| 1. |
- Bivall Persson, Petter, 1979-, et al.
(författare)
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Improved Feature Detection over Large Force Ranges Using History Dependent Transfer Functions
- 2009
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Ingår i: Third Joint Eurohaptics Conference and Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environments and Teleoperator Systems, WorldHaptics 2009. - : IEEE. - 9781424438587 ; , s. 476-481
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this paper we present a history dependent transfer function (HDTF) as a possible approach to enable improved haptic feature detection in high dynamic range (HDR) volume data. The HDTF is a multi-dimensional transfer function that uses the recent force history as a selection criterion to switch between transfer functions, thereby adapting to the explored force range. The HDTF has been evaluated using artificial test data and in a realistic application example, with the HDTF applied to haptic protein-ligand docking. Biochemistry experts performed docking tests, and expressed that the HDTF delivers the expected feedback across a large force magnitude range, conveying both weak attractive and strong repulsive protein-ligand interaction forces. Feature detection tests have been performed with positive results, indicating that the HDTF improves the ability of feature detection in HDR volume data as compared to a static transfer function covering the same range.
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| 2. |
- Höst, Gunnar E., 1976-, et al.
(författare)
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Methods for investigating students’ learning and interaction with a haptic virtual biomolecular model
- 2010
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Ingår i: Contemporary Science Education Research: International Perspectives. - Ankara : Pegem Akademi. - 9786053640318 ; , s. 115-121
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Although immersive haptic virtual technologies are emerging rapidly in modern education, few methods exist for delivering data on the pedagogical merits of such models in the molecular life sciences. This paper reports on a selection of methods that we have used to obtain and analyse data on students’ learning and interaction with a haptic virtual model of protein-ligand docking, previously designed by author PBP. The methods have been developed and employed during four consecutive years in which the model has been part of an advanced biomolecular interactions course. In this regard, we present data-collection methods that include written items, interviews, think-aloud tasks and automated time-stamped logs and, corresponding quantitative and qualitative analytical procedures such as pre/posttest statistical comparisons, word usage analysis and, visualised profiling of students’ interaction with the model. Our results suggest that these methods are useful for generating valuable information on students’ learning gain, changes in conceptual understanding, reasoning processes and patterns of interactivity with the model. Dissemination of such methods could provide an empirical contribution to the dearth of research instruments in this domain. Future research will develop these methodologies to explore the relationship between using the model and students’ conceptual and embodied learning.
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| 3. |
- Tibell, Lena A. E., 1952-, et al.
(författare)
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Educational Challenges of Molecular Life Science- Characteristics and implications for education and research
- 2010
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Ingår i: CBE - Life Sciences Education. - Bethesda, MD, United States : American Society for Cell Biology. - 1931-7913. ; 9:1, s. 25-33
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Molecular life science is one of the fastest-growing fields of scientific and technical innovation, and biotechnology has profound effects on many aspects of daily life, often with deep ethical dimensions. At the same time the content is inherently complex, highly abstract and deeply rooted in diverse disciplines ranging from “pure sciences,” such as maths, chemistry, and physics, through “applied sciences”, such as medicine and agriculture, to subjects that are traditionally within the remit of humanities, notably philosophy and ethics. Together these features pose diverse, important, and exciting challenges for tomorrow’s teachers and educational establishments.With backgrounds in molecular life science research and secondary life science teaching, we (LT and CJR, respectively) bring different experiences, perspectives, concerns, and awareness of these issues. Taking the nature of the discipline as a starting point, we highlight important facets of molecular life science that are both characteristic of the domain and challenging for learning and education. Of these challenges we focus in most detail on content, reasoning difficulties, and communication issues. We also discuss implications for education research and teaching in the molecular life sciences.
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Andersson, Johanna, et al.
(författare)
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Children's reasoning and representations about living and non-living things
- 2013
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Understanding of the concept ‘life’ and what characterise ‘living things’ is important as a foundation for learning in biology. In a more general view, this understanding can make children develop awareness, respect and responsibility for life as members of a society and in decision making for sustainable development. The present pilot study aim to investigate 5-6 year old pre-school children’s reasoning and representations about living and nonliving things. In cognitive developmental research, the concept of life is well investigated but, questions still remain regarding how children reason around and represent these concepts. Previous research has found that children have difficulties in including plants as living things. Moreover, it is found that young children include e.g. the sun, clouds and rocks as living things. The methods that have been used are often quantitative and use picture-cards with different objects for the children to categorize. In the present pilot study a modified methodology was applied. Children’s drawings of what they consider as living and non-living were collected and picture-cards were used as point of departure for reasoning. In interviews the children were encouraged to explain and express their ideas. The drawings and the cards mainly worked as a meaning making tool for the children. Results from the study will be presented and discussed.
