Scratch as a computational modelling tool for teaching physics

Abstract

Although the word 'model' is polysemic, its most common meaning is that of a representation of an idea, object, event, process or system that is created for a specific objective (Gilbert & Boulter, 1998). The basic characteristics of a model are:• It does not represent the complete reality of the system being modelled, but only the aspects that are of interest to its user, and therefore, as they are human creations, they do not exist in the physical world. • The same reality can be represented by multiple models, depending on the interests of whoever is using the model. Gutiérrez ( 2005) defines the term 'scientific model' as a representation of a system, made up of a set of objects with certain properties or variables, and a set of laws that declare the behaviour or functions of these objects or the relationship between their variables. The essential functions of a scientific model are to explain and predict. At the same time, scientific models are considered to be representations that enable scientists to reason, and which are used to simplify or idealise complex phenomena, to help visualise abstract ideas, to support interpretations of experimental results and to help produce explanations and predictions (Justi & Gilbert, 2002).Despite the importance of building models in the development of scientific knowledge, many authors agree that there are no general rules for doing so. This non-linear process of constructing, evaluating and using models is what is known as 'scientific modelling'. As Hodson (1992) said: "the ways in which scientists work are not fixed and not entirely predictable, and involve a component that is experiencedependent in a very personal sense. These ways of working are not teachable. So, the only effective way to learn to do science is by doing science". In accordance with this viewpoint, there is a need to promote among students a more realistic image of science, trying not to portray the existence of a single scientific method but instead encouraging creativity as one of the essential skills used in the construction of scientific conceptual models at school. This is a post-print versionof the following article: López, V., Hernández, M.I. (2015). Scratch as a computational modelling tool for teaching physics. Physics Education, 50 (3), 310-316.

The Development of CT-S Learning Module on The Linear Motion Topic to Promote Computational Thinking Thinking

“…Some last empirical studies focused on computational thinking in the context of science or STEM but did not explicitly teach science content (Saez-Lopez et al, 2016;Hershkovitz et al, 2019). Some studies used programming to teach science content but did not explicitly teach the skills or concepts of computational thinking (Lopez et al, 2015;Mariano et al, 2019). In conclusion, there are still limited efforts in integrating computational and science thinking (Peel et al, 2019).…”

Educación STEM en y para el mundo digital

“…Mellar, Bliss, Boohan, Ogborn y Tompsett (1994) ya propusieron en su momento distinguir entre las simulaciones que diseñaba el profesor para que el alumno las usara, y las simulaciones que el alumno podía diseñar, expresando así sus ideas científicas y refinándolas a medida que iba perfeccionando su diseño, y Hsu, Hwang, Wu, Li-Fen y I-Chung (2006) afirmaron que esta segunda aproximación solo era posible si el estudiante desarrollaba habilidades propias de la modelización. En nuestra opinión, a pesar de la poca implantación que hasta el momento han tenido los programas de modelización computacional como VnR (Lawrence, 2004) o Modelus (Araujo, Veit, & Moreira, 2008), la eclosión de los nuevos lenguajes de programación por bloques tipo Scratch abren una ventana de oportunidad para la modelización científica con soporte digital (López & Hernandez, 2015;Simarro et al, 2016). Además, el hecho que la computación esté revolucionando las propias profesiones y prácticas profesionales STEM (por ejemplo, como la biología o la química computacional no solo enriquecen los procesos de modelización científica, sino que están transformando la propia naturaleza de estas disciplinas) hace todavía más necesario el desarrollo de este tipo de prácticas en la escuela (Beheshti, 2017).…”

Rapid and Easy Prototyping of Multimedia Tools for Education

“…Moreno-León and Robles (2015) and Costa (2016) used block programming to teach foreign languages. Lopez (2015) used Scratch itself to teach physics. But the creation of a specific block programming language for teaching a school subject is a significant change.…”