Exploring the mathematics of motion through construction and collaboration.

In this paper, we give a detailed account of the design principles and construction of activities designed for learning about the relationships between position, velocity and acceleration, and corresponding kinematics graphs. Our approach is model-based, that is, it focuses attention on the idea tha...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Journal of Computer Assisted Learning Vol. 22; no. 2; pp. 114 - 137
Autores principales: Simpson G, Hoyles C, Noss R
Formato: pictorial research tables/charts Journal Article
Publicado: Wiley-Blackwell Apr2006
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:In this paper, we give a detailed account of the design principles and construction of activities designed for learning about the relationships between position, velocity and acceleration, and corresponding kinematics graphs. Our approach is model-based, that is, it focuses attention on the idea that students constructed their own models - in the form of programs - to formalise and thus extend their existing knowledge. In these activities, students controlled the movement of objects in a programming environment, recording the motion data and plotting corresponding position-time and velocity-time graphs. They shared their findings on a specially designed Web-based collaboration system, and posted cross-site challenges to which others could react. We present learning episodes that provide evidence of students making discoveries about the relationships between different representations of motion. We conjecture that these discoveries arose from their activity in building models of motion and their participation in classroom and online communities.