admin Interface" section below.
NOTE: Because the meme.app
Electron app is not a signed and notarized, you may have to disable some security features on your Mac to run it.
For more technical information about creating and managing the dataset, see:
Updating Resources in the MEME.app
If you've already built and distributed the MEME app and find that you need to add or change resources, you can still update resources in the MEME.app manually:
meme.app/Contents/Resources/app/web/static/dlc
dlc
folder.Use the interface to set up teachers, classrooms, groups, students, ratings definitions, criteria, sentence starters, and resources.
Each classroom can have its own ratings definition, criteria, and sentence starter, as well as a subset of the resources enabled for them. Resources are shared across all classrooms, but are only visible to the class if you enable it. This means you'll want to carefully set up each class's initial settings if you want them to be anything other than the defaults. No resources are enabled by default, so you will have to enable them for each class.
To access the Admin Interface:
http://localhost:3000/#/admin
-- You'll see the admin interface.If you are running the server on a remote server, you can use the special ?danishpowers
parameter to access the admin page.
As of 1.0, the meme app should run on Chrome browsers on Mac laptops, Windows laptops, and Chromebooks. It should mostly work on Android tablets (though they have not been fully tested). Unfortunately there are known rendering issues with iOS Chrome.
In order to capture screens when creating a new evidence, you will need to install the MEME Extension on each student machine.
screenshot
repoNOTES:
To bring students into the app:
http://192.168.1.10:3000
http://192.168.1.10:3000
NOTES:
Teachers can log in and view student work much as a student would:
MSBROWN-VYFZ
.http://192.168.1.10:3000
(you can also use localhost if you're on the server).The new database export and import feature allows researchers to periodically export database files during a study as an archive of student data and to review and analyze the data at a different time and place.
This feature is primarily intended to support researcher analysis of study data. It is not designed to support loading arbitrary databases to seed a project.
To export a database file:
You can also drag the green "Export MZIP" button to your desktop to create a database file.
You can keep the default name, or rename it something else, but it must end in MEME.ZIP
for the file to be read by MEME.
To import a database file:
MEME.ZIP
database file to the purple "MZIP IMPORT" button.http://localhost:3000/
to login and view models.meme.app/Contents/Resources/runtime/logs
. Look for dated log files like meme.app/Contents/Resources/runtime/logs/2019-09102019-0910-log-102440.txt
meme.app/Contents/Resources/runtime/screenshots
.NOTE: Over time research logs and screenshots can grow quite large. You'll want to keep an eye on disk space, especially if you use the same app over months.
We recommend daily backups. Better yet, back up after each classroom period.
meme.app/Contents/Resources/system/datasets/meme.loki
(assuming you didn't rename the database or are running a different database file).Database Snapshots When the server starts up, MEME will now:
meme.loki
in the classroom) to a backup file using the same date format as the log files. The database file is of the form YYYY-MMDD-meme-HHMMSS.loki.snapshot
and is in the runtime
directory.The snapshot time corresponds to the snapshot log, e.g. 2020-0209-log-124525.loki.snapshot
= state of db at the start of the 2020-0209-log-124525.txt
log.