Learning How to Identify Species
in a Situated Learning Scenario:
Using Dynamic-Static
Visualizations to Prepare Students
for Their Visit to The Aquarium

Vanessa D.I. Pfeiffer; Katharina Scheiter; Tim Kühl; Sven Gemballa

doi:10.12973/ejmste/75189

Learning How to Identify Species in a Situated Learning Scenario: Using Dynamic-Static Visualizations to Prepare Students for Their Visit to The Aquarium

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Vanessa D.I. Pfeiffer ¹ ^* , Katharina Scheiter ², Tim Kühl ², Sven Gemballa ¹ ²

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¹ University of Tuebingen² Knowledge Media Research Center, Tuebingen, GERMANY^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

This study investigated whether studying dynamic-static visualizations prepared first-year Biology students better for an out-of-classroom experience in an aquarium than learning how to identify species with more traditional instructional materials. During an initial classroom phase, learners either watched underwater videos of 15 freshwater fish species (video-group, n=46) or they were asked to identify preserved specimens of the same fish with the help of a dichotomous identification key (key-group, n=43). Subsequently, all students were asked to identify the taught species during their visit to the aquarium. Our results indicate that the video-group was able to identify more species correctly than the key-group directly after the classroom instruction, whereas both groups performed equally well after the aquarium visit.

Keywords

biodiversity
visualizations
field trips
situated learning
species identification

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, 2011, Volume 7, Issue 2, 135-147

https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/75189

Publication date: 21 Jun 2011

Article Views: 1530

Article Downloads: 658

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How to cite this article

APA

Pfeiffer, V. D., Scheiter, K., Kühl, T., & Gemballa, S. (2011). Learning How to Identify Species in a Situated Learning Scenario: Using Dynamic-Static Visualizations to Prepare Students for Their Visit to The Aquarium. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 7(2), 135-147. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/75189

Vancouver

Pfeiffer VD, Scheiter K, Kühl T, Gemballa S. Learning How to Identify Species in a Situated Learning Scenario: Using Dynamic-Static Visualizations to Prepare Students for Their Visit to The Aquarium. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2011;7(2):135-47. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/75189

AMA

Pfeiffer VD, Scheiter K, Kühl T, Gemballa S. Learning How to Identify Species in a Situated Learning Scenario: Using Dynamic-Static Visualizations to Prepare Students for Their Visit to The Aquarium. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2011;7(2), 135-147. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/75189

Chicago

Pfeiffer, Vanessa D.I., Katharina Scheiter, Tim Kühl, and Sven Gemballa. "Learning How to Identify Species in a Situated Learning Scenario: Using Dynamic-Static Visualizations to Prepare Students for Their Visit to The Aquarium". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education 2011 7 no. 2 (2011): 135-147. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/75189

Harvard

Pfeiffer, V. D., Scheiter, K., Kühl, T., and Gemballa, S. (2011). Learning How to Identify Species in a Situated Learning Scenario: Using Dynamic-Static Visualizations to Prepare Students for Their Visit to The Aquarium. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 7(2), pp. 135-147. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/75189

MLA

Pfeiffer, Vanessa D.I. et al. "Learning How to Identify Species in a Situated Learning Scenario: Using Dynamic-Static Visualizations to Prepare Students for Their Visit to The Aquarium". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, vol. 7, no. 2, 2011, pp. 135-147. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/75189