Representational challenges in animated chemistry: self-generated animations as a means to encourage students’ reflections on sub-micro processes in laboratory exercises

Abstract

A central aspect of learning chemistry is learning to relate observations of phenomena to models of the sub-microscopic level of matter, and hence being able to explain the observable phenomena. However, research shows that students have difficulties discerning and comprehending the meaning of the sub-micro level and its models, and that practical work in its traditional form fails to help students to discern the relation between observations and models. Consequently, there is a strong call for new teaching activities to address these issues. This paper emerges from a growing number of studies showing that learning is supported when students are set to cooperatively create their own multimodal representations of science phenomena. In this paper, we explore the approach of letting students create their own stop-motion animation as a means to explain observations during practical work. The students’ work of producing a phenomenon in the laboratory and creating an animation was recorded (audio–video) to capture students’ verbal and non-verbal interactions and use of resources. Data was analysed using a thematic content analysis with a deductive approach aimed at identifying the aspects of chemistry content that are being reasoned. The analysis showed that the task enabled students to engage in reasoning concerning both the observations and the sub-micro-level models, and how they relate to each other. The task also enabled students to reason about features of the representation that are needed to make sense of both the observational and sub-microscopic aspects of a phenomenon, as well as reflecting upon the meaning of a model.

Student-Generated Stop-Motion Animation in Science Classes: a Systematic Literature Review

“…The same holds for secondary school classrooms (e.g., Church et al 2007;Kamp and Deaton 2013). In the context of university teacher education programs, there have been many studies (24 out of 42) on how creating a SMA influenced student teachers in learning various science concepts (Berg et al 2019;Hoban et al 2009a;Nielsen 2012, 2013), pedagogical intent Hoban and Ferry 2006;Keast et al 2010;Nielsen and Hoban 2015), and technological pedagogical content knowledge (Paige et al 2016). Finally, Wishart (2016), in a multi-level study (primary, middle, and secondary school), found that students of different ages can benefit from generating SMA in science classes.…”

“…In terms of cognitive load, Kidman and Hoban (2009) claimed that when a topic requires a considerable representation effort (such as the fiddly detail in the representation of chromosome mapping), cognitive load focuses on the representation, rather than scientific processes. (Church et al 2007;Hoban et al 2009a;Hoban and Nielsen 2013;Wilkerson et al 2015) and mobile apps like MyCreate (Mills et al 2018b), iMotionHD (Wishart 2017), and iStopMotion (Berg et al 2019;Kamp and Deaton 2013).…”

Effects of different ways of using visualizations on high school students’ electrochemistry conceptual understanding and motivation towards chemistry learning

“…They found that by creating these visualizations, the participants interpreted information, transforming their science knowledge, and built links between science knowledge and their experiences of the real world. Also, Berg et al (2019) had primary school teachers create their own animations to explain their observations during practical work. Results of the qualitative analysis showed that the process of creating animations engaged these teachers in reasoning between experiential, macroscopic, and submicroscopic levels (Taber, 2013).…”

“…Instead of having students passively observe visualizations provided by teachers and learning materials, recent studies have encouraged students to construct their own visual displays (e.g., Ainsworth et al, 2011;Tytler et al, 2013;Yaseen, 2018;Yaseen and Aubusson, 2020). Research in chemistry education shows that the process of generating visualizations could help students make connections between the macro and sub-micro levels, externalize students' understandings, increase their engagement, and improve their representational skills (Davidowitz et al, 2010;Hoban et al, 2011;Akaygun, 2016;Berg et al, 2019).…”

Topsar och cellmembran : Kroppens näringsupptag i undervisning och elevtexter på mellanstadiet

“…Skillnaden mellan erfarenhetsnivån och makronivån är att man med den erfarenhetsbaserade nivån endast avser erfarenhetsbeskrivningar som uttryckts med vardagsuttryck medan makronivån utgör en formell beskrivning av fenomenet. Klassrumsstudier i kemi visar att eleverna ofta beskriver fenomen baserat på de sinnesintrycket de får, som i sin tur ofta uttrycks i vardagsord som "det blir blått", "det bubblar", "det blir varmt" (Berg, Orraryd, Jahic Pettersson & Hultén, 2019). För att det ska ses som meningsskapande menar forskare att de erfarenhetsbaserade beskrivningarna måste kopplas till naturvetenskapliga termer.…”