Learning Graphs and Learning
Science with Sensors
AMSTEL Institute
University of Amsterdam
In Learning Corners in Grades 5 and 6
Ed van den Berg ([email protected]), Frank Schweickert, Gerda Manneveld
€Sense
sensors
Sensors
and
• Temperature
• Light intensity
• Sound level
senses
Actuators
•
Buzzer
• LED
Laying the groundwork for concepts and variables by sensory experience
OBJECTIVES
Children learn to interpret graphs and tell stories
with graphs:
 link what you see, hear, and feel with numbers and
graphs
 relate more and less intense, and fast and slow
change
 link graphs with events
 use a graph as a tool in a new situation
Sound level versus Time
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
 Can children communicate with distance-time
graphs?
 Can children use graphs as a tool in a new situation?
METHOD
Pretest
Distance sensor activity
Temperature activity
27 children grade 5
13 children grade 6
Posttest
Post interview
recording audio/video
+ graphs
Interview with Iris (12):
Intv: How would you use sensor and graph to
determine the winner in a fast clapping contest?
I: Let everybody clap in separate room, all for the
same time, and see how many claps everyone
has.
Int: What do you count?
I: How many curves there are, per second,
…..look at the time, ….count all the lines,
…..everybody 10s
Int: Is it enough if you just count for one second?
I: You count the first second how many, then how
many in the 2nd second, then the third, etc. and
then you compute the average.
Results posttest: Distance – Time Diagram
Grade Direction
Sources:
Hardware and software:
http://www.cma.science.uva.nl
EuroSense activities in English:
http://www.pollen-europa.nl (see “EuroSense”)
5
6
41%
81%
Standing
still
75%
100%
Time
Speed
55%
90%
41%
77%