DIAGRAMS

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DIAGRAMS
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Diagrams

• Unlike commonsense knowledge scientific
  knowledge as it was then coming into being
  needed to be organized around systems of
  technical concepts arranged in strict hierarchies
  of kinds and parts (Pg. 6) Halliday Martin

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Simple Food Chain
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Food Chain Circle
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Disruption in Food Web
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Nominalization in Diagrams

• Flow charts or concept maps can also demonstrate
  nominalization. From the previous examples, the
  slides build on one another, becoming more
  complex within the series. The first slide
  explained what the food chain was. The second
  one demonstrated how it interacted with the
  environment. Finally, the third slide showed how
  pollution may affect the food web.

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• Nominalization frequently entails ambiguity,
  especially for those who are relative novices in
  the field
• (Pg. 245) -Len Unsworth

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What can students do to have a better
understanding of diagrams?

• Students must understand the meaning behind the
  first slide before moving on to the next.
  Therefore, one way in which students can
  understand how nominalization works within
  diagrams is through repeated exposures to such
  diagrams. The teacher explains what is going on
  from one slide to the next. Students can be
  trained to notice such occurrences through
  repeated practice or exercises.

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Pond Water Activity
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Hard at work or hardly working?
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Question

• Does anyone notice anything wrong with these
  typical pictures found in our students textbooks?

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Layers of the Earth
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3-D Layers of Earth
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Were those pictures accurate?

• Nahthe visual model that represents the inner
  layers of the earth are not drawn in proportion.
  The actual sizes should be
• Crust 5.5 km (oceanic), 35 km (continental)
• Mantle 2,900 km
• Outer core 2,000 km
• Inner core 1,370 km
• Hence, in reality, the mantle is actually 530
  times thicker than the oceanic crust!
  Furthermore, the mantle should only be 2 times
  thicker than the core. Did those pictures look
  proportionate to you??

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How do we know students understand the
distortions found in the textbook visual models?

• An activity in which we can help teach students
  learn about proportions is to have them observe
  the disparity within diagrams/visual models.
  Students can identify the disproportions by first
  measuring to see if the ratios match the actual
  scale. They can then draw the actual proportions
  while comparing and contrasting to the erroneous
  models.

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Learning about images, as with language, can
occur implicitly in these experiences but also
needs to be explicitly taught and understood
(Pg. 4) Jon Callow
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Question

• What do you notice about the following visual
  models of cells?

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Simple Cell
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Complex Cell
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Microscope Image of Cell
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Do the images look the same?

• Students may be confuse with what is drawn by an
  artist to that of the real cell. They would
  probably have a hard time finding organelles on
  the actual images of cells. Once again, repeated
  exposures to all types of models with the teacher
  discussing about the cells complexity may help
  students discern among various images. In
  addition, such exercises would help them learn
  that the actual/real cells organelles are very
  different to that shown in textbooks/hand-outs.