| 1. |
- Eriksson, Moa, et al.
(författare)
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The Variation of University Physics Students' Experience of Plus and Minus Signs in 1D Vector-kinematics Revisited
- 2022
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Ingår i: African Journal of Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education. - : Taylor & Francis Group. - 1811-7295 .- 2469-7656. ; 26:1, s. 63-76
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article revisits and expands upon a previous phenomenographic study characterising the qualitatively different ways in which South African undergraduate physics students may experience the use of +/- signs in one-dimensional kinematics (1DK). We find the original categorisation as applicable for interpreting Swedish university-level students' responses to 1DK questions. However, by way of a typology of potential learning outcomes associated with +/- signs in 1DK, our review of the topic reveals that the original study's treatment misses the implications of +/- signs related to time rate of change and graphical shape. We also add to the description of students' experience of +/- signs in 1DK by incorporating ideas from the Variation Theory of Learning and by focusing on some of the aspects of +/- signs in 1DK that were underemphasized in the original study. Our analysis thus provides a template for physics educators to support students' conceptual understanding of sign conventions in vector kinematics.
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| 2. |
- Euler, Elias, et al.
(författare)
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A student-generated embodied metaphor for binary star interactions
- 2018
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this presentation, we present an example of a student-generated metaphor for celestial motion in the form of an embodied dance. We examine how this dance played a part in the students’ reasoning about astronomy, paying particular attention to how the students coordinated the movements of their bodies to communicate with one another about the centrality and reciprocity of the interactions between binary stars. We also consider how an open-ended, technology-rich learning environment made such a metaphorical, embodied representation possible, and review how the process of unpacking such metaphors can be embraced by teachers in potentially fruitful ways.
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| 3. |
- Euler, Elias, et al.
(författare)
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Algodoo as a Microworld : Informally Linking Mathematics and Physics
- 2019
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Ingår i: Mathematics in Physics Education. - : Springer. - 9783030046279
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this chapter, we use two case studies of high school and undergraduate students interacting with a two-dimensional sandbox modelling software, Algodoo, to show how physics students can make use of the mathematical representations offered by the software in unconventional yet meaningful ways. We show how affordances of the technology-supported learning environment allow the emergence of student creative engagement at the intersection of mathematics and physics. In terms of learning, the activities studied here are relevant in two central ways: (1) they open up alternative conceptual learning pathways for students by allowing them to access and engage with the content in original, self-directed and creative ways; (2) in doing this, the studied activities carry significant potential to motivate students and support their intrinsic interests.
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| 4. |
- Euler, Elias, et al.
(författare)
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Dancing with the Stars : Social Semiotics and Embodied Cognition in Digitally-Rich Physics Learning
- 2020
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this paper we build on the work done by Gregorcic et al. (2017) and Euler et al. (2019) in exploring how two high school students make use of an embodied dance to mechanistically reason about binary star dynamics. In doing so, we present a new analytic framework that synthesizes the perspectives of social semiotics and embodied cognition for the study of students’ interactions. Our analysis provides the interested researcher with a framework for the nuanced study of students’ use of non-disciplinary semiotic resources and, for the interested teacher, a lens for interpreting and valuing students’ creative use of embodied analogies. Our paper features a case study of two upper-secondary physics students as they explored the topic of orbital motion with the PhET simulation My Solar System on an Interactive Whiteboard. We utilize video data originally collected as part of a master’s thesis project on responsive teaching in digitally-rich environments (Rådahl, 2017). With an approach inspired by conversation analysis, we analyze how the pair of students mechanistically reasoned about the matching orbital periods of two stars in a binary system. Our analysis shows that through their use of an embodied dance, the students were able to enact an analogy and answer the question at hand in a manner that adequately relates to all of the disciplinary-relevant aspects comprising a formal answer. We build on previous social semiotics research in physics to show that students can coordinate meaning around embodied imagery, which may or may not physically persist. We reveal the need for analyses of students’ bodily engagement during learning to go beyond the labels of embodied/kinesthetic learning activities. For physics teachers, we provide motivation to implement strategies that promote the embodied interactions of students. We also provide motivation for teachers and researchers to become fluent in students’ non-disciplinary vernacular such that connections can be made to more formal descriptions of physics phenomena.
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| 5. |
- Euler, Elias, et al.
