| Multiple Representations of Ideas about Science |
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This research project aims to learn how students represent their ideas about science, math, and engineering in various forms of representation. The forms include oral language, drawing, constructing physical artifacts, and stop-action movies using the CEEO's SAM Animation software.
Doctoral Committee Barbara M. Brizuela (Chair; Education Department) Chris Rogers (Center for Engineering Education and Outreach, Mechanical Engineering) Analucia
Schliemann (Education Department) Nora Scheuer (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientaficas y
Tecnolagicas, Argentina & Centro Regional Universitario Bariloche,
Universidad Nacional de Comahue)
Marianne Wiser (Clark University, Psychology Department) Qualifying Paper Readers
Mike Cole (UC San Diego, Laboratory for Comparative Human Cognition, Department of Communication)
Ricardo Nemirovsky (San Diego State University, Department of Mathematics and Statistics)
Bill Church (Physics Teacher, Littleton High School, Littleton, NH)
Noah Finkelstein (University of Colorado, Physics Education Research Group) Monica Alvarado (Universidad Autanoma de Querétaro (Mexico) Facultad de Psicologca)
David Crismond (City College of New York)
Donna Peruzzi (King Open School, Cambridge, MA)
Gary Goldstein (Tufts University, Physics Department)
The overarching goal of this funded research project is to investigate the use of animation as a tool in the teaching and learning of science and engineering. Using SAM Animation (Stop motion animation software), students can create simple frame-by-frame animations of science, mathematics, and engineering concepts. More specifically, this research aims to discover how students spontaneously represent their ideas about science in the animated medium as compared with other, more traditional methods of explicating about science.
The domain of science is shaped by the development and use of representations of the concepts that explain the world in which we live. In other words, the language of science is representation. When children begin to make sense of science ideas, they do so through interactions with multiple forms of representation. Be it speech, written language, graphical notations, or gesture, the centrality of representation in science is undeniable. However, the conventional systems of representation that expert scientists use are systems that children must come to understand while making sense of the natural world. Thus, scientific understanding develops concurrently with knowledge of representation. Please see Gravel (2008) for a deeper discussion of the theoretical underpinnings of this work.
- What conceptual aspects of air and a particle model of matter are students able to represent across different systems of external representation? - How are students' understandings of air and the particle nature of matter impacted by representing these concepts across multiple systems? - How are representations produced through animations both similar and different from representations produced in other systems such as oral language, drawing, and building physical artifacts?
Methodology - Students in the 5th grade at a Boston area middle school were participants in this study. The study consisted of each student participating in three interview-based sessions where they produced representations in various systems. The science task/exploration in question is the linked syringe problem (below). In this demonstration, the outlets (nozzles) of each syringe are linked using a piece of clear plastic tubing. As the participant pushes the plunger of one syringe down, the other plunger extends.
 Students were asked to share what they know about air and air pressure, based on the device, using oral language, drawing, stop-action movies, and physical constructions. All students participated in a classroom project that familiarized them with the SAM Animation software prior to participating in the research. The interview sessions were ordered as such: (1) oral language and drawing, (2) animation, and (3) physical construction. Students were presented example representations in each session, produced by students in the pilot study, to see how students were able to critique other ways of expressing how air works in the linked syringes.
Pilot Study Results - A pilot study was conducted with a very similar methodology, and the results are as follows. In the four primary forms of representation used in this study (oral language, drawing, animation, and physical construction), there appears to be two trends in students' explanations about air and air pressure. Students have a tendency to attend to the "material substance" aspects of air in certain circumstances and to the "process" of air moving in other circumstances. The material-substance aspects of air include descriptions of gases, of how gases fill spaces, and of the particle nature of matter. Process descriptions refer to how air can move objects, how air is compressible in specific contexts, and how it flows as a fluid quantity. Alon One hypothesis for the relationship between process ideas and animation is the inherent temporal nature of stop-motion animation. In order to make an animation, the student must generate a sequence of images. Each image comprises an instance in time, and the collection of images represents a some change over time. While the student generates an image, he or she is aware of the prior image and anticipating the next image - in a sense, considering three instances at once. Therefore, the medium forces students to think over some temporal span (albeit, relatively small), which provides them with a method for analyzing change over small amounts of time. In the case of change-over-time, we believe this helps students to better understand processes by helping them break down changes over time. Please see Gravel (2009) for a more in-depth review and analysis of this study. Dissertations Study Results - In a similar study to the pilot, a dissertation study is currently being conducted with 5th and 7th grade students in Boston-area schools. Students will participate in a three-interview sequence, focused on air and the particle model, and will represent their ideas across a variety of forms. Data is currently being collected for analysis during Winter 2010.
Related Publications Gravel, B. (2008). Science as multiple representations: Integrated perspectives on the role of learning and appropriating representations in constructing science understanding. Unpublished Qualifying Paper, Tufts University. PDF
This
material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation
under Grant No. 0511979. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or
recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s)
and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science
Foundation.
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