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| 7. |
- Bivall, Petter, 1979-, et al.
(författare)
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Do Haptic Representations Help Complex Molecular Learning?
- 2011
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Ingår i: Science Education. - : Wiley. - 0036-8326 .- 1098-237X. ; 95:4, s. 700-719
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study explored whether adding a haptic interface (that provides users with somatosensory information about virtual objects by force and tactile feedback) to a three-dimensional (3D) chemical model enhanced students' understanding of complex molecular interactions. Two modes of the model were compared in a between-groups pre- and posttest design. In both modes, users could move and rotate virtual 3D representations of the chemical structures of the two molecules, a protein and a small ligand molecule. In addition, in a haptic mode users could feel the interactions (repulsive and attractive) between molecules as forces with a haptic device. Twenty postgraduate students (10 in each condition) took pretests about the process of protein--ligand recognition before exploring the model in ways suggested by structured worksheets and then completing a posttest. Analysis addressed quantitative learning outcomes and more qualitatively students' reasoning during the learning phase. Results showed that the haptic system helped students learn more about the process of protein–ligand recognition and changed the way they reasoned about molecules to include more force-based explanations. It may also have protected students from drawing erroneous conclusions about the process of protein–ligand recognition observed when students interacted with only the visual model.
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| 8. |
- Jahic Pettersson, Alma, 1986-, et al.
(författare)
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Students’ Meaning-Making of Nutrient Uptake in Relation to Organizational Levels
- 2022
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Ingår i: Designs for Learning. - : Stockholm University Press. - 2001-7480. ; 14:1, s. 29-45
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Previous research suggests that everyday expressions are commonly used in students’ descriptions of nutrient uptake. This study investigate a classroom context in year 5 with a focus on signs of scientific meaning-making about nutrient uptake with an animation as a resource in two different schools. In one of the schools there was also a teacher review. The aim of this study is to investigate the pedagogical affordances of scientific terms and everyday expressions in the animation and in classroom teaching. Further, students’ signs of scientific meaning-making at the meso and submicro organizational level in group discussions and written descriptions are analyzed and if taking part of a teacher review influenced the students’ use of scientific terms and everyday expressions.The results show that the students who had a teacher review use everyday expressions at the meso and submicro level to a greater extent than the students who did not have an teacher review. The everyday expressions are often used as a kind of translation from the scientific terms in the students’ drawings.
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
- Orraryd, Daniel, et al.
(författare)
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Creative evolution: Students generating stop-motion animations of evolutionary change
- 2015
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- iagrams have been used to visualize evolutionary relationships for more than 150 years, and are today readily found in many areas such as textbooks, media, museums and the scientific literature. The tree of life metaphor, where the diagram takes the form of an organic vertical tree has been used almost as long and is still used to a high degree in textbooks and at museums. Despite this high prevalence the instructional needed to develop tree-thinking abilities are often lacking, potentially leading to interpretational misconceptions of the evolutionary concepts presented.In this study 5 exhibitions with evolutionary content in natural science museums in the Nordic countries have been analysed in order to understand how evolutionary tree diagrams are incorporated in these exhibitions, what design is used and what instructional support is available to the visitor. A multi-modal social semiotic approach was used, where 3 functional levels were analysed together in order to assess the meaning making potential of the evolutionary trees in these exhibitions; i) content, representational process and design. ii) instruction and interactivity. iii) spatial and organizational composition. The analyses show a wide range of communication strategies; reaching from the evolutionary tree diagrams having a pivotal role in the exhibition narrative to being placed purely in the margin with no explicit connection to the overall evolutionary content. The instructional support is in many cases lacking but is sometimes incorporated in the presentational text of specific parts of the evolutionary tree, and the design ranges from tree of life type iconic visualisations to highly abstract renderings. Overall the evolutionary tree as a visual tool to communicate important evolutionary concepts seems to be used to a high degree but important aspects in order to better afford scientific correct interpretations of the trees are sometimes lacking.
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| 11. |
- Rundgren, Carl-Johan, 1973-, et al.
(författare)
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Death of Metaphors in Life Science? : A study of upper secondary and tertiary students' use of metaphors and help-words in their meaning-making of scientific content.
