Summary: How Does Multimedia Integrated within a Planetary Science Course Help Students with Difficult Material?

In March 2010, I presented a paper at the National Association of Research in Science Teaching (NARST) Conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. NARST is a worldwide organization of professionals committed to the improvement of science teaching and learning through research. The goal of the project was to evaluate the impact of using the FOSS Planetary Science Course, Second Edition, middle school multimedia to teach material that is difficult and not easily observable by other methods on student learning, understanding, interest, and motivation. In addition, I hoped to get feedback on students’ experiences with the multimedia to help in the redesign of the course.

Method

The data were collected from student and teacher feedback, observations, student think-alouds, and pre- and posttest assessment items. I looked at two multimedia components from the course, “Phases of the Moon” and “Jupiter’s Moons.” As part of the think-aloud, students were asked to talk about their experiences and thoughts as they were going through the multimedia. Eight students did think-alouds for “Phases of the Moon,” and eleven students did think-alouds for “Jupiter’s Moons.” Figure 1 displays a screenshot of “Phases of the Moon.” The students had the opportunity to visually see how the Moon changes over time and during different times of the day.

Figure 1: Screenshot from “Phases of the Moon”

The “Jupiter’s Moons” multimedia involves two different perspectives of the moons orbiting around Jupiter. Figure 2 displays a screenshot from “Jupiter’s Moons.” The top image shows a side view and the bottom image shows a north-polar view. The students observed how quickly the moons orbit around Jupiter based on each moon’s distance from the planet, and they had control of turning on and off the orbit lines and moon name labels.

Figure 2: Screenshot from “Jupiter’s Moons”

Findings

All of the students who participated in the Planetary Science Course were given a pretest and posttest. The tests include two questions related to phases of the Moon and one question related to the moons of Jupiter. The students performed better on the posttest than the pretest for all three questions. Overall, the curriculum helped improve the students’ understanding of the material. Based on the three items on the tests, the multimedia was an integral part in helping students learn more about the Moon’s phases and the moons of Jupiter.

Multimedia Themes

Some common themes developed through analysis of the think-alouds from both multimedia components. The first theme that emerged involved the interactivity of the multimedia. Both of the multimedia components have some interactivity; they both allow users some control over the virtual environment. “Phases of the Moon” includes a game format that consists of some interactive elements. “Jupiter’s Moons” is more passive, but students can turn on and off labels and orbit lines. This gives students some control over the environment. The students we worked with enjoyed the interactive nature of both multimedia components. In developing multimedia, it seems that even adding a small amount of control, like labels, can help students have a more positive experience.

Students suggested having more help features or ways to find out more information. Some of the students felt the “Phases of the Moon” multimedia was confusing and that help features would be useful. In “Jupiter’s Moons,” the students seemed to understand how to use the multimedia, but some students did not understand that the purpose of the multimedia was to compare two perspectives of Jupiter’s moons. In addition, some students wanted to be able to learn more about Jupiter and its moons. Spending time with the help features and examining various ways to improve those features for students has the potential to enhance their experiences.

Students seemed to enjoy trying to figure out what was going on with “Phases of the Moon” and “Jupiter’s Moons.” Neither of the activities is straightforward, and students had to figure out what was going on and how to use the activities. Most students seemed to enjoy this aspect of challenge. Part of the reason video games are so popular is the challenge involved in playing them. Adding challenging features to the multimedia enhances the experience for many students.

Both of the multimedia components involved some type of change in perspective. They involved perspectives that students might not normally notice or perspectives that they cannot take in everyday life. Students often talked about liking the perspective-taking component of the multimedia. This is one way multimedia can be very helpful to students, by allowing them to see things in a different way and expanding their understanding of various concepts.

In developing multimedia, we need to be careful that students do not misinterpret the content that is being presented. Since much of the material may be pictorial in nature, it is important to think about what meaning or information is being conveyed by the images. In the “Jupiter’s Moons” multimedia, about half of the students thought that Jupiter only had four moons, since only four moons are displayed. In the curriculum, a discussion that Jupiter has more than four moons is included. However, it is also important that the number of moons is somehow represented in the multimedia. This example reflects how easy it is for students to misinterpret information that is being displayed in a multimedia activity.

The last theme that developed from examining the think-alouds is the importance of student input when developing multimedia. The students had a lot of ideas about changes that could be made to the multimedia. In addition, we were able to identify the features that students did not understand or misconceptions they had about the material, such as the number of moons that orbit Jupiter. This feedback from the students is extremely valuable in improving the multimedia.

Conclusion

The results indicated that the students performed better on the posttest than the pretest. Students understood the material better as a result of the combination of the curriculum and the multimedia component. In order to understand more about the students’ multimedia experiences, students were asked about their perspectives. The students described how they had learned about phases of the Moon and Jupiter’s moons in some of their other curriculum material, but the multimedia added a visual component that helped them better understand the phases and better see the continuity in the process. Also, with “Jupiter’s Moons,” students felt they understood better how the moons orbit the planet. For both of the animations, students felt the multimedia helped their understanding of the material.

Many students also felt that the multimedia stirred more interest learning about planetary science. Some students said that they thought that the multimedia was fun and interactive. One student wondered about what happens with other moons and other planets. This excitement about learning and wanting to find out even more information about the topic was observed while these students used the multimedia animations. The students also gave feedback on how to improve the multimedia, which helps the FOSS staff improve the quality and enhance the educational value of multimedia components. In future studies, we can then examine the impact that the further-revised multimedia has on enhancing students’ learning experiences, interest, and science skills.

The full paper may be viewed at: http://www.fossweb.com/news/NARST 2010 Paper.pdf

Contact Information: Rebecca Deutscher, Ph.D.

Research Associate Specialist

Center for Research, Evaluation, and Assessment

Lawrence Hall of Science