Learning From Animations In Science Education

This book examines educational semiotics and the representation of knowledge in school science. It discusses the strategic integration of animation in science education. It explores how learning through the creation of science animations takes place, as well as how animation can be used in assessing student’s science learning. Science education animations are ubiquitous in a variety of different online sites, including perhaps the most popularly accessed YouTube site, and are also routinely included as digital augmentations to science textbooks. They are popular with students and teachers and are a prominent feature of contemporary science teaching. The proliferation of various kinds of science animations and the ready accessibility of sophisticated resources for creating them have emphasized the importance of research into various areas: the nature of the semiotic construction of knowledge in the animation design, the development of critical interpretation of available animations, the strategic selection and use of animations to optimize student learning, student creation of science animations, and using animation in assessing student science learning. This book brings together new developments in these research agendas to further multidisciplinary perspectives on research to enhance the design and pedagogic use of animation in school science education. Chapter 1 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

"This timely and innovative book encourages us to ‘flip the classroom’ and empower our students to become content creators. Through creating digital media, they will not only improve their communication skills, but also gain a deeper understanding of core scientific concepts. This book will inspire science academics and science teacher educators to design learning experiences that allow students to take control of their own learning, to generate media that will stimulate them to engage with, learn about, and become effective communicators of science." Professors Susan Jones and Brian F. Yates, Australian Learning and Teaching Council Discipline Scholars for Science "Represents a giant leap forward in our understanding of how digital media can enrich not only the learning of science but also the professional learning of science teachers." Professor Tom Russell, Queen’s University, Ontario, Canada "This excellent edited collection brings together authors at the forefront of promoting media creation in science by children and young people. New media of all kinds are the most culturally significant forms in the lives of learners and the work in this book shows how they can move between home and school and provide new contexts for learning as well as an understanding of key concepts." Dr John Potter, London Knowledge Lab, Dept. of Culture, Communication and Media, University College London, UK Student-generated Digital Media in Science Education supports secondary school teachers, lecturers in universities and teacher educators in improving engagement and understanding in science by helping students unleash their enthusiasm for creating media within the science classroom. Written by pioneers who have been developing their ideas in students’ media making over the last 10 years, it provides a theoretical background, case studies, and a wide range of assignments and assessment tasks designed to address the vital issue of disengagement amongst science learners. It showcases opportunities for learners to use the tools that they already own to design, make and explain science content with five digital media forms that build upon each other— podcasts, digital stories, slowmation, video and blended media. Each chapter provides advice for implementation and evidence of engagement as learners use digital tools to learn science content, develop communication skills, and create science explanations. A student team’s music video animation of the Krebs cycle, a podcast on chemical reactions presented as commentary on a boxing match, a wiki page on an entry in the periodic table of elements, and an animation on vitamin D deficiency among hijab-wearing Muslim women are just some of the imaginative assignments demonstrated. Student-generated Digital Media in Science Education illuminates innovative ways to engage science learners with science content using contemporary digital technologies. It is a must-read text for all educators keen to effectively convey the excitement and wonder of science in the 21st century.

"Within the scientific community, much attention has focused on improving communications between scientists, policymakers, and the public. This book focuses on the efforts that are centered on improving the content, substantiality, accessibility, and delivery of scientific communications, and to convey clear information to an audience, so its members can understand, use and build on it"--

External representations (pictures, diagrams, graphs, concrete models) have always been valuable tools for the science teacher. This book brings together the insights of practicing scientists, science education researchers, computer specialists, and cognitive scientists, to produce a coherent overview. It links presentations about cognitive theory, its implications for science curriculum design, and for learning and teaching in classrooms and laboratories.

Learning First, Technology Second offers teachers a classroom-tested, easy-to-use framework to help them move from arbitrary uses of technology to thoughtful ways of adding value to student learning. Learning with technology doesn’t happen because a specific tool “revolutionizes” education. It happens when proven teaching strategies intersect with technology tools, and yet it’s not uncommon for teachers to use a tool because it’s “fun” or because the developer promises it will help students learn. This book includes: • An introduction to the Triple E Framework that helps teachers engage students in time-on-task learning, enhance learning experiences beyond traditional means and extend learning opportunities to bridge classroom learning with students’ everyday lives. • Effective strategies for using technology to create authentic learning experiences for their students. • Case studies to guide appropriate tech integration. • A lesson planning template to show teachers how to effectively frame technology choices and apply them in instruction. The companion jump start guide based on this book is Engage, Enhance, Extend: Start Creating Authentic Lessons With the Triple E Framework.

This edited volume presents interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches to drama and science in education. Drawing on a solid basis of research, it offers theoretical backgrounds, showcases rich examples, and provides evidence of improved student learning and engagement. The chapters explore various connections between drama and science, including: students’ ability to engage with science through drama; dramatising STEM; mutuality and inter-relativity in drama and science; dramatic play-based outdoor activities; and creating embodied, aesthetic and affective learning experiences. The book illustrates how drama education draws upon contemporary issues and their complexity, intertwining with science education in promoting scientific literacy, creativity, and empathetic understandings needed to interpret and respond to the many challenges of our times. Findings throughout the book demonstrate how lessons learned from drama and science education can remain discrete yet when brought together, contribute to deeper, more engaged and transformative student learning.

"This book explores various learning mediums and their consequences within a classroom context to synchronize understanding within the schooling fields"--Provided by publisher.

This book establishes a new theoretical and practical framework for multimodal disciplinary literacy (MDL) fused with the subject-specific science pedagogies of senior high school biology, chemistry and physics. It builds a compatible alignment of multiple representation and representation construction approaches to science pedagogy with the social semiotic, systemic functional linguistic-based approaches to explicit teaching of disciplinary literacy. The early part of the book explicates the transdisciplinary negotiated theoretical underpinning of the MDL framework, followed by the research-informed repertoire of learning experiences that are then articulated into a comprehensive framework of options for the planning of classroom work. Practical adoption and adaptation of the framework in biology, chemistry and physics classrooms are detailed in separate chapters. The latter chapters indicate the impact of the collaborative research on teachers' professional learning and students’ multimodal disciplinary literacy engagement, concluding with proposals for accommodating emerging developments in MDL in an ever-changing digital communication world. The MDL framework is designed to enable teachers to develop all students' disciplinary literacy competencies. This book will be of interest to researchers, teacher educators and postgraduate students in the field of science education. It will also have appeal to those in literacy education and social semiotics. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.