Understanding Diffusion and Osmosis by making Drawing-Based Models

Abstract

The study investigated reasoning process of students who modeled the processes of diffusion and osmosis with the program SimSketch. To be able to use SimSketch for the subject of diffusion and osmosis, some software and an assignment had to be designed. Five 4 vwo students were recorded while going through the assignment and the extra questions about their understanding of models and their opinion of SimSketch. These quotes were coded in five categories: Understanding of SimSketch, Prior knowledge activation, Reasoning, Newly gained knowledge and Learning due to SimSketch. From the model-understanding questions, it became clear the students know a model to be a hypothetical representation of the real world, instead of a replica. This helped them to see SimSketch as a model and to compare this model with the real world and the knowledge the students already possessed about diffusion and osmosis. Most basic knowledge was still known by the students, additional knowledge was obtained from the researcher, from the results visible in SimSketch and by reasoning. While modelling, this knowledge was used by the students to explain if and why they thought a new situation was more like the original, they were able to make an assessment and formulate arguments to support this. Drawing-based modelling for this matter helped the teacher to discover the faults and possible misconceptions of the students more easily since those are more visible. Not only the teacher but also the students seem to discover their faults more easily thanks to drawing-based modelling since they are corrected by the effects of their own settings.