Affordances and Constraints of Physical and Virtual Manipulatives for Learning Dynamics

This study investigated the affordances and constraints of dynamic physical and virtual models integrated into a dynamics course. Students in a dynamics course were assigned to one of three groups: traditional instruction, traditional plus physical manipulatives, and traditional plus virtual manipulatives. Using observations of problem solving sessions, student questionnaires, and pretest/posttest written assessments we triangulated affordances of physical and virtual manipulatives for learning dynamics. Key affordances of the manipulatives included direct experience of motion of the mechanism, the ability for students to test or verify their ideas about the mechanism's operation and facilitating communication for collaborative learning. Pretest to posttest changes in mechanical reasoning favored the use of physical or virtual manipulatives over traditional instruction alone. Results suggest that adding physical and virtual manipulatives to traditional instruction in dynamics may help students better reason about mechanical systems than with lecture and problem solving using static diagrams alone. By exploring how different manipulatives can help students understand dynamic systems, this study contributes to the larger body of research on helping students develop mechanical reasoning in engineering.