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Science and Mathematics Education Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Science and Mathematics Education

How Design Features In Digital Math Games Support Learning And Mathematics Connections, Patricia S. Moyer-Packenham, Christina W. Lommatsch, Kristy Litster, Jill Ashby, Emma P. Bullock, Allison L. Roxburgh, Jessica F. Shumway, Emily Speed, Benjamin Covington, Christine Hartmann, Jody Clarke-Midura, Joel Skaria, Arla Westenskow, Beth L. Macdonald, Jurgen Symanzik, Kerry Jordan Oct 2018

How Design Features In Digital Math Games Support Learning And Mathematics Connections, Patricia S. Moyer-Packenham, Christina W. Lommatsch, Kristy Litster, Jill Ashby, Emma P. Bullock, Allison L. Roxburgh, Jessica F. Shumway, Emily Speed, Benjamin Covington, Christine Hartmann, Jody Clarke-Midura, Joel Skaria, Arla Westenskow, Beth L. Macdonald, Jurgen Symanzik, Kerry Jordan

Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications

Current research shows that digital games can significantly enhance children’s learning. The purpose of this study was to examine how design features in 12 digital math games influenced children’s learning. The participants in this study were 193 children in Grades 2 through 6 (ages 8-12). During clinical interviews, children in the study completed pre-tests, interacted with digital math games, responded to questions about the digital math games, and completed post-tests. We recorded the interactions using two video perspectives that recorded children’s gameplay and responses to interviewers. We employed mixed methods to analyze the data and identify salient patterns in children’s …


Looking At How Technology Is Used With The Bodies Over There To Figure Out What Could Be Done With The Technology And Bodies Right Here, Victor R. Lee Jan 2015

Looking At How Technology Is Used With The Bodies Over There To Figure Out What Could Be Done With The Technology And Bodies Right Here, Victor R. Lee

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Grassroots Or Returning To One’S Roots? Unpacking The Inception Of A Youth-Focused Community Makerspace, Victor R. Lee, Whitney L. King, Ryan Cain Jan 2015

Grassroots Or Returning To One’S Roots? Unpacking The Inception Of A Youth-Focused Community Makerspace, Victor R. Lee, Whitney L. King, Ryan Cain

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

In this paper, we describe the individuals and factors contributing to the emergence of a community makerspace in a small city in the United States. As research into how makerspaces have come into existence is still in a nascent stage, this single case study is intended to describe and highlight some of the complexities involved in creating such a facility. Based on analysis of onsite observations, interviews of adults connected with the space, and electronic communications, we present a story of how two co-founders of a youth-focused makerspace went from having initial interest in extracurricular activities for their own children …


Quantified Recess: Design Of An Activity For Elementary Students Involving Analyses Of Their Own Movement Data, Victor R. Lee, Joel R. Drake Jul 2013

Quantified Recess: Design Of An Activity For Elementary Students Involving Analyses Of Their Own Movement Data, Victor R. Lee, Joel R. Drake

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Recess is often a time for children in school to engage recreationally in physically demanding and highly interactive activities with their peers. This paper describes a design effort to encourage fifth-grade students to examine sensitivities associated with different measures of center by having them analyze activities during recess using over the course of a week using Fitbit activity trackers and TinkerPlots data visualization software. We describe the activity structure some observed student behaviors during the activity. We also provide a descriptive account, based on video records and transcripts, of two students who engaged thoughtfully with their recess data and developed …


Variable Appropriation Of An Online Resource Discovery And Sharing Tool, Victor R. Lee, Mimi Recker, Tamara Sumner Jan 2013

Variable Appropriation Of An Online Resource Discovery And Sharing Tool, Victor R. Lee, Mimi Recker, Tamara Sumner

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Even when following best practices for participatory design, the appropriation of tools in formal education settings can be hampered by a number of factors. Drawing from a case of a web tool built to help teachers in five school districts find and share free resources in an educational digital library, we describe patterns of tool use and provide some explanations for variability in tool appropriation. We also suggest that future research consider school districts as complex systems of professionals whose interactions and inter-relationships may yield unexpected technology adoption behaviors.


