1. Research Problem – Stephanie Gardner Students have difficulty in creating appropriate graphical representations for their data B (hypotonic, weight in grams) Group # Before After 1 11.67312.46 2 15.1515.93 3 9.0329.88 4 17.97818.97 5 20.24721.35 6 13.8614.6 7 20.820.87 Example of raw data (excerpt) Example of student graphical representation

2. Research Question Big Research Question: Why do undergraduate Biology students have difficulties creating graphical representations of data? Subquestion #1 – What is?: What aspects of creating graphical representations are difficult for first-year students? Research Context: First-year biology majors enrolled in introductory biology laboratory classes and Biology faculty My question is interesting because: Graphs (and other representations) are an important language that scientists use in communication with each other and the general public.

3. Research Methodology Mixed methods approach: 1.‘Talk aloud’ during the creation of a graph from a dataset to determine the steps that experts and novices take Experts: Biology faculty Novices: Students enrolled in intro biology lab classes (traditional and research-based) 2.Practical assessment of graph choice embedded in my class 3.Evaluation of graphical representations used by students in their lab notebooks and lab reports during the semester embedded in my class

4. Alignment of Research Question and Methodology MethodEvidence provided 1.‘Talk aloud’ during graph creation Identifies expert and novice strategies and abilities for graph selection and creation 2. Graph choice practical assessment Identifies difficulties in: Familiarity with a variety of representations Understanding the purpose of different representations Unknown/unanticipated things 3. Evaluation of student generated graphs in lab notebooks and/or reports Identifies what students do when they are working with their own data (are difficulties the same as when they work with assigned data sets?) Research question: What aspects of creating graphical representations are difficult for students?

6. Alignment of Research Question and Methodology MethodEvidence provided 1.Talk aloud during graph creation Identifies expert and novice strategies for graph creation 2. Graph choice practical assessment Identifies difficulties in: Familiarity with a variety of representations Understanding the purpose of different representations Unknown/unanticipated things 3.Participant Perception Inventory Identifies student perceptions of knowledge, confidence, experience on various aspects of graph creation 4. Evaluation of student generated graphs in lab notebooks and/or reports Identifies what students do when they are working with their own data (are difficulties the same as when they work with ‘contrived’ data sets?) Research question: What aspects of creating graphical representations are difficult for students?