Undergraduate Preservice Elementary Teachers’ Investigations of Radio Waves Using Elementary Microcomputing Technologies (Poster 47)

• In Event: Saturday Poster Session 1:15 pm
  In Poster Session: Advanced Technologies for Learning SIG Poster Session

Abstract

We examine how undergraduate preservice teachers investigate radio waves, aiming to empower them in understanding wave transmission and reception. Beginning from a discussion in which several students “confess” that they have no idea how their cell phones receive information at a distance, we implemented a hackable game in which students used micro:bits to send and receive information. Students began to understand the behaviors of the micro:bits in terms of properties of the radio waves and the media through which the waves were traveling, and in terms of wave properties, such as reflection. Our preliminary themes describe considerations in the design of embodied investigations using elementary microcomputing technologies.

Authors

• Anna Eunji Kim, Pennsylvania State University

• Amy Voss Farris, Pennsylvania State University