1. Understanding of Carbon Cycling: An Interview Study in the US and China
Hui Jin, Li Zhan, Charles W. Anderson
Michigan State University
April, 2009
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2. Research Questions
How do American and Chinese students account for events about global warming?
Under current school science teaching, can students progress towards the scientific reasoning about the environmental events?
As American students and Chinese students are from different social, cultural, and educational contexts, how are their ways of reasoning similar or different?

3. Theoretical Foundation
Explanations & Reasoning
People rely on specific ways of causal reasoning to account for everyday events.
Scientific knowledge always reflects causal reasoning that is discipline-specific.
Two ways to construct reasoning
Interactions with the material world 
Macroscopic cause-effect relationships
Hidden processes are isomorphic with the macroscopic patterns (Chi, 2005; diSessa, 1987; Grotzer & Bell, 1999; Pozo & Crespo, 2005)
Interactions with the media and other people through discourses 
Scientific reasoning -- A discourse of constraint (Feynman et al., 1989)
Intuitive ways of reasoning:
Force-dynamics discourse (Pinker 2007; Talmy, 2000);
Living things have internal goals and capabilities (Keil, 1995; Leslie, 1994; Leslie, 1995)
Colloquial meaning of energy -- Energy is the power to make changes happen; it is used up and always needs to be replenished.

4. Research Background and Research Goals
Learning Progression (LP)
A learning progression is a sequence of successively more sophisticated ways of reasoning about a set of topics as students expand their experiences in and out of school over time (Smith, Wiser, Anderson, & Krajcik, 2006)
The matter LP and energy LP developed in the previous studies of the Environmental Literature Research Project  Initial carbon cycling LP
A gap in the previous studies: written assessments did not uncover details of students’ intuitive accounts  Interview study
Research Goals
To develop an interview protocol that effectively reveals students’ accounts about the focal environmental events.
To develop a carbon cycling LP that represents American and Chinese students’ specific ways of carbon cycling.

5. Research Focus - Six Focal Events of Global Warming
Six focal events that contribute to global warming:
Tree growth; Baby girl growth; Girl running; Tree decaying; Car running; Flame burning
Investigate students’ explanations to the focal events to interpret the underlying reasoning patterns.

6. Scientific Reasoning about the Focal Events
Key chemical reactions at atomic-molecular scale  Macroscopic Events
Photosynthesis generates organic carbon and harnesses energy
Digestion & biosynthesis transform organic carbon-containing materials
and passing on energy .
Oxidization (Combustion & Cellular respiration) oxidize organic carbon and degrades energy
Events and processes are constrained by three principles:
Matter conservation
Energy conservation
Energy degradation

7. Interview Protocol
Two set of Interview questions to uncover students intuitive accounts:
General Questions (Questions for students from all levels):
What does the tree need in order to grow?
How does each of the things you mentioned helps the tree to grow? What happens to it inside the tree? Does the tree use it for energy? How does that work?
The tree gets heavier as it grows. How does that happen?
Does the growing tree change the air? How does that happen?
Follow-up High-level Questions
If the increased weight comes from outside the tree, where does it come from? How do these things change into the tree’s body structure?
Does tree growth require energy? What are the energy sources for the tree?
Do you think the energy of sunlight will change its form when it goes into the tree’s body? How? Where does the tree store energy? In cells? In molecules?

8. Research Participants
US secondary students & 2 elementary students
Seven 7th graders and seven 6th graders from two public schools in California
Six 9th graders from one rural high school in Michigan; eleven 10th graders from the math and science center in Michigan
Two elementary students from one suburban school in Michigan
China secondary students
Four 7th Graders, five 8th graders, and four 9th graders from two rural schools
Three 10th graders, four 11th graders, and 3 12th graders from an urban school.

9. Research Method
Step 1. Using combined matter LP and energy LP as the initial carbon cycling LP.
Step 2. Identify patterns of performance & develop the LP
1. Develop/Revise the LP
2. Develop/Revise Interview Protocol
3. Conduct Interview & Collect Data
4. Use the LP (6 Exemplar worksheets) to analyze data
Iterative process: Results of data analysis provide information for revising the LP and interview protocol.
2. American and Chinese students’ responses reflected similar patterns in two aspects of performances--naming and explaining. Hence, we developed 12 exemplar worksheets to represent students’ characteristic naming or explaining performances in the six focal events. Each exemplar worksheet contains level description--the characteristic performances at each level--and representative responses selected from the interview data.

10. Research Method Step 3. Coding Data: 56 interview transcripts
Each transcript is divided into six units of analysis. Each unit of analysis contains all the questions and responses about one focal event.
Use exemplar worksheets to code each unit of analysis.
This work generated two tables that represent the alignment of naming and performing performances for American and Chinese students.

