CircuitCity: Classroom
Using Urban Planning Techniques and Movement of Traffic to Teach Electric Theory
Ed 342 – Child Development and New Technologies
March 21, 2004
Eric Bailey
Tamecia Jones
Jennifer Steinman
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1Introduction
2Design Objectives and Significance
3User Scenario
4Design Rationale
4.1Learning Theory
4.1.1Theory of Conceptual Change
4.1.2Analogy as a tool for teaching
4.1.3Mental Models
4.1.4Socio-Cultural Activity and Transformative Experience.
5Design Process
5.1Immersion in the Problem
5.2User Scenario
5.3Prototyping
5.4Next Steps
6Potential Impact
7Annotated Bibliography
1Introduction
The purpose of this document is to provide an overview of Circuit City Classroom, an interactive curriculum and supporting physical model that supports elementary student learning with regard to abstract electricity concepts. Within this document, in addition to explaining the curriculum using a specific user scenario, we will address the theoretical rationale for the design of Circuit City Classroom as well as the design process the team undertook to develop the prototype for the model.
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2Design Objectives and Significance(4-5)
Description
Circuit City Classroom is an interactive three-dimensional model, and series of collaborative activities for the instruction of electricity theory. The model is a miniature representation of an urban setting with city streets, houses, a factory, automobiles, bridges, and other metropolitan objects. Its configuration is flexible; panels are interchangeable as well as expandable. Components may be added or subtracted and rearranged. Our model is designed to give sensory feedback, providing various responses to various inputs. The primary platform is wired so that the various elements, pathways, bridges, cars, and traffic controls transmit, receive and respond to electrical current. These elements represent the various characteristics of electric circuits including: electrical flow, open circuits, closed circuits, series, and parallel circuits.
The Circuit City Classroom curriculum is a series of problem-based activities revolving around use of the model. The activities present urban planning problems as a context for constructive exercises in experimentation, design, testing and redesign. Problem scenarios are introduced to learners through the model. Learners are expected to work in groups hypothesizing possible solutions to the problem, designing their solution into the model, testing their solution, understanding the outcomes and feedback and making the necessary changes to correct for anomalies in their hypothesis. These analogical activities are a practical study of the nature of electrical circuits. Ultimately, parallels must be drawn between the occurrences and phenomena in Circuit City and those within the world.
Design Goal
The goal of the project is to teach electric theory. Our design revolves around the identification of existing conceptions of electricity, correction and then change, or adoption of those conceptions. The fundamental principle of our design is the use of physical models and visualizations in bridging the gap between learners’ understanding of the physical world and their understanding/misconceptions of the abstract concepts of electricity.. Collaboration is integral to this end such that it provides for socially distributed knowledge and a shared development of new ideas. An ultimate goal is to change learners’ understanding of electrical phenomena and the properties that govern the workings of their every day worlds.
Target Population
It is designed for use in upper elementary classrooms as an object that facilitates conversation around problem-solving. It can be expanded into higher order models for middle and high school students, by covering higher-order relationships and performing mathematical proof by attaching numerical values to various components of the model. Our target skill goal is to focus on explanation and to the beginning of conceptualizing so that mathematical proof will be a smooth transition.
Significance
It is an important product to be made available to children because electric theory proposes a challenge in teaching. Its abstractions are not easily demonstrated through physical action. In addition, the abstract representations currently used are not accessible to young learners. They do not provide enough understanding to prepare learners for understanding real-world situations. We have identified unique opportunities to represent electricity theory and explain electrical phenomena through problem-scenarios. These scenarios turn abstraction into physicality and, in turn, misconception into understanding.
Description
Circuit City: Classroom is an interactive, interchangeable, expandable three-dimensional model of an urban setting that is used in conjunction with a curriculum to teach electricity theory. It uses urban planning problems, techniques, and transportation of cars to demonstrate flow, open and closed circuits, and series and parallel circuits.
It is composed of a platform that is wired so that various configurations of pathways, bridges, and traffic control elements represent open circuits, closed circuits, series, and parallel circuits. The curriculum is a problem-based activity curriculum that revolves around the model and using real electrical elements to practice the relationships demonstrated and established with the model and developed through the curriculum.
Design Goal
The goal of the project is to teach electric theory to students through the use of physical models that bridge the gap between the model and the abstract theory.
Target Population
It is designed for use in upper elementary classrooms as an object that facilitates conversation around problem-solving. It can be expanded into higher order models for middle and high school students to cover higher-order relationships and perform mathematical proof by attaching numerical values to various components of the model. Our target skill goal is to focus on explanation and begin to conceptualize so that mathematical proof will be a smooth transition.
Significance
It is an important product to be made available to children because electric theory proposes a challenge in teaching. It is abstract and is not easily demonstrated because of the
:
To teach students the concepts of electricity through the use of a model in a classroom setting to facilitate
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3User Scenario
In July, Martha Saraniti decided to begin preparing for 5th grade science class a bit early this year. After teaching Science for 5 years, Martha had noticed that her kidsstudents always seemed to have difficulty during her unit on Electricity. It was apparent that her kidsstudents often had misconceptions of how electricity and electric circuits work. She had also noticed that when she used diagrams to better describe the structural and functional properties of circuits, her kidsstudents were still confused and could not apply any of their learning during circuit-building workshop. During the workshop, her students always followed the series of instructions until they had built a functioning solution. However, They they never seemed to innovate or create solutions to the problem on their own. Martha’s students didn’t seem to understand how the concepts she was presenting to them applied to real life situations.
While doing some research, Martha returned to a favorite resource of hers- , the San JoseTechMuseum website, for ideas. It was there that she found recent literature on theories of conceptual change in sScience education as well as curricula and physical models for use in the classroom. Martha downloaded the Tech’s Electricity Unit and sent away for the urban planning “CircuitCity: Classroom” model.
In December, Martha’s class had reached the unit on electricity. She addresses the class: “Okay kids, for the next week we’re going to talk about eElectricity. We’re going to talk about the different kinds of circuits and how they work. We’re going to look at how cities, cars and traffic have some of the same characteristics.” Pulling out the CircuitCity model, “…and we’re going to have fun!” “WOW!” Martha’s class gives instantly jubilant feedback.
After several days of working with Circuit City: Classroom, the students have gained an understanding of how cars and traffic are used to represent electricity flow and understand how open and closed circuits work like open roads and blocked roads. Now the class is moving on to a difficult concept in electricity: series and parallel circuits.
Figure 1 – Circuit City Model Diagram
“WOW!” Martha’s class gives instantly jubilant feedback. As Martha pieces together the model and explains that in CircuitCity, everyone works in the Factory during the day. She picks five children for the exercise: Alice, Bea, Cassandra, Daniel, and Eric. Each lives in a house along the main road. She explains that the main road is a one-way route that loops around the neighborhood and back to the Factory, and that at the end of each day, each child drives home, one-by-one (A, B, C, D, E) to their respective homes. She presses the “Run” button on CircuitCity’s Factory, and, true to her prediction, the cars file one-by-one to their respective homes. Each arrives after the other..
Then Martha poses a problem to the class:
“Suppose Alice wants to build an extension onto her house? Because she is in the first house, construction is now blocking the only path around town. Eric, if you wanted people to get home, how would you redesign the roadway?”
Figure 2 – Circuit City in the midst of problem solving development
Eric thinks intently and begins adding pieces to the model. He adds a long strip to the roadway accessing his particular house and then looks at Martha. “Good job. Why did you choose that design, Eric? “Because the flow of traffic has to avoid the construction, so I put it there.” “Okay then, can Daniel get home now?” “I think so”, replies Eric. “Try it and see”, says Martha. Eric presses Run. All of the cars drive out and line up at Eric’s house. “What? How did THAT happen?”,” questions Eric.
Cassandra adds to the discussion, “Daniel can’t get home like that. Neither can we.” Martha inquires, “What would your design look like, Cassandra?” “I would add a street here for Daniel, one here for me, and one here for Bea to get home.” “What about Alice?”, asks Daniel. Bea asserts, “Alice can go this way”. Martha challenges her, “Bea why don’t you try it and see if traffic gets to Alice’s house. We can also see if everyone else was right about getting home.”
Figure 3 – Circuit City Model in phase two of solution development
Bea presses Run. Each car leaves the Factory in order (A, B, C, D, E). Alice’s car stops dead before it reaches her house. The other cars follow the paths constructed by the children and reach their respective homes. Martha prompts the children, “Did you notice that Cassandra, Daniel and Eric’s cars all arrived home at the same time? Why do you think that is?” “Because they could take their own paths home”, explains Bea. “Good, Bea! Now why do you think Alice DIDN’T get home after all?” “Because it’s a one way street; I forgot that. She can’t drive that way to get home. I guess she can never get home until construction is over.” “Very good”, encourages Martha.
Martha explains further, “If this were a circuit, the Factory would be our power supply, your houses could be lights, and the cars would be the flow of electrons through the circuit. The first design we saw was called a Series circuit. Electrons would flow to each light in order, or in a sequence. In that design, if the flow of electrons is broken, no lights can receive electrons.” Eric asks, “Why would you want it that way, then?”. Martha explains, “Because you might want the lights to light up in order, so you would need that kind of design. The second design, the one YOU guy’s made, allows you to turn off one light but keep the others lit. Your design is called a Parallel circuit. Just like on Christmas lights, if you had one bad bulb, you wouldn’t want all of the others to go out.”
Martha’s kidsstudents seemed to understand much more this time around. For workshop later in the week, Martha designed activities in which her kidsstudents could experiment in groups, trying out their own designs towards solving a particular problem. They made few mistakes, but when they did, they referred back to the CircuitCity activity for insight into how to make corrections. Martha was thrilled. She resolved to use CircuitCity to teach her Electricity unit every year.
4Design Rationale(4-5)
There are multiple learning theories that guide the design of the product. The integration of these theories helped us to form the design principles that guided the developmental affordances of the product. Our goal is to use analogies and metaphors to change (conceptually) the mental models of learners. We do not purport that we have a perfect analogy, but it can be successful in providing visuals and sensorimotor experiences in different ways from connecting and combining circuit elements. We also address the social contexts of learning as suggested by “Driver et al. (1994) and Cobb and Heinrich (1995) that science learning involves both individual and social processes”, (Clement & Steinberg, 2002, p. 442).
4.1Learning Theory
4.1.1Theory of Conceptual Change
Conceptual change is a science education theory out of the constructivist foundation. It uses the preexisting framework of the learner’s understanding to create conflict between the learner’s perception and actual phenomenon in order to inspire motivation to change their understanding.
“Conditions for conceptual change to occur, according to Posner et al. (1982):
- Dissatisfaction with existing conceptions
- A new (alternative) conception must be intelligible
- A new (alternative) conception must be appear initially feasible
4.A new (alternative) concept should suggest the possibility of fruitful research (testing) program.”,
- Suping, (2003).
CircuitCity: Classroom is designed so that students and teachers may model their understanding to see if it is correct, but depending on the configuration of the roads and pathways, all movement will not imitate that of cars on highways. For instance, if programmed to “flow” counterclockwise, the cars will not be able to go in Reverse such as cars in reality. In our user scenario, the teacher has previously explained that the cars must go one way because current flows one way and they do not have the reverse function. If the cars go one way, this provides a discrepant event opportunity when one of the houses will never be reached because of the counterclockwise constraint. It can be explained to students that traffic may go the other direction, and that would mean that current could go the other direction if there was an element or some type of ‘detour,’ but individual cars may not go in the opposite direction of the rest of traffic safely.
After the discrepant event is demonstrated, the teacher and students as individuals or groups may create an alternative, discuss its feasibility, and then test it with the model by building it, annd pressing, “Run.” Additionally, students are asked to predict what will happen and participate in active problem solving. The process of participating in making predictions is important to conceptual change,. (Watson, 1990).
Provide visualization support and feedback through color coding, arrows, and sensors.
Be a shared reference point to facilitate precise conversations with the teacher
and other classmates.
The model is robust enough to demonstrate erroneous misconceptions and provide observational data for motivation of change, yet it does not appear faulty as if it is broken or something is configured incorrectly. It is built so that light sensors provide feedback that distinguishfeedback that distinguishes between a misconception being tested and an unviable circuit configuration. It serves as a shared reference point to facilitate precise conversations with the teacher and other classmates.
- Model provides visualization support and feedback through color coding, arrows, and sensors.
- We choose to allow learners to apply magnet arrows to identify what paths they believe current will flow, and then the model has light sensors embedded or placed along all pathways so that when the students press “Run,” they can see if the lit sensors match the arrows. Then students may change configurations and arrows and test the model again.
- Students may also embed buzzers into certain contact points to detect open and closed parts of the circuit.
- Colored arrows and lights may distinguish different pathways or individual group member’s models so that qualitative observations can be made by the instructor, students, and the group.
- Higher order models may include compasses underneath wires to show direction and flow.
Higher orders models may also include ammeters and voltmeters to measure current and voltage.
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4.1.2Analogy as a tool for teaching
Analogies in science involve the use of one situation as a framework for constructing a causal model of another (Oppenheimer, 1965). We choose to use the analogy of urban planning as the problem-solving source and a city setting because children are familiar with cities either through living location or through toys that provide imaginative forums. In order for this product to be a successful tool, learners must be able to understand the metaphor and have appropriate analogical thinking skills that they may apply to problem-solving. Some research suggests that analogy is the basis for metaphor or metaphor shares processing with analogical thinking, so in this section we will discuss analogy, metaphor, analogical thinking, and the developmental literature around analogical thinking.
Analogy links internal models through cognitive isomorphism, (Sietz, 2000f). Analogy and metaphor are based on three kinds of constraints: (a) similarity of elements, (b) structural parallels between the source and target domain including one-to-one correspondence, and (c) the purpose or context in which the analogy or metaphor operates (Holyoak & Thagard, 1995).