ERIC Number: EJ1156620
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015
Pages: 3
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0269-2465
EISSN: N/A
Reflections on the Use of Tablet Technology
Wise, Nicki; McGregor, Deb; Bird, James
Primary Science, n140 p5-7 Nov 2015
This article describes a recent Oxfordshire Big Science Event (BSE), which was combined with Science Week in Bure Park Primary School and involved a competition in which primary school children throughout Oxfordshire devised, carried out, and recorded data from science investigations to answer questions that interested them. Teams of children needed to come up with their own open-ended science investigation (whether a fair test, survey, observation over time, or secondary research approach). They then had to present their work on a large poster for other children and teachers to judge. To enable the children to generate their own investigations, they were presented with an open question: "Does the same thing happen each time a solid is mixed with a liquid?" The children were invited to move around a carousel of various materials placed at stations around the room and to use iPads to aid their recording. The authors report that using the iPads to video and review events more closely helped to develop observational skills and discussion as well as stimulate curiosity. They also observed that using the multimodality of the iPad to record worked particularly well for very rapid or very slow reactions. They found that the process of capturing experimental reactions with iPads and reviewing recordings allowed students to become more reflective and constructively self-critical in science investigations.
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Elementary School Students, Technology Uses in Education, Handheld Devices, Science Education, Science Activities, Competition, Skill Development, Science Process Skills, Reaction Time
Association for Science Education. College Lane Hatfield, Herts, AL10 9AA, UK. Tel: +44-1-707-283000; Fax: +44-1-707-266532; e-mail: info@ase.org.uk; Web site: http://www.ase.org.uk
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Elementary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: United Kingdom (England)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A