High School Students' Parameter Space Navigation and Reasoning during Simulation-Based Experimentation

Abstract

Students formulated their own questions for a virtual spring/mass system and collected and analyzed data in the InquirySpace environment featuring probes, computational models, and data visualization software. We investigated how students navigated and reasoned with the parameter space defined by a set of manipulative variables related to a virtual spring/mass system. We analyzed logging data of 31 high school student groups and a student group's Screencast video and found that (1) students' investigations followed stages: exploration, crude initial investigation, refined investigation, and data analysis, (2) some logging events acted as markers for these stages, (3) students used more extreme parameter values during exploration than collecting data to answer their questions, and (4) students' discourse was mostly centered around their parameter space navigation and analysis.