1. Circuit City : Classroom
Using Urban Planning Techniques and Movement of Traffic To Teach Electric Theory
Eric Bailey
Tamecia Jones
Jennifer Steinman

2. The Landscape / Immersion in Problem
Agenda
Prototype
User Scenario for the Classroom
Hands-on experience
Understanding the Prototype
The Landscape / Immersion in Problem
Prior Experience
Tech Challenge Observation
Literature Review

3. Prototype Overview
The design product is an interactive exhibit which helps students to understand circuit current theory. 
Here we will use the social, cultural, and physical metaphor of city planning and cars traveling over streets or within a larger context of a city to explain the flow of current through a circuit.
The form is both a physical artifact and a mini- curriculum on electricity.

4. Prototype Objectives
Develop understanding of concepts of electricity and allow transfer to real world

5. Relation to elementary science education
General Skills Across K-12 Span
Early Elementary
Upper Elementary/Middle
Secondary
Recognition
Categorization
Explanation
Conceptualization
Mathematical Proof
Target skills of the prototype

6. How does the project accomplish the objective?
Uses cars and streets to help students understand the concepts of electricity
Cars symbolize electricity flow
Problem-solving can occur within the urban planning context
Expandable to learner’s competency growth

7. Prototype Affordances
Visualization of concepts of electricity
Typical electrical instruction uses batteries and light bulbs but the flow of electricity can not be seen because it is invisible
Inquiry based context –
drives conversation between students and teachers
Sensory motor -
Based on real-world experiences

8. User Scenario Overview
Ages: Ms. Saraniti’s 5th Grade Class
Context: Single lesson in science class
Parallel vs Series Circuits
Part of electricity unit
Scenario: Ground in real-world problem
Explain theory of electricity
Use prototype to highlight concept
Prototype is highly contextual

9. Full Circuit City Curriculum
Concept
Visible Example of Circulating Current
Electric Particle
Car
Circuit
Road loop with cars moving in one direction
Switch
Road block, bridge; road open or closed
Current
# of cars passing a point per unit of time
Battery
Gas; mechanism injecting energy
Resistance
Road conditions; hazards, curves, potholes

10. The Landscape / Immersion in Problem
Agenda
Prototype
Hands-on experience
Understanding the Prototype
User Scenario for the Classroom
The Landscape / Immersion in Problem
Prior Experience
Tech Challenge Observation
Literature Review

11. Immersion in Problem Experience with Engineering Summer Camp
Tutoring engineering students in electrical engineering coursework
Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose
Furby Workshop
Tech Challenge Engineering Workshops
Observations / videos of workshops

12. Key Findings From Tech Challenge Workshop Video
Students have problems understanding series and parallel beyond battery example 
Engineering elements are abstract
Switching between a representation and actual elements or analogy is hard for all grade levels
Manipulation alone is not enough for understanding
Students can do series circuit and parallel circuit, but not combinational, do not understand

13. Salient Literature
Gibbons, P., McMahon, A., Weigers, J Hands-On Current Electricity: A Professional Development Course. Journal of Elementary Science Education, Vol. 15, No. 2, pp
This article describes a teacher professional development on how to teach electrical circuits to their students. It begins with understanding their own misconceptions, correcting them, and then expanding their models to create lessons for their students. It confirms our traveling car analogy.

14. Learning Theories Theory of Conceptual Change
Structure Mapping Theory of Analogical Thinking
Mental Models

15. Conceptual Change Model
Science education learning theory
Instructor facilitates a discrepant events that contradict the learner’s existing conceptual framework and provides a teaching moment through reactions of surprise or motivation to correct the discrepant events. These four conditions must occur:
Dissatisfaction with existing conceptions
A new (alternative) conception must be intelligible
A new (alternative) conception must be appear initially feasible
A new (alternative) concept should suggest the possibility of fruitful research (testing) program.
Posner et al. (1982)

16. Conceptual Change Variations
A process that enables students to synthesize models in their minds, beginning with their existing explanatory framework, (Vosniadou, 2002)
Repair of misconceptions, (Chi and Roscoe, 2002)
The reorganization of diverse kinds of knowledge into complex systems in students’ minds, (diSessa, 2002)
Conceptual change results from changes in the way that students use the tools in various contexts, and the change actually occurs at the societal level, (Ivarrson, Schoultz, and Saljo, 2002)
Suping, S. Conceptual Change Among Science Students

17. Structure-Mapping Theory
The structure-mapping analogy asserts that identical operations and relationships hold among nonidentical things. (Gentner and Gentner, 1983).
Base domain = known domain
Target domain = domain of inquiry
Analogy has components:
Object Relationships
Object Attributes or surface features
This is successful under these two conditions:
Preservations of relations – relational predicates, and not object attributes, carry over into analogical mappings
Systematicity – predicates are more likely to be imported into the target into the target if they belong to a system of coherent, mutually constraining relationships, the others of which map into the target.

18. Instructional Analogies and Mental Models
Di Vesta, F., Zook, K. (1991). Instructional Analogies and Conceptual Misrepresentations. Journal of Educational Psychology. Vol. 83, No. 2, pp
This article discusses the issues around young/novice and adult/expert learners in successfully mapping from the base domain to the target domain, and how constraints will help the learner see the goal of the analogy. It is important to discriminate between relevant relations and superficial attributes of the object.

19. Mental Model Resources
Clement, J., Steinberg, M. (2002). Step-Wise Evolution of Mental Models of Electric Circuits: A “Learning-Aloud” Case Study. The Journal of the Learning Sciences. 11 (4). Pp
Gentner, D., & Gentner, D. (1983). Flowing Waters or Teeming Crowds: Mental Models of Electricity. In D. Gentner and A. L. Stevens (Eds.), Mental Models. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Hadzigeorgiou, Y., Savage, M A Study of the Effect of Sensorimotor Experiences on the Retention and Application of Two Fundamental Physics Ideas. Journal of Elementary Science Education. Vol. 13, No. 2, pp

20. Developmental /Learning Theory Design Structures Solution Objective
Sensori-motor Experience
Visualizations
Real-World Application
Embed in Community
Context
Problem-Based Learning
Develop understanding of concepts of electricity and allow transfer to real world
Conceptual Change
Structure-Mapping
Mental Models
Expandable,
Interactive Prototype
Auxiliary Activities

22. Reflections on Design Process
Immersion
Observation
Literature Review
User scenario 1
User scenario 2
Prototype

23. Prototype Sketches First Pass at Analogy Sketch
Interchangeable components

24. Prototype Sketches
Conceptual Sketches for Parallel Unit of Instruction

25. Prototype Sketches