Abstract
In this scenario, a boy (9 years old) and a girl (11 years old) are playing around with rolling balls on a track in an after-school program where they have been specifically picked to participate in a videotaping. They are shown the materials and given very little direction on how to use them. Over the course of half an hour they set up several different arrangements with the tracks to see what will happen. The boy suggests that they try crashing marbles into each other by sending their respective marbles down a U-shaped track from both ends at the same time. Later in the session the girl suggests that they set up an arrangement where they try to get the ball to fly off the end of the track into a can. It is not clear that this might be a game because the boy suggests that they try different kinds of balls. He holds the far end of the track at different heights testing to see if the ball will travel faster. At one point the boy even races with the ball along the track when the girl releases it at one end. Overall, it appears that the boy is more interested in what determines the speed of the ball. The girl just wants to see if she can get the ball to fly off the end of the track into the can, turning this action into a game.
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Notes
- 1.
These categories are an adaptation of a chart found in Day (1981).
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Zubrowski, B. (2009). Play and Exploration in the Teaching and Learning of Science. In: Exploration and Meaning Making in the Learning of Science. Innovations in Science Education and Technology, vol 18. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2496-1_10
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