Comparing Middle School Students’ Science Explanations During Physical and Virtual Laboratories

Autor: Sadhana Puntambekar, Dana Gnesdilow
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
Zdroj: Journal of Science Education and Technology. 31:191-202
ISSN: 1573-1839
1059-0145
Popis: In this study, we compared students’ learning from two conditions in a unit on inclined planes: Virtual-then-Physical (V-t-P) (n = 50), where students conducted a virtual lab followed by a physical lab, or vice versa in the Physical-then-Virtual condition (P-t-V) (n = 60). We analyzed students’ written explanations after each lab focusing on connections they made between concepts and their use of evidence. We also analyzed students’ learning using an inclined planes test to understand their overall physics knowledge at the start and end of the unit. While we found no significant differences between students’ post-test scores based on condition using an analysis of covariance, findings from a repeated measures MANOVA of students’ explanations showed that performing a physical lab was less effective in helping students to explain the relationships between the science concepts they were exploring as well as use data to support their ideas. We further found that students who only conducted a virtual lab performed better than students performing both types of labs no matter the sequence. However, the findings from these analyses also indicate that if using both labs, then having students do a physical lab prior to a virtual one may be more beneficial for middle school students than having them participate in the opposite sequence. Limitations, implications, and future research are discussed.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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