Moving towards understanding graphical representations of motion

Abstract

Making connections between variables and proficiently constructing graphical representations is key to higher-order thinking activities within mathematics and science education. In our research, we make use of a learning environment informed by embodied cognition theory to promote students’ graphical understanding. In the teaching sequence offered to fifth graders, students created distance-time graphs describing their own movements in front of a motion sensor. In a pretest-intervention-posttest design, we investigated whether task-related bodily movements enhanced students’ understanding of graphs of motion, as reflected in their competence in interpreting and constructing graphs. Preliminary results point to important links between students’ motion experiences and their ability to reason about the relationship between distance and time as represented in graphs.