Multiple Representations of Ideas about Science

This research project aims to learn how students represent their ideas about science, math, and engineering in various systems of representation. Systems include oral language, drawing, constructing physical artifacts, and stop-action movies using the CEEO's SAM Animation software.

Investigators

• Brian Gravel & Chris Rogers
• Barbara Brizuela (Tufts University, Education Department)
• Noah Finkelstein (University of Colorado, Physics Education Research Group)
• Mike Cole (UC San Diego, Laboratory for Comparative Human Cognition)
• Bill Church (Physics Teacher, Littleton High School, Littleton, NH)

Collaborators

• Nora Scheuer (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas, Argentina & Centro Regional Universitario Bariloche, Universidad Nacional de Comahue)
• Monica Alvarado (Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro (México) Facultad de Psicología)
• David Crismond (City College of New York)
• Donna Peruzzi (King Open School, Cambridge, MA)
• Gary Goldstein (Tufts University, Physics Department)

Funding Source
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.

Goals and Overview
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 Action Movie making 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 in 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 that of 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.

At present, pilot study data have been collected based the research questions and methodology listed below. This is the beginning phases of Brian Gravel’s eventual dissertation research on representation in science.  

Research Questions

•    How do students represent their ideas about air as a substance through generating animated explanations of observed demonstrations?
•    How are representations produced through animations both similar and different from representations produced in other systems such as oral language, writing, and drawing?
•    What differences, if any, exist in the kinds of conceptual aspects about air as a substance that children are able to represent through different media?

Pilot Study Methodology
A pilot study was conducted in the Spring of 2008 with participants from the 8th grade at the King Open School in Cambridge, MA. 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. Two pre-pilot cases were conducted and the results were reviewed by Barbara Brizuela and Monica Alvarado. The pilot study was conducted with four female students and one male student.

Results
Preliminary analysis highlights some potential themes for further investigation. In the four primary systems 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 “state” of air in certain circumstances and to the “process” of air moving in other circumstances. The state of air refers to 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. Alongside these two perspectives, state and process, students tend to use semblances of some basic explanatory frameworks, depending on the context. These models include “air takes up space”, “air as a continuous, fluid material”, and “air as a collection of particles”. Each model is used in different ways to make sense of different aspects of the linked syringes. Therefore, the analysis of these data will be guided by the notions of state vs. process and of the primary explanatory models employed by the students.

Related Publications
Church, W., Gravel, B., & Rogers, C. (2007). Teaching parabolic motion with stop-action movies. International Journal of Engineering Education, 23(5), 861-867. PDF


Associated Web Links
Research Page on CEEO Main Site