Comparing the Effect of Physical and Virtual Circuit Construction Kits on Student Learning of Basic Electricity

• In Event: Poster Session 4
  In Poster Session: Advanced Technologies for Learning Poster Session

Abstract

In this study we investigated the effects of the physical and virtual manipulatives on students' understanding of electronics. In our experiment, all participants accomplished two similar tasks, one with a tangible toolkit and another with a computer simulation. Both systems shared the same functionalities. Half of the participants first worked with a physical manipulative then a virtual manipulative, while the rest did the opposite sequence. Our findings suggest that working with physical manipulatives might improve learning gains. Furthermore, the sequence of the tasks significantly affected the final test scores. Users who first worked with the physical manipulatives and then the virtual environment scored higher on the final post-test compared to participants who completed the same activities in the reverse order.

Authors

• Shima Salehi, Stanford University

• Bertrand Schneider, Stanford University

• Paulo Blikstein, Stanford University