PERC 2015 Abstract Detail Page
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| Abstract Title: | High School Students’ Group Interaction with the Electric Field Hockey Simulation and Their Understandings of the Electric Field |
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| Abstract: | This study investigates a group of 36 high school students in a physics classroom playing a computer game that simulates the electric field as a hockey field, the Electric Field Hockey. Students engage in the activity, experimenting with the electrostatic phenomena simulated in the game, prior to receiving formal instruction. We argue that students engaging in a game that is designed to explore the electric field can gain experiences with simulated electrostatic phenomena and draw upon increasingly sophisticated understandings of the electric field. These experiences could eventually be useful for their later learning of electrostatics. We analyzed classroom videos and in this paper present a case study about the group mentioned above. The results show that students drew upon their understandings of the electric field, progressed through the increasingly difficult levels of the game, overcame the tensions in the activity, and gained experiences with the simulated electrostatic phenomena. |
| Abstract Type: | Contributed Poster Presentation |
Author/Organizer Information | |
| Primary Contact: |
Ying Cao Tutfts University |
| Co-Author(s) and Co-Presenter(s) |
Bárbara M. Brizuela Tufts University |