- 2009
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Ingår i: Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching. - 1609-4913. ; 10:3, s. Article 3-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The study reported in this article investigated the use of metaphors by upper secondary and tertiary students while learning a specific content area in molecular life science, protein function. Terms and expressions in science can be used in such precise and general senses that they are totally dissociated from their metaphoric origins. Beginners in a scientific field, however, lack the experience of using a term of metaphorical origin in its domain-specific precise and general sense, and may therefore be more cognitively affected than the expert by the underlying metaphor. The study shows that beginners in the field of molecular life science use spontaneous metaphors and metaphors used in teaching in a way that demonstrates that they have difficulty using the proper scientific terminology. The results of this study indicate, among other things, that difficulties in science education may, to a large degree, be connected with problems of communicating the generality and precision of scientific terms and metaphors used in science. The article ends with a suggestion as how to enable students to move from general and vague metaphoric uses of scientific terms toward a more general and precise usage.
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| 12. |
- Schönborn, Konrad J., et al.
(författare)
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Using logging data to visualize and explore students’ interaction and learning with a haptic virtual model of protein-ligand docking
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This study explores students’ interaction and learning with a haptic virtual model of biomolecular recognition. Twenty students assigned to a haptics or no-haptics condition performed a protein-ligand docking task where interaction was captured in log files. Any improvement in understanding of recognition was measured by comparing written responses to a conceptual question before and after interaction. A log-profiling tool visualized students’ traversal of the ligand while multivariate parallel coordinate analyses uncovered trends in the data. Students who experienced force feedback (haptics) displayed docked positions that were more clustered in comparison with no-haptics students, coupled to docking profiles that depicted a more focused traversal of the ligand. Students in the no-haptics condition employed double the amount of behaviours concerned with switching between multiple visual representations offered by the system. In the no-haptics group, this visually intense processing was associated with ‘fitting’ the ligand closer distances to the surface of the protein. A negative relationship between high representational switching activity and learning gain as well as spatial aptitude was also revealed. From an information-processing perspective, visual and haptic coordination could permit engagement of each perceptual channel simultaneously, in effect offloading the visual pathway by placing less strain on visual working memory.
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| 13. |
- Skar, Helena, et al.
(författare)
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The potential of the evolutionary tree as mediational means in museum exhibitions containing key evolutionary concepts
- 2015
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Ingår i: Non-formal Learning Environments.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Diagrams have been used to visualize evolutionary relationships for more than 150 years, and are today readily found in many areas such as textbooks, media, museums and the scientific literature. The tree of life metaphor, where the diagram takes the form of an organic vertical tree has been used almost as long and is still used to a high degree in textbooks and at museums. Despite this high prevalence the instructional needed to develop tree-thinking abilities are often lacking, potentially leading to interpretational misconceptions of the evolutionary concepts presented.In this study 5 exhibitions with evolutionary content in natural science museums in the Nordic countries have been analysed in order to understand how evolutionary tree diagrams are incorporated in these exhibitions, what design is used and what instructional support is available to the visitor. A multi-modal social semiotic approach was used, where 3 functional levels were analysed together in order to assess the meaning making potential of the evolutionary trees in these exhibitions; i) content, representational process and design. ii) instruction and interactivity. iii) spatial and organizational composition. The analyses show a wide range of communication strategies; reaching from the evolutionary tree diagrams having a pivotal role in the exhibition narrative to being placed purely in the margin with no explicit connection to the overall evolutionary content. The instructional support is in many cases lacking but is sometimes incorporated in the presentational text of specific parts of the evolutionary tree, and the design ranges from tree of life type iconic visualisations to highly abstract renderings. Overall the evolutionary tree as a visual tool to communicate important evolutionary concepts seems to be used to a high degree but important aspects in order to better afford scientific correct interpretations of the trees are sometimes lacking.
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| 14. |
- Tibell, Lena A.E. 1952-, et al.
