EXPLORING GRAPHING THROUGH PROGRAMMABLE ROBOTS

Abstract

Eight sixth-grade students in a gifted learning center in an urban city in the central part of Turkey explored graphing using programmable robots. The purpose of this study was to describe how these students engaged in this activity and utilized robots to test their conjectures that they developed for the interpretation of given distance/time and position/time graphs. Data were primarily gathered through classroom observations, document analysis and interviews. The results showed that initially students had difficulties interpreting both distance/time and position/time graphs and writing appropriate scenarios for the given graphs. Specifically, students initially interpreted those graphs as velocity/time graphs and wrote scenarios accordingly. Furthermore, students had difficulties identifying the velocities for the given intervals on the graphs as well as interpreting the meaning of slope in relation to physical movement. Programming robots and testing their own conjectures with robots provided students with real-life experiences to make sense of graphing motion in relation to distance/time and position/time graphs. After programming the robots, students were able to see the graphical representation of their prediction and check whether or not their conjecture was consistent with the actual graph. As well, the students were able to articulate the physical meaning of slope and how it specifically relates to movement. The results showed increased student understanding regarding the relationship between velocity and distance on position/time graphs with the use of robots. Furthermore, the data also suggested that the students enjoyed using robots for exploring mathematical and science concepts and considered the use of the robots as beneficial to their mathematical understanding of distance/time and position/time graphs.