Students’ Virtual Experiment Behavior Using an Interactive Simulation

Abstract

In this paper, we introduce our newly developed interactive simulation that allows students to conduct virtual experiments to learn how ionizing radiation affects living things. Twenty-three seventh-grade students in Taiwan participated in this study and used the interactive simulation to conduct virtual experiments during their science class. The study identified and investigated nine different types of virtual experiment behavior. Moreover, the results indicated that three kinds of virtual experiment behavior significantly related to how well the students conducted controlled experiments, including (1) whether or not the students inspected all the objects before experimenting, (2) the extent to which the students conducted convergent experiments, and (3) the number of experiments started. Implications of the results are discussed.