(författare)
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Haptic Influences on Reasoning and Learning in Protein Education
- 2008
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the 9th Nordic Research Symposium on Science Education. - : Science Education Research Group, School of Education, University of Iceland. - 9789979985174 ; , s. 165-168
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- An emerging viewpoint of cognition suggests that the body has a central role in shaping the mind and that cognitive processes are deeply rooted in the body´s interaction with the world that, “embodied cognition or learning”. If so, the documented difficulties for learners to grasp and to engage in molecular sciences might, at least in part, explained by the lack of direct experience of the micro world. The term haptics encompasses the tactual sensation and the human interaction with the external environment through touch. When integrated as part of a computer-based virtual environment, haptics refers to the artificial tactual sensation used to simulate the experience of actually touching or feeling a real object that occur in response to user movements. The present work aims to evaluate the gains of a haptic element from a learning perspective, when haptics is added to an educational virtual reality environment for students learning the concepts of molecular interactions in proteins. A combined qualitative and quantitative approach is taken, using data from tests and interviews (with a subset of the subjects). The study is an attempt to fill some of the gaps in the research about possible benefits from using force feedback technology, focusing specifically on the learning gains from a study of a virtual protein model. The computer model did not help the students to solve their tasks faster, but it appears to help them to gain a deeper understanding of the docking process, partly by challenging their preconceptions. Further, we propose that the force feedback might constitute a critical feature for understanding the involvement of the dynamics and forces involved in the process.
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| 15. |
- Tibell, Lena A.E. 1952-, et al.
(författare)
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Lowering the Threshold - New Approaches for Teaching and Learning Evolution
- 2015
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The theory of evolution is widely considered to be one of the most important and groundbreaking theories in science history and essentially underpins all modern biology, from ecology through to medicine. Darwin's theory of evolution explains how all life is related and has descended from a common ancestor. Since the theory of evolution was first presented more than 150 years ago, results from across the life sciences have verified and enhanced details of this theory. There are a multitude of implications of direct societal importance for evolutionary aspects, e.g. antibiotic resistance, emergence of new diseases as well as responses and adaptations to climate change. Therefore, a meaningful understanding of evolutionary theory is essential for many areas of individual, social and scientific life. However, science education research has shown that the theory of evolution presents severe problems to learners, and many teaching strategies have failed or proven to be inefficient to solve them (e.g. Kampourakis & Zogza, 2008). Taking this knowledge into account the aim of our contribution is to propose new ways of teaching, learning and probing understanding about evolution. The first study applies the method of learning with worked examples to learning evolution. Worked examples have been shown to support the understanding of demanding scientific contents as well as of contents in other disciplines by empirical investigations (Chi et al., 1994). Here, worked examples are used in a very differentiated way, i.e. adjusted to the prior knowledge of the students. The second study attempts a new way to explore students’ conceptions of evolution by using student-generated animations. In many studies, students’ conceptions of evolution have been probed using interviews as well as paper and pencil tests, ranging from multiple-choice questionnaires to essays (e.g. Balgopal & Montplaisir, 2009). However, Nehm and Schonfeld (2008) showed that students’ results are strongly dependent on the particular method applied. The second study investigates a new method of exploring students’ conceptions of evolution, i.e. animations, which were generated by the students themselves in a collaborative setting.Nehm and Reilly (2007) have suggested targeting misconceptions and core concepts as tools for explaining particular evolutionary scenarios. This would be in line with well-established conceptual change theories in science education (Strike & Posner 1992). The third, fourth and fifth study of our symposium is linked to these considerations. They focus on fundamental features of the evolutionary concept, i.e. thresholds concepts such as randomness, probability or spatio-temporal scales, which the authors hypothesize to be necessary to grasp the theory of evolution. The construct of evolution is composed of fundamental abstract ideas. Some of these concepts are in fact contra-intuitive and have to be connected in complex conceptual patterns for a full comprehension of evolution theory. Evolution spans spatial and temporal scales, from the development of life and species over millions of years, to the explanations of events that occur at the cellular and molecular level, and in time scales from microseconds to minutes and hours. Some kinds of visualizations are needed for making these concepts tangible for learners. Thousands of animations, dealing with evolution, are available on the Internet. The third paper presented proposes a criteria catalogue covering multiple evolutionary aspects including threshold concepts for the evaluation of animations meant for explaining evolution. The aim of this study was to map the presence (or absence) of important concepts in dynamic educational visualizations on evolution. By using the developed criteria catalogue, the study elucidates what concepts are focused on in animations, video clips and simulations and whether there are relevant evolutionary concepts in these media that are seldom represented or not represented at all. Paper four goes one step further: the explorative study shows the development and evaluation of a novel interactive visualization application intended to convey key mechanisms of natural selection such as random variation, selection and development over generations. The aim was to investigate students reasoning while working with this interactive simulation application stressing the threshold concept of randomness in the context of genetic variation. The final study presented in this contribution aims to investigate if problems in understanding evolution as well as in the development of misconceptions can be overcome by fostering the understanding of the threshold concept randomness.Through this contribution, the authors aim to contribute to further development of the teaching and learning of evolution at secondary as well as higher educational levels.
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