How middle level science teachers visualize and translate motion, scale, and geometric space of the Earth-Moon-Sun system with their students

Wilhelm, Jennifer; Cole, Merryn; Cohen, Cheryl A.; Lindell, Rebecca

doi:10.1103/physrevphyseducres.14.010150

Cited by 15 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…A Fisher's exact test gives p-values greater than 0.1 for all pre/post scores by question. Some topic areas show gains over 40% that are consistent across condition (orbit period, phase period, and illumination) while others show gains less than 10% (scale, Moon rotation, phase diagram, rise/set time), consistent with previous research on learning about Moon phases [14,16]. Note the negative shifts in the "Why phases occur" question.…”

Section: B Score Comparison By Topicsupporting

confidence: 86%

Virtual Reality as a Teaching Tool for Moon Phases and Beyond

Madden¹,

Won²,

Schuldt³

et al. 2019

2018 Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings

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A ball on a stick is a common and simple activity for teaching the phases of the Moon. This activity, like many others in physics and astronomy, gives students a perspective they otherwise could only imagine. For Moon phases, a third person view and control over time allows students to rapidly build a mental model that connects all the moving parts. Computer simulations of many traditional physics and astronomy activities provide new features, controls, or vantage points to enhance learning beyond a hands-on activity. Virtual reality provides the capabilities of computer simulations and embodied cognition experiences through a hands-on activity making it a natural step to improve learning. We recreated the traditional ball-and-stick moon phases activity in virtual reality and compared participant learning using this simulation with using traditional methods. We found a strong participant preference for VR relative to the traditional methods. However, we observed no difference across conditions in average levels of performance on a pre/post knowledge test.

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Section: B Score Comparison By Topicsupporting

confidence: 86%

Virtual Reality as a Teaching Tool for Moon Phases and Beyond

Madden¹,

Won²,

Schuldt³

et al. 2019

2018 Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…4). Across the conditions, some topic areas showed large gains over 40% (orbit period, phase period, and illumination), while others showed small gains less than 10% (scale, Moon rotation, phase diagram, rise/set time), consistent with previous research on learning about Moon phases [58,73]. This demonstrates that learning did not differ between conditions on sub-topics that may have held learning benefits within the different conditions.…”

Section: Learning By Questionsupporting

confidence: 86%

Ready student one: Exploring the predictors of student learning in virtual reality

et al. 2020

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Immersive virtual reality (VR) has enormous potential for education, but classroom resources are limited. Thus, it is important to identify whether and when VR provides sufficient advantages over other modes of learning to justify its deployment. In a between-subjects experiment, we compared three methods of teaching Moon phases (a hands-on activity, VR, and a desktop simulation) and measured student improvement on existing learning and attitudinal measures. While a substantial majority of students preferred the VR experience, we found no significant differences in learning between conditions. However, we found differences between conditions based on gender, which was highly correlated with experience with video games. These differences may indicate certain groups have an advantage in the VR setting. are many potential explanations for these differences [14], two relate to how learners and technology interact through issues of embodiment and real-world complexities. This study aimed to test the impact of these variables by directly comparing student learning and attitudes from three different instructional technologies (a hands-on activity, desktop simulation, and virtual reality simulation), while taking advantage of their respective affordances along the dimensions of embodiment and real-world complexity. EmbodimentTheories of learning argue that cognition is inherently embodied: "the mind must be understood in the context of its relationship to a physical body that interacts with the world." [15, p.625]. Research has found that learning benefits from activities that explicitly attend to embodied cognition [16][17][18]. There are several ways in which embodiment is argued to support learning, generally tied to a hypothesis whereby activities help move cognition from abstract to concrete representations of a phenomenon [16].Two such notions of embodied cognition focus on how learners off-load cognitive work on to the environment and how off-line cognition is body-based [15,19]. These notions suggest physical aspects of cognition, whereby learning is supported through engaging perceptuo-motor systems [20]. Indeed, nearly all science education advocates for the use of interactive hands-on activities [21]. Through hands-on activities and demonstrations, learners connect abstract concepts to their physical environment. For example, researchers in physics education have developed embodied activities for teaching concepts of energy conservation [22]. In these activities, learners assign units of energy to physical objects (either cubes or people) [23], and then manipulate those objects to represent processes of energy transfer and dynamics. Through these concrete representations of an otherwise abstract phenomenon, learners develop their conceptual and mechanistic understandings of the phenomenon [22]. By manipulating physical objects, students can see deep features of the phenomena, allowing them to effectively integrate the features into their mental models of the phenomena [20,24].Two other notions of embodied cogn...

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“…Even though this instrument was designed for college-level students, there are examples of its use with middle school students (see Refs. [29,30]). Next is Sadler et al's Astronomy and Space Science Concept Inventory (ASSCI) [15], an instrument targeted at K-12 students.…”

Section: Review Of Instruments To Assess Knowledge About Lunar Phmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development and validation of the moon phases concept inventory for middle school

Chastenay

Riopel

2020

Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res.

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We present the development and validation of a new assessment tool, the Moon Phases Concept Inventory for Middle School (MPCI-MS), a concept inventory about the phases of the moon targeting students aged 10 to 14 years old. Items in the questionnaire are based on a careful examination of the concept domain of phases of the moon, ideas and concepts necessary to understand the mechanism of lunar phases, as chosen by a panel of seven professional astronomers. Questions and multiple-choice answers were tested for readability with 5th grade students, tested for reading level, and submitted to a second panel of professional astronomers to check for face and construct validity of the items. The MPCI-MS was tested with N ¼ 296 students from grade 5 in elementary school to secondary 2 (M age ¼ 10.2 to 14.1). One item about global perspective on lunar phases had to be removed because of poor psychometric properties. The revised MPCI-MS has a post-test Cronbach alpha score of 0.786 and good overall psychometric properties: the mean difficulty index for the MPCI-MS pretest is 0.47, and 0.61 for the post-test; mean point-biserial correlation (post-test) is 0.376. Test-retest without instruction at one-week interval showed high test-retest reliability [M pre ¼ 13.696, M post ¼ 14.523; tð45Þ ¼ 1.315, p ¼ 0.192]. We conclude that the MPCI-MS is a reliable and valid instrument that can discriminate between novices and experts, and can be used to assess 10 to 14 year-old students' learning gains on the topic of lunar phases. The final version of MPCI-MS is a 19-item instrument, including two new questions about eclipses, that takes between 15 and 25 min for students to complete.

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How middle level science teachers visualize and translate motion, scale, and geometric space of the Earth-Moon-Sun system with their students

Cited by 15 publications

References 15 publications

Virtual Reality as a Teaching Tool for Moon Phases and Beyond

Virtual Reality as a Teaching Tool for Moon Phases and Beyond

Ready student one: Exploring the predictors of student learning in virtual reality

Development and validation of the moon phases concept inventory for middle school

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