Body Motion and Graphing

Abstract

We analyze how 2 students used a computer-based motion detector in the context of individual interviews. Although 1 student's work is exemplified through transcript and commentary, the themes and discussions have evolved from our study of both students' work with the motion detector as they interacted with the interviewer. Our analysis reveals 3 themes: tool perspectives, fusion, and graphical spaces. Both students developed tool perspectives that enabled them to plan how to move so that they could create and interpret graphs by kinesthetic actions. The theme of fusion explores their emergent ways of talking, acting, and gesturing that do not distinguish between symbols and referents. Graphical spaces reflect our account of episodes in which a change in how they used the motion detector prompted them to investigate the tool anew. Our conclusions contribute to a reconceptualization of the nature of symbolizing, the learning of graphing, and the links between children's and scientists' graphing.