Layman & Krajcik, Innovations in Science and Tech Ed (1992)

The microcomputer and practical work in science laboratories

J. Layman & J. Krajcik, In D. Layton (Ed.) Innovations in Science and Technology Education, IV, UNESCO, p. 171 (1992). (html version)

Abstract: The microcomputer can now be used as a tool in the laboratory by students of all ages. The ability to connect a device (a probe) to the computer that can measure things in the real world (such as temperature, position, sound intensity, pH, light intensity and force) now allows students and teachers to acquire information about the world in a way that is new and exciting and can make a major contribution to the science conceptual development of the user. The ability of the microcomputer to transform these data into a real-time graph as the experiment progresses is a second critical contribution to conceptual development. This personally-observed information from the real world can play a major role in honoring the constructivist view of learning that suggests that each person constructs his or her personal world view. A major factor in this process is the quality of each individual's interaction with physical systems and the personal effort expended to create explanations and understandings of a variety of science concepts rendered visible by the system. When the computer plays a role in this manner, it will be identified as a Microcomputer-Based Laboratory (MBL). The combination of the equipment and the computer programs required to enable the computer to serve as a laboratory device will be called probeware. This present description contrasts sharply with the limited description of the micro-computer as a laboratory instrument in New Trends in Physics Teaching (Layman, 1984).

Teachers in today's classrooms and students currently enrolled in our colleges and universities still have limited opportunities to develop fully their own set of science concepts and rarely have an opportunity to use the microcomputer in the laboratory in support of this. An MBL based program will be described that was designed for practicing middle school teachers and recommendations will be offered for the type of commitment that has to be made in the sciences and in science education by teachers involved in training and professional development activities.

Layman & Shama, Conference in Collegiate Mathematics Ed (1997)

The Role of Representations in Learning an Interdisciplinary Mathematics and Physics University Course

J. Layman & G. Shama, Presented at the Research Conference in Collegiate Mathematics Education, Central Michigan University (Sept 1997). (html version)

Abstract: The University of Maryland offers a physics course as part of the Maryland collaborative for teachers' preparation [MCTP] project. One of the course aims is to promote the learning of the concept of a function through the learning of physics. The students learn in small groups, through problem solving and with the aid of microcomputer based laboratories. Students are asked to examine and find connections between experiments, stories, graphs and algebraic representations. Analysis of observations of students' group work in the course revealed that experiments differed from stories in many characteristics as graphs differed from algebraic expressions. Similarities were found among the translation process from an experiment or a graph to a story or an algebraic representation. Similarities were also found between the opposing direction translations. These translations differed in many characteristics from translations between graphs to experiments and from translations between algebraic equations to stories. According to the above analysis the four situations -- experiment, story, graphical and algebraic representations -- can be presented has vertexes of a parallelogram. Each edge and diagonal of the parallelogram represents a bi-directional arrow of possible translations. Between parallel edges there are many similarities.