Teaching scientific practices through low-cost tools: an experiment with high school students

Abstract The study regards the development of a teaching-learning sequence (TLS) for students in a technical institute, aimed at enhancing scientific practices. The TLS was designed following a design-based research methodology, undergoing two cycles of design and test. The study describes the process and analyses students’ achievement of a specific learning outcome (the development of the practice ‘developing and using models’) during the latest version of the TLS. To obtain a more accurate evaluation, an assessment strategy based on the triangulation of multiples sources (students’ work and an observation grid filled in by two independent observers) was adopted. The findings suggest that the TLS had a positive impact on the development of the target scientific practice, particularly in some sub-abilities such as the mathematization of motion, its representation through space-time graphs and motion diagrams, and the translation between different representations. On the other hand, students had difficulties in constructing multiple representations and discussing the limitations of models. The study emphasizes the importance of continued refinement of teaching proposals to address emergent challenges and optimize learning support.