Xintian Tu

In this paper, I aim to explore how different perspectives students took helped them to demonstrate the target science concepts in the interview. I designed a 6-activity curriculum within a Mixed Reality (MR) environment focusing on the honeybee system. In these activities, I encouraged students to engage in different roles: 1) bees, 2) farmers, and 3) scientists. Students participated in six activities, and then a pre-and post-interview with a focus on their preference for the activities and understanding of the honeybee system. In the interview, I encouraged students to take different perspectives to explain the target science concepts. In my study, I defined first-person perspective when students take roles that directly interact with elements and characters in the science system. Then for the third-person perspective, it refers to students take roles of scientists. I applied thematic analysis to the interview to answer the question: How do students demonstrate their understanding of the science modeling practice when they take on different perspectives? The results revealed that different perspectives offer students various experiences to understand target science concepts. When students took on the role of bees, they tended to use more full-body movement to represent ideas. When they took on the role of scientists or farmers, there was more chaining between the actions, and properties of entities illustrated.