(författare)
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Discovering variation: learning physics in a creative digital environment
- 2018
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this paper, we investigate the ways in which an open-ended software can support the learning of physics through a case study of a pair of students using Algodoo, a creativity-based 2D Newtonian physics environment which, in contrast to the majority of educational simulations, is not targeted for the investigation of a specific phenomenon (or subset of phenomena). Specifically, we explore how open-ended software such as Algodoo supports the learning of physics by (1) allowing users to experience the variation of physical parameters and, importantly, by (2) requiring users to discern those parameters which are relevant to the learning situation at hand.
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| 6. |
- Euler, Elias, et al.
(författare)
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Embodiment in physics learning : A social-semiotic look
- 2019
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Ingår i: Physical Review Physics Education Research. - 2469-9896. ; 15:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this paper, we present a case study of a pair of students as they use nondisciplinary communicative practices to mechanistically reason about binary star dynamics. To do so, we first review and bring together the theoretical perspectives of social semiotics and embodied cognition, therein developing a new methodological approach for analyzing student interactions during the learning of physics (particularly for those interactions involving students’ bodies). Through the use of our new approach, we are able to show how students combine a diverse range of meaning-making resources into complex, enacted analogies, thus forming explanatory models that are grounded in embodied intuition. We reflect on how meaning-making resources—even when not physically persistent—can act as coordinating hubs for other resources as well as how we might further nuance the academic conversation around the role of the body in physics learning.
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| 7. |
- Euler, Elias, et al.
(författare)
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Embodying the abstract or abstracting from the body
- 2018
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Some discussions of kinesthetic learning activities include a distinction between (1) activities which involve students’ bodies as symbolic representations and (2) activities which incorporate students’ bodies as sensors for experiencing things such as forces and torques. In this poster, we go beyond this binary distinction to propose a theoretical interpretation of how the body can be included in physics learning. We then use our interpretation in discussing an example from a learning activity where a pair of students spontaneously recruited an embodied metaphor as part of their reasoning about binary stars.
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| 8. |
- Euler, Elias, et al.
(författare)
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Experiencing Variation and Discerning Relevant Aspects Through Playful Inquiry in Algodoo
- 2017
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Educational simulations in physics tend to be designed to help students learn selected concepts and thus are typically limited in their potential for open-ended and creative exploration. We are interested in the educational potential of a simulation environment, Algodoo, which does not address any one specific physics phenomenon, but rather provides a creative platform for users to design their own simulations using basic building blocks (e.g. massless springs, rigid bodies). In this study, we investigate the ways in which the Algodoo software supports the learning of physics concepts when it is used as an open environment for students’ inquiry through a case study of a pair of students using Algodoo for the first time. Our study suggests that Algodoo promotes learning in two main ways. First, not unlike more traditional educational simulations, it makes purposeful variation of relevant physics parameters possible and allows the user to experience variation in multiple ways. Second, in contrast to traditional educational simulations (and more like ‘messy’ real experiments), it requires the user to discern the relevant parameters to be varied.
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| 9. |
- Euler, Elias, et al.
(författare)
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Exploring how physics students use a sandbox software to move between the physical and the formal
- 2017
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Ingår i: PERC Proceedings. - Cincinnati, OH : American Association of Physics Teachers. ; , s. 128-131
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this paper, we present a theoretical framework based on Hestenes's discussion of modeling in physics and diSessa's early theories on creativity-based digital learning environments. We use this framework to formulate new understandings of how a pair of students work with an open-ended physics sandbox software, Algodoo, alongside a physical laboratory setup. Algodoo is a digital environment that makes it possible for students to create simple, two-dimensional models of physical phenomena. We identify Algodoo's role as that of a semi-formalism, whereby the students made use of the software in their process of modeling as a means of moving between the physical, experimental context and the formal, mathematical representations associated with that context. We propose a hypothesis to be tested in future research and suggest further avenues for exploration in relation to the proposed theoretical framework.
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| 10. |
- Euler, Elias, et al.
(författare)
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Exploring how Physics Students use a Sandbox Software to Move between the Physical and the Formal
- 2017
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this study, we analyze video data of undergraduate students working with a physics sandbox software, Algodoo, alongside a physical laboratory setup. Algodoo is a digital environment which allows students to create simple, two-dimensional models of physical phenomena. We identify Algodoo's role as one of a semi-formalism, whereby students use the software as a means of moving between the physical experiment and the more formal, mathematical representations used to describe physics phenomena. Furthermore, we show how specific design features of Algodoo constrain students' actions in pedagogically productive ways without completely eliminating the 'messiness' inherent in physical laboratory work that is often excluded in educational simulations.
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