Effectiveness of technological design on elementary student teachers' understanding of air resistance, gravity, terminal velocity and acceleration: Model parachute race activity

White & Gunstone (1992) pointed out that various methods could be used for measuring levels of understanding of concepts. In this study: concept maps (Safayeni, Derbentseva & Canas, 2005; Chiou, 2008; Liu & Wang, 2010; Hay, Kinchin & Baker, 2008); interviews related to concepts (Bjerg & Rasmussen, 2008; Kinchin, Streatfield & Hay, 2010); and drawings (Tsaparlis & Papaphotis, 2009; Trigueros & Planell, 2010; Howards-Jonesa, Winfield & Crimmins, 2008) were used in order to reveal the effect of the “Model Parachute Race” activity on elementary student teachers’ understanding of science concepts. These data collection tools were applied to representatives of seven groups constituting a sample of the application, before and after the application. Opinions of two instructors in two different fields and two experts were taken while preparing semi-structured interview questions related to the concepts.

Interviews and journals were used for each group during the twelve-week activity in order to investigate the effect of “Model Parachute Race” activity in elementary student teachers’ levels of transferring the concepts of Air Resistance, Gravity, Terminal Velocity and Acceleration into application.