When Two Equals 10 Times One: Facilitating Reasoning About Exponential Growth With an Embodied Simulation

• In Event: 56.024 - Embodying, Personalizing, and Rendering Mathematics Using Technology

Abstract

This study examines the effects of different facilitation strategies when students interact with an embodied simulation representing exponential growth. Twenty-two high school students were interviewed, and coded for correctness and reasoning. Overall there was a trend toward improved reasoning after students used gestures to interact with the simulation. Analysis of the individual cases revealed three strategies. First, conceptually driven questioning made students’ tacit sense of growth more salient to them. Second, scaffolding emphasized this corporeal sense across contexts to encourage transfer. Third, when students become proficient in using the simulation, computational tasks can be offloaded to the simulation to engage learners in more complex concepts. An example is given for each strategy, and potential learning and design implications are described.

Authors

• Nitasha Mathayas, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Jason W Morphew, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Robb Lindgren, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Sahar Alameh, University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign