Berta’s Tower: Understanding physics through virtual engineering

*Svarovsky, G. N., & Shaffer, D. W. (2004). Berta’s Tower: Understanding physics through virtual engineering. Paper presented at the International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS), Santa Monica, CA. http://epistemicgames.org/cv/papers/svarovskyicls04.pdf

Abstract:

Learning environments based on engineering design challenges can provide effective contexts for the development of scientific understanding in middle and high school students (Kolodner, Crismond, Gray, Holbrook, & Puntambekar, 1998). In many such environments, however, students solve engineering design problems with physical materials, which can limit the number of iterations of the design cycle in which students can engage. Computational microworlds (diSessa, 2000; Papert, 1980) allow students to develop mathematical and scientific knowledge by programming the behavior of objects in a virtual world. The relative ease of revision in these virtual worlds lets students (a) engage in bircolage, a design process marked by repeated iteration and testing of a design rather than explicit planning, and (b) work expressively, incorporating personal choices into their designs (Papert, 1980). Direct manipulation environments (Stevenson, 2002) are microworlds without programming, and this poster examines the role of iterativity and expressivity when students developed their conceptual understanding of center of mass engage through solving virtual engineering design challenges in a DME.