4:15pm – 5:15pm, Griffin Exhibit Hall
Strand 1: Science Learning, Understanding and Conceptual Change Poster Session B
4:15pm – 5:15pm, Griffin Exhibit Hall
B2. Using Visualizations to Help Younger Student Understand Inheritance Joi Merritt, Michigan State University, [email protected]
Michelle Williams, Michigan State University
ABSTRACT: Technology-enhanced learning instruction has tremendous potential for promoting student learning around complex and abstract science topics such as genetics (Roseman, Linn, & Koppal, 2008). This study explores fifth grade students’ understanding of biological inheritance in relationship to two visualizations specifically developed to help students to differentiate inherited and acquired traits during the WISE Case of Audrey module. One teacher and his 106 fifth-grade students at an upper-elementary school located in a Midwestern suburban school district participated in the study. Identical content assessments comprised of 23 items were administered to all fifth-grade students before and after instruction. Overall, students participating in the fifth grade heredity curriculum experienced large and significant learning gains from pretest to posttest. Further qualitative analyses of students’ understanding are being conducted with embedded assessment items that capture students’ knowledge of inherited and acquired traits, prior to and after experiencing the visualizations. Preliminary data analysis indicates that prior to experiencing the visualizations, most students were unable to distinguish between inherited and acquired traits, but were able to do so afterwards.
B4. A Model Centric Ontology for Physics
Eric Brewe, Florida International University, [email protected]
ABSTRACT: This paper will argue that models are one of the subcategories within the ontological category of things, and that attending to both epistemology and ontology in any learning environment is essential. Accordingly the poster we propose will describe the role of Modeling Instruction in introductory university physics classes and provide a description of instruction which has been designed to attend to ontology and epistemology and the affordances gained by including the focus on models and modeling.
B6. Children Learning to Explain Astronomy across Moving Frames of Reference: Kinesthetic and Visualization Strategies
Julia D. Plummer, Pennsylvania State University, [email protected] Alicia Kocareli, Arcadia University
Cynthia Slagle, Colonial School District
ABSTRACT: A quasi-experimental approach was used to investigate the role of instruction in supporting students’ development of explanations for the daily patterns of apparent motion of the sun, moon, and stars and the lunar phases. Pre/post-instructional interviews were conducted with third grade students who participated in four instructional conditions (N=99). These instructional conditions included: the district’s traditional curriculum, a kinesthetic planetarium program, revised district curriculum (with greater emphasis on moving between frames of reference), and a condition that combined the planetarium and revised curriculum. Analysis supports our
hypothesis; students showed significantly greater improvement in their daily celestial motion mental models after instruction that supported their ability to a) visualize celestial motion through earth-based observational
simulations and b) explain through the use of hands-on and kinesthetic strategies. Children in the traditional curriculum showed no improvement in their descriptions from an earth-based perspective while the experimental conditions showed significant improvement. Significant improvement was seen in students’ explanations for the phases of moon in both conditions though the limited level of improvement leads us to conclude that additional time spent reflecting on the explanation is needed for most children.
B8. How to Assess Modeling Ability? A Comparison of Different Concept Mapping Practices at Primary School Kristina Brandstädter, IPN, Kiel Germany, [email protected]
Cornelia Sommer, IPN, Kiel Germany Ute Harms, IPN, Kiel Germany Jörg Großschedl, IPN, Kiel Germany
ABSTRACT: Previous studies have shown that modeling facilitates students’ understanding of scientific
phenomena. Concept maps are considered as suitable method to assess modeling abilities. However, there is lack of evidence which concept mapping practice captures modeling abilities most validly. This study targets on the validity of three different concept mapping practices characterized by the medium and the directedness according modeling abilities. Modeling abilities of 4th graders and 8th graders were evaluated in a pre-post-test intervention design. Results provide empirical evidence on the effects of the CM practice on students’ concept mapping performance. According to the medium, Students who constructed computer maps performed best concerning proposition score. Furthermore, there is no influence of the medium on the concept mapping validity concerning modeling abilities. According to the directedness, it seems that high-directed CM practices capture modeling abilities more validly than low-directed CM practices. However, our results provide indication for assessing modeling ability of 8th graders validly through high-directed computer based CM practice which is particularly interesting concerning the emerging computer automation in classrooms.
B10. Immersive Visual Learning of Moon Phases and Seasons in a Planetarium Setting Thomas R. Tretter, University of Louisville, [email protected]
E. Scott Ingle, University of Louisville
ABSTRACT: Engaging elementary students (grades 1-3) in visually rich instruction in a planetarium setting may offer a venue for them to enhance understanding of complex 3-D spatial phenomena such as moon phases and seasons. This study explored content understandings and growth (pre-post) in those understandings due to a 90- minute planetarium experience targeting moon phases (n=413) and seasons (n=535). The planetarium instruction was designed to facilitate conceptual change by engaging students’ prior understandings, and supporting their growth toward revised understandings (as needed) by being able to virtually fly through Earth-Moon-Sun data. Results from this quasi-experimental study suggest that visually rich instruction was effective in enabling young female students to catch up to their male peers on conceptualizing several spatially-dependent concepts. Evidence for which particular supporting concepts for the target ideas of moon phases and seasons were most readily learned by which age of learner suggests developmental stages at which various learners may be ready to
integrate different spatially-rich understandings. Implications for curriculum sequencing and the potential learning affordances of visually immersive interaction with spatially complex phenomena for young elementary students are explored.
B12. Learners' Strategies for Size Estimation
Cesar Delgado, The University of Texas at Austin, [email protected] Hye Sun You, The University of Texas at Austin
ABSTRACT: An understanding of size and scale is important for science learning. Scale is a unifying concept that pervades science and can be used to unify student learning across disciplines, topics, and grades. Constructivist learning theory posits that learners learn by building on their prior knowledge, so science education researchers and practitioners must be aware of how students currently think about scientific phenomena and concepts. This study investigated the strategies that learners from grade 6-expert use for four "aspects" of size and scale: to estimate relative scale (how many times bigger one object is compared to another) and absolute size, and to order and group by size. Objects to be estimated included scientifically-important objects from the atom to the earth. We found that some strategies reported in the literature for estimation of the length of everyday objects or printed lines were not used, showing that strategies are context-dependent. We also identified many novel strategies. For each aspect, strategies include recall, single-aspect strategies, and strategies that rely on the logical connection across aspects. These connections may not be clear to students. Uncertainty with calculation of inverse
of numbers and with numbers smaller than 1 also challenged some students. Recommendations for practice are included.
B14. Student Views of Formative Assessment in High School Chemistry Rachelle A. Haroldson, University of Minnesota, [email protected]
ABSTRACT: Current research about formative assessment or assessment for learning in science classrooms focuses on achievement and student learning and teacher experiences with formative assessment. Although there has been some research on empowering students and students’ role in formative assessment, minimal research has been done on student perceptions in the ways they use and experience formative assessment. Students play an important role in formative assessment and their views are important in understanding the effectiveness of formative assessment. This study focused on student uses and perceptions of formative assessment through short- videotaped vignettes during each unit. Their responses provide insight into how formative assessment plays a role in student learning from the student perspective.
Strand 2: Science Learning: Contexts, Characteristics and Interactions