11. Finding: Performance Patterns
American and Chinese data indicate similar patterns in two aspects of performance--naming and explaining:
Naming: the performances of naming the relevant science statements, principles, concepts, and facts.
I: What will cause the dead tree to decay?
C4: Microbes and oxygen.
I: How does this change happen?
C4: I don’t know.
Explaining: the performances of constructing qualitative explanations based on different ways of reasoning.
I: How does the food you eat help you to move your little finger?
C3: Foods change into energy to move your finger.
(I - Investigator; A - American student; C - Chinese student)

12. Final Carbon Cycling LP (Level 1)
Level 1 Explaining Performances: Macroscopic changes explained by force-dynamics causation
Explain macroscopic events in terms of macroscopic causes; rely on force-dynamics discourse
Sunlight
Air
Soil
Water
Level 1 Naming Performances: Observable and Perceptive Characteristics
State science facts about body/machine parts, organism needs, or life cycle
Episodes:
I: How about water? What happens to the water inside the tree?
A1: It sucks into the roots and then it [water] goes up, so it can make the leaves and the branches grow.
… …
I: How does the tree use sunlight for energy?
A1: I’m pretty sure with the leaves, the leaves attract the sunlight and it’s like food to them, so that’s how they grow. And I think it’s the same with the tree.

13. Final Carbon Cycling LP (Level 2)
Hidden process:
Food changes into energy;
oxygen powers body functions
Matter/Energy Input:
foods, air, water
Food/Energy is used up,
or becomes waste
Level 2 Explaining Performances: Macroscopic changes explained by hidden mechanisms involving Power
Explain macroscopic events in terms of hidden processes powered by materials/energy and abilities or powers of actors
Level 2 Naming Performances: Hidden processes, familiar substances and obvious energy evidences
State hidden processes such as plants making foods, familiar substances such as sugar, oxygen, and carbon dioxide, and obvious energy evidences
Episodes:
I: You said that people need oxygen. How do people’s bodies use oxygen?
C1: People have lungs. Their biological activities require oxygen. Oxygen helps activities. Without oxygen, they feel tired and cannot do things. Oxygen goes to lungs and then bloods to facilitate the movement of blood.
I: How does the food you eat help you to move your little finger?
C3: Foods change into energy to move your finger.

14. Final Carbon Cycling LP (Level 3)
Matter/Energy Input:
Atoms, Molecules, Specific energy forms
Matter/Energy output: Atoms, Molecule, and specific energy forms
Changes of Molecules and Energy forms
Awareness of conservation laws
Level 3 Explaining Performances: Processes with unsuccessful constraints
Explain macroscopic events in terms of changes of molecules and energy forms; indicate awareness of conservation laws without using them successfully
Level 3 Naming Performances: Familiar molecules, energy forms, or chemical changes
State specific molecules, energy forms, or chemical changes
Episodes:
I: Your dad drove you to Yang Zhou after you finished the final. When you arrived there, your dad found that most gasoline was gone. Where did the gasoline go?
C5: The gasoline changed into kinetic energy to move the car.
I: Can you identify any of the substances or materials that are changing [when a person loses weight]? What are they?
A5: The fat or lipids are broken down because energy is breaking down these. The fat breaks down into energy.

15. Final Carbon Cycling LP (Level 4)
Energy Input: Chemical energy
Energy Output: Light energy + Heat
Matter Input:
Molecules of wax + oxygen
Matter Output:
CO2 + H2O
Chemical change as atom rearrangement
Energy transformation
Level 4 Naming Performances: All relevant Molecules, energy forms, & Chemical processes
State molecules of all reactants and products, all relevant energy forms, and chemical processes
Level 4 Explaining Performances: Scientific model-based understanding
Explain macroscopic events in terms of chemical reactions constrained by the three principles of matter and energy and indicate a discourse of scientific constraints
Episodes:
I: When candle is burning, heat is released. Where does the heat come from?
C7: The candle has chemical energy. When it is burning, the chemical energy transforms into heat and light energy.
I: What changes when the tree decays?
A6: Carbon in the tree is been broken down into smaller and smaller molecules. It needs oxygen for cellular respiration. The tree energy goes into the organisms that decaying the tree. It then goes into the air. The products of cellular respiration go to the air.

16. Comparison
American and Chinese students’ explaining performances were very similar, with a majority of each group at level 2 -- relying primarily on hidden mechanism reasoning.

17. Comparison
2. Naming performances and explaining performances were aligned differently for American and Chinese students. Students in both groups showed more level 3 and 4 naming performances than explaining performances, but the difference was much larger for Chinese students.

18. To Do List
Interview more American and Chinese elementary students to develop the lower anchor.
Use written assessments to collect a larger sample of responses and examine students’ developmental patterns.
Conduct teaching experiment that enables the development of a LP that shows how students transition from lower level to the higher level.

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