An embodied approach to collaborative knowledge construction for science inquiry

This research seeks to understand how embodied interactions that are enacted within a digitally-augmented learning environment can support collaborative knowledge construction. In particular, I want to discover how learners use motion- and gesture-based forms of input to make contributions to a community knowledge base. Throughout the duration of an investigation, students continually add to and draw upon the knowledge base and use it to support scientific reasoning. My doctoral work is part of a larger program of research known as Embedded Phenomena for Inquiry Communities. Following a design-based research approach, the learning materials, activities, and software applications that are created to support embodied interactions within this context will be implemented in upper elementary school science classrooms.