Photosynthesis



Photosynthesis

Brian Gravel – Tufts University, Center for Engineering Educational Outreach

Transcription of audio interview – March 2009

Here’s an animation generated by some elementary school students who worked in a group to show their understanding of photosynthesis. You can see in this animation that they generated all their own props and the scheme for how they were going to show the process of animation. In addition they were asked to narrate this movie, and we feel that narration is a really interesting addition to the animation environment. We get to see an idea of how they think the process works based on the animation they provide, but we get one more chance to look at what they think by asking them to then tell us in oral language what they see happening. For a teacher this can be a really useful way of assessing what the kids have learned about this topic, and where there still may be some areas that need to be revisited. Another interesting aspect about this movie is the fact that the kids worked in groups. We found that by having kids make animations in groups, they have to agree upon some kind of story that they want to tell. And in that process of negotiating an agreement, they tend to refine and improve their conceptual understanding as each student has to convince each other of his or her belief in what’s happening in the process. This collaborative environment we feel is a very strong way for kids to get involved in thinking through science processes and how they might represent them.

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