This research explored how allowing students to actively control an electrical circuit simulation in real-time helps them better understand the complex behavior of electrical circuits. Many students, even at the college level, have misconceptions about electricity that make the subject more difficult to teach and learn via traditional methods such as lecture or textbooks. In this study, students used a unique real-time control interface to an animated circuit simulation in order to enactively model how an AC voltage source controls the current flow in a circuit. In enactive modeling, the student is an agent participating in the behavior of a dynamic system and is controlling one or more temporal aspects of the changes occurring in the system. After only a 30 minute tutoring session with the circuit simulation, students significantly gained in their understanding of some difficult concepts about circuit behavior, as measured by a multiple choice conceptual test. In particular there was evidence that students were able to overcome common misconceptions about the temporal behavior and flow of electrical current.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-07182006-085539 |
| Date | 27 July 2006 |
| Creators | Holton, Douglas Lee |
| Contributors | Robert Sherwood, Paul Cobb, Gautam Biswas, Sean Brophy |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-07182006-085539/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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