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BeeSign: designing to support mediated group inquiry of complex science by early elementary students

Published: 09 June 2010 Publication History

Abstract

All too often, designers assume that complex science and cycles of inquiry are beyond the capabilities of young children (5--8 years old). However, with carefully designed mediators, we argue that such concepts are well within their grasp. In this paper we describe two design iterations of the BeeSign simulation software that was designed to help young children learn about honeybees collect nectar from a complex systems perspective. We summarize findings from two studies that suggest that this design has been successful in teaching and motivating these young children and demonstrates how activity theory can guide design.

References

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Danish, J. A. BeeSign: A Computationally-Mediated Intervention to Examine K-1 Students' Representational Activities in the Context of Teaching Complex Systems Concepts. Dissertation, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, 2009.
[2]
Danish, J. A. BeeSign: a Design Experiment to Teach Kindergarten and First Grade Students About Honeybees From a Complex Systems Perspective. In Proceedings of the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (2009).
[3]
Goldstone, R. L. and Wilensky, U. Promoting Transfer by Grounding Complex Systems Principles. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 17, 4 (2008), 465--465.
[4]
Hmelo-Silver, C. E., Marathe, S. and Liu, L. Fish Swim, Rocks Sit, and Lungs Breathe: Expert-Novice Understanding of Complex Systems. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 16, 3 (2007), 307--331.
[5]
Jacobson, M. J. and Wilensky, U. Complex Systems in Education: Scientific and Educational Importance and Implications for the Learning Sciences. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 15, 1 (2006), 11--34.
[6]
Kaptelinin, V. and Nardi, B. A. Acting with Technology: Activity Theory and Interaction Design. MIT Press, 2006.
[7]
NRC Taking Science to School: Learning and Teaching Science in Grades K-8. National Academies Press, (Washington, DC, 2007).
[8]
Schauble, L. The development of scientific reasoning in knowledge-rich contexts. Developmental Psychology, 32, 1 (1996), 102--119.
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Wilensky, U. and Resnick, M. Thinking in Levels: A Dynamic Systems Perspective to Making Sense of the World. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 8, 1 (1999), 3--19.

Cited By

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  • (2024)"Bee and I need diversity!" Break Filter Bubbles in Recommendation Systems through Embodied AI LearningProceedings of the 23rd Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference10.1145/3628516.3655802(44-61)Online publication date: 17-Jun-2024
  • (2020)Expanding Opportunities for Systems Thinking, Conceptual Learning, and Participation through Embodied and Computational ModelingSystems10.3390/systems80400488:4(48)Online publication date: 26-Nov-2020
  • (2020)Comparing first- and third-person perspectives in early elementary learning of honeybee systemsInstructional Science10.1007/s11251-020-09511-8Online publication date: 19-Apr-2020
  • Show More Cited By

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  1. BeeSign: designing to support mediated group inquiry of complex science by early elementary students

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    cover image ACM Other conferences
    IDC '10: Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children
    June 2010
    389 pages
    ISBN:9781605589510
    DOI:10.1145/1810543
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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    • Spanish Ministry of Education and Science

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    Association for Computing Machinery

    New York, NY, United States

    Publication History

    Published: 09 June 2010

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    Author Tags

    1. complex systems
    2. inquiry
    3. interactive whiteboards
    4. science education
    5. simulation
    6. young children

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    View all
    • (2024)"Bee and I need diversity!" Break Filter Bubbles in Recommendation Systems through Embodied AI LearningProceedings of the 23rd Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference10.1145/3628516.3655802(44-61)Online publication date: 17-Jun-2024
    • (2020)Expanding Opportunities for Systems Thinking, Conceptual Learning, and Participation through Embodied and Computational ModelingSystems10.3390/systems80400488:4(48)Online publication date: 26-Nov-2020
    • (2020)Comparing first- and third-person perspectives in early elementary learning of honeybee systemsInstructional Science10.1007/s11251-020-09511-8Online publication date: 19-Apr-2020
    • (2019)The Sensing Bridge Between Perceptuomotor Experience and Scientific InvestigationProceedings of the 18th ACM International Conference on Interaction Design and Children10.1145/3311927.3325341(648-651)Online publication date: 12-Jun-2019
    • (2019)PrototypARProceedings of the 18th ACM International Conference on Interaction Design and Children10.1145/3311927.3323135(253-266)Online publication date: 12-Jun-2019

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