Teachers' instructional representations are important tools for helping students to understand scientific knowledge. Most of the research about instructional representations have focused on school science. Considering increasing importance of out of s...
Teachers' instructional representations are important tools for helping students to understand scientific knowledge. Most of the research about instructional representations have focused on school science. Considering increasing importance of out of school science experience, instructional representations using in out of school science programs also need to be examined. Therefore, this study investigated the forms of instructional representations which are used at an out of school science program. The target program was Wood Magic program at Oregon State University. Wood Magic program is a 3 hour interactive experience designed to teach elementary students about wood as a material and resources. Students and their teachers visited a series of eight stations that cover aspects of science and technology related to wood and wood products. As the results of analysis, 6 major forms of instructional representations were identified: Demonstration/simulation by instructors, demonstration/simulation by volunteer students, examples, verbal explanation, experiments, picture/diagram. More than one forms of instructional representations were used in a station. Based on the characteristics of contents and activities, each station used different instructional representations.