CHAPTER FOURTEEN. From Model Kits to Interactive Computer Graphics

Francoeur, Eric; Segal, J. B.

doi:10.1515/9781503618992-017

Cited by 26 publications

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“…Spatial thinking is important in chemistry because the reactivity of molecules is predicted, not just by the number and type of atoms that make up a molecule, but also by their spatial configuration (Harle & Towns, 2010). Chemists use two general types of spatial representations to represent submicroscopic entities such as molecules; 3D models, which might be concrete (i.e., physical) or virtual (i.e., computer-based), and 2D diagrams, which use conventions to represent 3D relations in the two dimensions of the printed page (Francoeur, & Segal, 2004). Developing skills in drawing, interpreting, and translating between these spatial representations is essential to a student's education as a chemist (Cheng & Gilbert, 2009;Goodwin, 2008;Kozma & Russell, 1997).…”

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Model manipulation and learning: Fostering representational competence with virtual and concrete models.

Stull¹,

Hegarty²

2016

Journal of Educational Psychology

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This study investigated the development of representational competence among organic chemistry students by using 3D (concrete and virtual) models as aids for teaching students to translate between multiple 2D diagrams. In 2 experiments, students translated between different diagrams of molecules and received verbal feedback in 1 of the following 3 intervention conditions: with concrete models, with virtual models, or without models. Following the intervention, diagram translation accuracy was measured in 3 posttests, which were with models, without models, and after a 7-day delay. The virtual models in the 2 experiments differed in the level of congruence between the actions performed with the input device and the resulting movement of the virtual model. Study 1 used a low congruence interface and Study 2 used a high congruence interface. Students learned more when models were available. In terms of learning outcomes, model-based feedback was superior to verbal-feedback alone, models served as a learning scaffold rather than a crutch, and learning with model-based feedback was resilient over a 7-day delay. Finally, concrete and virtual models were equivalent in promoting learning, and action-congruence of the interface did not affect learning. The results are discussed with respect to their implications for instruction in organic chemistry and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines more generally.

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Model manipulation and learning: Fostering representational competence with virtual and concrete models.

Stull¹,

Hegarty²

2016

Journal of Educational Psychology

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“…Eric Francoeur and Jerome Segal (2004) have shown how a series of computer hardware and software innovations in the 1960s and 1970s enabled protein modellers to transition from building molecular models with physical materials to using interactive computer graphics systems for the display and analysis of structural data. Although modelling materials have changed dramatically between the early days of physical modelling with mechanical ball and stick parts (Francoeur, 1997), early computer graphics developers were able to preserve the materiality of physical models by engineering workstations interactive enough to give users the sensation that they were directly manipulating the molecules onscreen with their hands (Langridge, 1974;1981;Francoeur and Segal, 2004;Myers, in press).…”

Section: Sites Of Intra-action In Protein Modellingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A curious researcher will download the coordinates of a protein structure and manipulate it onscreen. As I describe elsewhere (Myers, in press), these tools prosthetically couple the researcher to the model so that as they navigate through the intricate folds of the protein, zooming in on atomic details, and rotating it through virtual space, it becomes a tangible object (see also Francoeur and Segal, 2004). This practice constitutes a kind of body-work that enables the researcher to learn the structure by incorporating the form of the protein into their body as an "embodied model" (Myers, in press).…”

Section: Sites Of Intra-action In Protein Modellingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Her ability to construct an embodied model of the protein is facilitated by the interface she has used to build the crystallographic model onscreen. Interactive computer graphics afford a kind of tangibility and manipulability that is similar in some ways to other modelling materials, including physical media (see Myers, in press;Francoeur and Segal, 2004). It is through the laborious work of modelling, manipulating the 3D graphic space on her computer screen, that she able to sculpt a fleshed out twin of the model, not just in her mind, but in her body.…”

Section: Embodied Animations and Molecular Affectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Animating Mechanism

Myers¹

2006

S&TS

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In the scientific literature, proteins are frequently figured as molecular machines; that is, as tiny mechanisms that operate in interlocking assemblages, and which act to build and maintain the body as a higher-order machine. Mechanical models parse living bodies in ways that seem, at first glance, to deaden lively processes. I build on feminist contributions to the science studies literature to show how, rather than spelling the “death of nature”, mechanistic reasoning in the life sciences can become a site for feminist inquiry into modes of embodiment and the role of affect in the performance of scientific knowledge. I observe that researchers use their bodies kinaesthetically to manipulate and learn protein structures. Such forms of body-work enable modellers to animate their molecular mechanisms both onscreen and through elaborate gestures and affects. In this way molecular mechanisms are enlivened as they are propagated between researchers in pedagogical and professional contexts. I argue that this is not an extra-scientific phenomenon, but one intrinsic to the work of mechanistic modelling.

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Models as Mediators, Contributors, and Enablers of Scientific Knowledge

Gelfert

2015

SpringerBriefs in Philosophy

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CHAPTER FOURTEEN. From Model Kits to Interactive Computer Graphics

Cited by 26 publications

References 0 publications

Model manipulation and learning: Fostering representational competence with virtual and concrete models.

Model manipulation and learning: Fostering representational competence with virtual and concrete models.

Animating Mechanism

Models as Mediators, Contributors, and Enablers of Scientific Knowledge

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