Kindergarten and First-Grade Students' Representational Practices While Creating Storyboards of Honeybees Collecting Nectar

Abstract

A productive approach to studying the role of representations in supporting students' learning of science content is to examine their representational practices. The current study examines kindergarten and first-grade students' representational practices in a similar context--the creation of storyboards--both before and after a curricular intervention in order to highlight those aspects of their practices that changed while engaging in a superficially similar task. Analysis of the students' storyboards reveals considerable improvement after the intervention. Analysis of the students' practices as they changed over time is also presented by examining the students' interactions, with a focus on their discussions of the science content and the representations themselves.