MISSTOHIT: from Misconceptions to Learning Insights through Inquiry with Playful Physical Objects
Walk the road from misconceptions to learning insights through inquiry-based learning with playful physical (3D printable) objects.
The MissToHit project aims at creating a learning community where formal and informal learning initiatives can share STEM-related learning activities based on physical objects in an Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) methodology. The project develops an open, free, open-source and expandable platform to design and share a set of physical object models in 3D to conduct the experiments, ready to be printed with an inexpensive 3D printer or similar equipment.
MissToHit is based on three pillars:
- MISCONCEPTIONS: ideas that are not in agreement with our understanding of natural science. Students bring these ideas or conceptions about scientific phenomena into the science class. Usually such misconceptions are robust, very resistant to change, deeply rooted in everyday experience, and rather useful in explaining everyday life phenomena.
- INQUIRY-BASED LEARNING THROUGH PHYSICAL OBJECTS: Inquiry-based learning encourages students to construct their own knowledge through an iterative process of orientation, theory building, investigation, conclusion and discussion. During the MissToHit project, tangible objects will be developed. Students use the objects to design and carry out experiments. Students replicate the experience of science with the goal of acquiring conceptual knowledge as well as inquiry-learning skills.
- GENDER INCLUSIVE ACTIVITIES: MissToHit develops gender-inclusive activities for teenagers from 13 to 16 years old. The project addresses the gender issue on two levels – individual and interactional level.
Basic information
Researchers are provided with a set of activities and tools to measure the impact of the following:
- Inquiry-based learning;
- Experimentation with physical objects;
- The process of correcting misconceptions using the scientific method and data obtained from experiments by students.
Members of MissToHit publish the results of the piloting stage of the project in scientific publications.
The MissToHit project develops the following outcomes:
- A set of 10 lesson plans based on playful physical objects in an inquiry-based learning methodology.
- An open, free, open-source and expandable platform to design and share a set of physical object models in 3D to conduct the experiments, ready to be printed with an inexpensive 3D printer or similar equipment.
The consortium also works on the promotion of methodologies to contribute to the existing repository of learning activities, experiments, or physical objects by the educational community; as well as in the assessment of the quality and impact of the project after its implementation, both in terms of attitudes and skills about STEM schools, and the quality of the methodology, platform and initial materials developed.