Developing and Implementing Instructional Materials to Support Students' Understanding of Electrical Forces and Interactions

• In Event: 29.030 - Equity-Focused Implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards: Exploring Models of Hope and Possibility

Abstract

Objectives / Purpose
Understanding electrical forces and interactions is important for explaining and predicting diverse phenomena such as the boiling points of substances and the folding of proteins. It is related to disciplinary core ideas in the Framework for K-12 Science Education (NRC, 2012) and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS, 2013). However, most students do not develop understanding of these ideas and how they relate across disciplines. Therefore, it is important to explore how to support students in developing understanding of electrical forces and interactions by developing new instructional materials and teaching strategies. The goal of this project is to design, develop and test coherent interdisciplinary instructional materials to support all high school students in developing understanding of electrical forces and energy involved in interactions at the microscopic level.

Perspectives / theoretical framework
Developing an understanding of microscopic principles requires negotiation between the macroscopic experience of phenomena, microscopic representations and the underlying scientific principles that explain what is happening (Levy-Nahum et al., 2006). The abstract nature of the scientific principles, however, makes it difficult for students to use them in explaining macroscopic phenomena (Levy-Nahum et al., 2006) and students struggle to coordinate their understanding of various phenomena, the underlying principles that help explain the phenomena, and representations of those phenomena (Stieff, 2011). Science instruction should help students generate appropriate representations to connect macroscopic phenomena and the underlying submicroscopic interactions that explain them (Kozma & Russell, 1997).

Methods
We designed, developed and implemented instruction materials that supports students in developing models of electrical interactions at microscopic scales as a foundation for explaining and making predictions about key phenomena at macroscopic scales. Key design features included: 1) learning goals specified as learning performances that build towards students understanding of core ideas and practices from the Framework and the NGSS, 2), a coherent storyline within and across units, 3) driving questions to engage learners, 4) experiencing and explaining phenomena, 5) multiple interactive computer-based representations and simulations.

Data sources
We collected students’ models and their written explanations about the phenomena they observed including their drawings, annotated snapshots of models, responses. These were automatically collected and stored in a web-based system.

Results
The results show that the designing and implementing curriculum emphasizing on students’ modeling through engagement with experiencing phenomena, various computer simulations, and class discussion has the potential to enhance students’ ability to develop models to explain various macro phenomena using the idea of electrical forces and interactions.

Scientific / scholarly significance
Engaging in the practices of science blended with core ideas helps students understand how scientific knowledge develops; such direct involvement gives them an appreciation of the wide range of approaches that are used to investigate, model, and explain the world (NRC, 2012). This work also provides information of how to design materials that align with the Framework and the NGSS so that all students develop useable understanding and how the materials can be designed that blend disciplinary core ideas and science practices.

Authors

• Jane Lee, Michigan State University

• Kristin Mayer, Michigan State University

• Leonora Kaldaras, Michigan State University

• Chanyah Dahsah, Michigan State University

• Shawn Stevens, University of Michigan

• Daniel Damelin, The Concord Consortium

• Frieda Reichsman, The Concord Consortium

• Steven McGee, Northwestern University

• Joseph S. Krajcik, Michigan State University