Research Problem – Stephanie Gardner

1. Research Problem – Stephanie Gardner • Students have difficulty in creating appropriate graphical representations for their data Example of raw data (excerpt) Example of student graphical representation

2. Research Question • Big Research Question: Why do undergraduate Biology students have difficulties creating graphical representations of data? • Subquestion #1 – What is?: What aspects of creating graphical representations are difficult for first-year students? • Research Context: First-year biology majors enrolled in introductory biology laboratory classes and Biology faculty • My question is interesting because: Graphs (and other representations) are an important language that scientists use in communication with each other and the general public.

3. Research Methodology • Mixed methods approach: • ‘Talk aloud’ during the creation of a graph from a dataset to determine the steps that experts and novices take • Experts: Biology faculty • Novices: Students enrolled in intro biology lab classes (traditional and research-based) • Practical assessment of graph choice • embedded in my class • Evaluation of graphical representations used by students in their lab notebooks and lab reports during the semester • embedded in my class

4. Alignment of Research Question and Methodology Research question: What aspects of creating graphical representations are difficult for students?

6. Alignment of Research Question and Methodology Research question: What aspects of creating graphical representations are difficult for students?