The "NATO Science & Technology Disk"

NATO-PCO DATA BASE

Sample record:

Native Number
ARW90/003 Paper 001

Title
Using Technology to Teach Thermodynamics: Achieving Integrated Understanding

Author
M.C. Linn / N. Butler Songer, E. Lob Lewis and J. Stern

Corporate Source
University of California, Berkeley (U.S.A.)

Pages
Pages 5 - 60

Publication Information
NATO ASI SERIES, sub-series: volume F 107
ADVANCED EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES FOR MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE
Resulting from a NATO Advanced Research Workshop held at Milton Keynes (U.K.), July 1990

Editor(s)
D.L. Ferguson

ISBN-Number
3-540-56531-0 / 0-387-56531-0

Year
1993

Price
Category E / 749 pp

Publisher
SPRINGER VERLAG, Tiergartenstr. 17, D-6900 Heidelberg, Germany

Controlled Terms
EDUCATION / COMPUTERS / LEARNING / MATHEMATICS

Classification Codes
C0509 / C0902 / C0510 / C1201

Uncontrolled Terms
THERMODYNAMICS / INTUITIVE CONCEPTION / SCIENCE EDUATION / COGNITIVE LEARNING / CLP / COMPUTER AS LAB PARTNER / SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES

Abstract
This paper describes a perspective on the development of integrated scientific knowledge featuring "action knowledge", "intuitive conceptions", and "scientific ideas" and reports on three experimental investigations of student understanding in thermodynamics that support the perspective. Middle school students enrolled in a one semester physical science participated in these studies.
The first experiment investigates the ideas that students construct about thermodynamics without formal instruction, the second experiment reports on the beliefs that students develop about the nature of scientific enterprise. The third experiment describes three reformulations of a twelve-week curriculum in which computers serve as laboratory partners. The discussion clarifies the implications of these experiments in terms of the developmental perspective and addresses the role played by the technological environment.

WTV GmbH, Germany

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