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Children’s Participation in a Virtual Epidemic in the Science Classroom: Making Connections to Natural Infectious Diseases

This study investigated students’ understanding of a virtual infectious disease in relation to their understanding of natural infectious diseases. Two sixth-grade classrooms of students between the ages of 10 and 12 (46 students) took part in a participatory simulation of a virtual infectious diseas...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Neulight, Nina, Kafai, Yasmin B., Kao, Linda, Foley, Brian, Galas, Cathleen
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Kluwer Academic Publishers 2006
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7087852/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32214773
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10956-006-9029-z
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author Neulight, Nina
Kafai, Yasmin B.
Kao, Linda
Foley, Brian
Galas, Cathleen
author_facet Neulight, Nina
Kafai, Yasmin B.
Kao, Linda
Foley, Brian
Galas, Cathleen
author_sort Neulight, Nina
collection PubMed
description This study investigated students’ understanding of a virtual infectious disease in relation to their understanding of natural infectious diseases. Two sixth-grade classrooms of students between the ages of 10 and 12 (46 students) took part in a participatory simulation of a virtual infectious disease, which was integrated into their science curriculum. The results from our analyses reveal that students perceived the simulation as similar to a natural infectious disease and that the immersive components of the simulation afforded students the opportunity to discuss their understandings of natural disease and to compare them to their experiences with the virtual disease. We found that while the virtual disease capitalized on students’ knowledge of natural infectious disease through virtual symptoms, these symptoms may have led students to think of its transfer more as an observable or mechanical event rather than as a biological process. These findings provide helpful indicators to science educators and educational designers interested in creating and integrating online simulations within classroom environments to further students’ conceptual understanding.
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spelling pubmed-70878522020-03-23 Children’s Participation in a Virtual Epidemic in the Science Classroom: Making Connections to Natural Infectious Diseases Neulight, Nina Kafai, Yasmin B. Kao, Linda Foley, Brian Galas, Cathleen J Sci Educ Technol Article This study investigated students’ understanding of a virtual infectious disease in relation to their understanding of natural infectious diseases. Two sixth-grade classrooms of students between the ages of 10 and 12 (46 students) took part in a participatory simulation of a virtual infectious disease, which was integrated into their science curriculum. The results from our analyses reveal that students perceived the simulation as similar to a natural infectious disease and that the immersive components of the simulation afforded students the opportunity to discuss their understandings of natural disease and to compare them to their experiences with the virtual disease. We found that while the virtual disease capitalized on students’ knowledge of natural infectious disease through virtual symptoms, these symptoms may have led students to think of its transfer more as an observable or mechanical event rather than as a biological process. These findings provide helpful indicators to science educators and educational designers interested in creating and integrating online simulations within classroom environments to further students’ conceptual understanding. Kluwer Academic Publishers 2006-11-23 2007 /pmc/articles/PMC7087852/ /pubmed/32214773 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10956-006-9029-z Text en © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2006 This article is made available via the PMC Open Access Subset for unrestricted research re-use and secondary analysis in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for the duration of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic.
spellingShingle Article
Neulight, Nina
Kafai, Yasmin B.
Kao, Linda
Foley, Brian
Galas, Cathleen
Children’s Participation in a Virtual Epidemic in the Science Classroom: Making Connections to Natural Infectious Diseases
title Children’s Participation in a Virtual Epidemic in the Science Classroom: Making Connections to Natural Infectious Diseases
title_full Children’s Participation in a Virtual Epidemic in the Science Classroom: Making Connections to Natural Infectious Diseases
title_fullStr Children’s Participation in a Virtual Epidemic in the Science Classroom: Making Connections to Natural Infectious Diseases
title_full_unstemmed Children’s Participation in a Virtual Epidemic in the Science Classroom: Making Connections to Natural Infectious Diseases
title_short Children’s Participation in a Virtual Epidemic in the Science Classroom: Making Connections to Natural Infectious Diseases
title_sort children’s participation in a virtual epidemic in the science classroom: making connections to natural infectious diseases
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7087852/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32214773
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10956-006-9029-z
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