The Influence of Prior Knowledge in Sense-Making With the Simulation Used in WeInvestigate

• In Event: 46.086 - Roundtable Session 16
  In Roundtable Session: 46.086-4 - Investigating WeInvestigate: The Close Study of Cyberlearning in a Sixth-Grade Science Class

Abstract

This study investigated how prior knowledge about the Kinetic Molecular Theory affected students’ sense-making of a simulation used in the WeInvestigate curriculum. Simulations have become a frequent teaching tool in science education complementing investigation-based learning approaches that promote student-centered learning. They provide realistic environments in which students can evaluate their own conceptions about scientific phenomena when experiencing those phenomena in the real environment is not possible. Klahr and Dunbar (1988) pointed to the importance of prior knowledge while using simulations to answer experimental problems. Subsequent research, building upon this idea, has determined that individuals do indeed use prior knowledge when formulating hypotheses, designing experiments, and discovering the underlying conceptual model in a simulation (which we refer to as sense-making). Lazonder, Wilhem and van Lieburg (2010) found that individuals with more prior knowledge about the variables in a simulation were more efficient at identifying the underlying model because they took less time, performed fewer replications, and formulated more testable hypotheses than those individuals with less prior knowledge. This line of research suggests that an adequate amount of prior knowledge about the content included in a simulation is required for users to learn the underlying conceptual model. An important topic in the middle school science curriculum is the Kinetic Molecular Theory. This theory states that all matter is comprised of tiny atoms that are in constant motion (Lee et al., 1993). Due to this theory’s significance, there has been considerable research investigating the nature of children’s conceptions of matter. Many children hold misconceptions about the constant movement of atoms and their presence in everything that has mass, which impacts how they understand the behavior of matter and molecules. Eight sixth-grade students used a simulation designed to support building an understanding of the relationship between temperature and the speed of molecules. We conducted cognitive interviews to determine participants’ understanding of the different features of the simulation and their predictions about the relationship between temperature and the speed of molecules prior to using the simulation. In addition, we interviewed participants about their emergent understanding of this relationship after using the simulation. Participants were grouped based on their responses to the prompt “Have you ever heard the word molecule? What does that word mean to you?” The three groups were: no evidence of prior knowledge of molecules, some evidence of prior knowledge of molecules, and considerable evidence of prior knowledge of molecules. Preliminary results suggest that participants used prior knowledge when predicting the roles of different functions in the simulation. Further analysis of the transcripts is focused on identifying differences between groups in the features of the simulation participants identify, their explanation of these features, and predictions about how features contribute to the underlying conceptual model. While the focus of past research on the use of simulations in educational settings has centered on student achievement gains, this study shifts the focus to how students comprehend simulations and make sense of them, so that they can achieve scientifically accurate understandings.

Author

• Meredith Baker, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor