PROPORTION DANCING FOR MATERIALLY ENACTED COVARIATIONAL REASONING

This paper presents part of a design-based research study that explores 5th-grade students’ materially enactments of covariation while using a motion-tracking technology called ‘MaLT2Dance’ to create “dancing” dynamic shapes. Eight students collaborated in pairs to choreograph the shape of a tetris-like letter “L” on screen by dynamically transforming its side lengths. They controlled two parameters’ values linked to two sides of the shape – that remained “closed” only when the ratio of 1:2 was satisfied – through hand gestures in order to animate the shape in harmony with selected songs. The analysis traced how students’ initially uncoordinated movement gradually evolved into increasingly refined, materially enacted covariation guided by their aesthetic perception of what visual-dynamic form better fits the song. The discussion highlights how this environment supported the emergence of different types of materially enacted, aesthetically-driven covariational reasoning.