Integrating Physical Activity Data Technologies Into Elementary School Classrooms, Victor R. Lee, Jonathan M. Thomas Dec 2011

Integrating Physical Activity Data Technologies Into Elementary School Classrooms, Victor R. Lee, Jonathan M. Thomas

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

This paper describes an iteration of a design-based research project that involved integrating commercial physical activity data (PAD) sensors, such as heart rate monitors and pedometers, as technologies that could be used in two fifth-grade classrooms. Design-based research involves the development, implementation and study of new learning interventions in real-world contexts with the goal of elaborating principles or guidelines relevant to the design of new technologies and learning experiences. The current project involved the implementation of PAD technology-supported learning activities in two fifth-grade classrooms where students pursued investigations related to the distances that they walk, the relationship between heights and …


Collaborative Strategic Board Games As A Site For Distributed Computational Thinking, Matthew Berland, Victor R. Lee Apr 2011

Collaborative Strategic Board Games As A Site For Distributed Computational Thinking, Matthew Berland, Victor R. Lee

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

This paper examines the idea that contemporary strategic board games represent an informal, interactional context in which complex computational thinking takes place. When games are collaborative – that is, a game requires that players work in joint pursuit of a shared goal – the computational thinking is easily observed as distributed across several participants. This raises the possibility that a focus on such board games are profitable for those who wish to understand computational thinking and learning in situ. This paper introduces a coding scheme, applies it to the recorded discourse of three groups of game players, and provides qualitative …


An Exploration Into How Physical Activity Data-Recording Devices Could Be Used In Computer-Supported Data Investigations, Victor R. Lee, Maneksha Dumont Dec 2010

An Exploration Into How Physical Activity Data-Recording Devices Could Be Used In Computer-Supported Data Investigations, Victor R. Lee, Maneksha Dumont

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

There is a great potential opportunity to use portable physical activity monitoring devices as data collection tools for educational purposes. Using one such device, we designed and implemented a weeklong workshop with high school students to test the utility of such technology. During that intervention, students performed data investigations of physical activity that culminated in the design and implementation of their own studies. In this paper, we explore some of the mathematical thinking that took place through a series of vignettes of a pair of students engaged in analyzing some of their own activity data. A personal connection to the …


How Different Variants Of Orbit Diagrams Influence Students' Explanations Of The Seasons, Victor R. Lee Oct 2010

How Different Variants Of Orbit Diagrams Influence Students' Explanations Of The Seasons, Victor R. Lee

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

The cause of the seasons is often associated with a very particular alternative conception: that the Earth’s orbit around the sun is highly elongated and the differences in distance result in variations in temperature. It has been suggested that the standard diagrams used to depict the Earth’s orbit may be in some way responsible for the initial appearance and overall maintenance of this incorrect conceptualization; the elongated shape of the orbit is thought of as a conceptualization cue that invites a fairly predictable way of reasoning. To test if that is indeed the case, six variants of diagrams depicting differently …


Misconstruals Or More? The Interactions Of Orbit Diagrams And Explanations Of The Seasons, Victor R. Lee Apr 2010

Misconstruals Or More? The Interactions Of Orbit Diagrams And Explanations Of The Seasons, Victor R. Lee

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

This paper examines a “misconstrual hypothesis” regarding diagrams of the Earth’s orbit around the sun and how middle school students explain the cause of the seasons. Drawing from 24 semi-structured interviews, I present qualitative analyses of students’ explanations of why temperatures vary in summer and winter and how those are influenced by the elliptical shape of perspective drawings of the Earth’s orbit, common to many science textbooks. The results of the analysis suggest that diagram interpretation does not necessarily follow what has been often predicted in the literature and that conceptualizations can shift quite rapidly as different diagram features are …