Learning physics by practicing it with physical apparatus or using interactive video: is there a difference?

Chico State Enterprises, Chico CA

Investigators

Abstract

This project will advance understanding of how students develop scientific reasoning abilities when using an online resource. Education is shifting rapidly from traditional classrooms and laboratories to more flexible, online learning environments in which students do not always have access to physical equipment. Research has shown that students can learn scientific abilities through collaborative hands-on investigative experiences and subsequent analyses and discussions. This project will explore the extent to which those same scientific abilities can be developed using high-quality interactive videos of experiments. This project will couple the flexibility of web-based video technology with the Investigative Science Learning Environment (ISLE), a pedagogical framework that leads students through processes of scientific reasoning used by practicing scientists. The ISLE framework, most often implemented in a traditional setting where lecture is separated from apparatus-based lab experimentation, has already been shown to improve students' scientific reasoning abilities. Today e-learning resources such as this project's video-based ISLE (vISLE) are blurring the lines between lecture and lab and opening up the possibilities for authentic scientific investigations in non-traditional settings. The goals of this project are: A) to gain a deeper and more nuanced understanding of how students engage in science practices using an e-learning resource such as vISLE. Do students learn fundamental physics principles using vISLE and what scientific reasoning abilities or habits of mind do they display and develop using vISLE? and B) to gain an understanding of how the advantages of videos can be exploited to extend authentic scientific investigations into non-traditional venues (such as in the classroom or in a homework assignment).