Learning About States of Matter Through Multiple Correspondences Among the Body, Abstractions, and Reality

• In Event: Movement, Environment, and Meaning in Learning

Abstract

Our portion of the panel will describe an augmented-reality learning environment for 1st and 2nd graders in which students’ body movements play a major role in their exploration of how and why microscopic water particles transition between states of matter (solid, liquid, gas). We focus on how the teacher helps the students to reflect upon the similarities and differences between the rules they believe will reflect the states of matter and those that are embodied in the technology. This reflection takes place as students immerse in new roles (e.g. Resnick & Wilensky, 1998), both within the play environment (e.g. Cooper & Dever, 2001) and in the more traditional sense of social discourse (e.g. Goffman, 1974).

Theme 1: Technological augmentation of embodiment. In this second iteration of our augmented-reality system, called STEP (Science through Technology Enhanced Play), sensors track students’ physical movements using computer vision. Students’ movements control a simulation of particles (each student represents one particle) projected on a large screen (see Figures 5 & 6). Based on how quickly a student moves and how much distance a student establishes from peers, his/her corresponding particle on screen will change into a specific color representing a state of matter. The augmented-reality system laminates instant meaning onto students’ movements, allowing students to move in concert and view corresponding changes in state.

Theme 2: Scientific inquiry through multiple correspondences between the body, abstractions, and reality. Interacting with the STEP environment is incredibly intuitive for students; the software interprets students’ movements and provides immediate feedback. Conceptually, however, this can be a rather complex process because the STEP environment coordinates students’ physical movements with more abstract representations (e.g., white, blue, and red connectors) of states of matter (e.g., solids, liquids, and gasses). For instance, students spend several days observing and experiencing the movement of particles, making sense of the information provided by the software while also voicing out their developing ideas. Sense-making in this initial experience is often nascent and rife with inconsistencies. It is crucial for this initial experience to dovetail with a more reflective inquiry mode, in which students check what happens with the particle colors and bonds, declare new ideas, test those ideas as a group, document their discoveries, and test again. With help from the teachers, the inquiry becomes organized enough that students can make systematic statements about states of matter.

Data sources & Methods. The STEP project was a collaboration between two universities (n=125 and n=25, respectively). We collected video records of planning sessions with teachers, classroom activities with the STEP technology (six lessons that covered matter, particles, and energy in alignment with NGSS), classroom activities with physical modeling, pre- and post-test interviews with all students, and debriefs with teachers at the end of the intervention. Our analysis involved developing a coding scheme for the pre- and post-tests and conducting extensive interaction analysis (Jordan & Henderson, 1995; Goodwin, 2013) of classroom activities in conjunction with reflection on theoretical frameworks from play, embodied cognition, and model-based reasoning.

Authors

• Noel D. Enyedy, University of California - Los Angeles

• Joshua Adam Danish, Indiana University

• Christine Lee, University of California - Los Angeles

• David DeLiema, University of California - Los Angeles

• Asmalina Saleh, Indiana University - Bloomington

• Maggie Dahn, University of California - Los Angeles

• Randy Illum, University of California - Los Angeles