Descriptive written logs of student activity during problem solving were created through
multiple viewing of the videotapes. All verbalizations were transcribed. The unit of analysis was
shift in activity (Chi, 1997; Jordan & Henderson, 1995). A shift in activity refers to an attentional
shift from one element or task in the challenge to another element or task. Examples of a shift in
378 SULLIVAN
Journal of Research in Science Teaching. DOI 10.1002/tea
activity are: (1) from writing the program to accessing the online context-sensitive help reference;
(2) from writing the program to building the robot; (3) from running the program to measuring the
quality of light in the room, etc. This unit of analysis was chosen as a means of systematically
segmenting continuous student activity. Therefore, the activity log serves as a sequential record of
the students’ activities during problem solving.
A coding scheme was developed to analyze the segmented student activity. The coding
scheme is derived directly from the AAAS (1993) report on science literacy and the NRC’s (1996)
national science education standards. It consists of the thinking skills described in the AAAS
(1993) report, most directly related to robotics activity as follows: computation, estimation,
manipulation, and observation. The coding scheme also includes the science process skills
discussed by both the AAAS (1993) and the NRC (1996) most directly related to robotics study
including: hypothesis generation, control of variables, hypothesis testing, and evaluation of
solutions. The coding scheme is presented in Table 1.
All of the student logs were analyzed using the coding scheme. Frequency of usage of the
thinking skills and science process skills were calculated from this data and are reported below.
Additionally, a narrative description and analysis of one student’s complete activity in solving the
problem is provided in the results section.