2022 Rainmaker start-up: Student-generated explanatory drawings for constructing understanding about behavioural adaptations in thorny devils

This project builds on existing collaboration between CDU, the Nyangatjatjara College at Yulara (an independent Anangu secondary school) and the Uluru-Kata-Tjuta National Park which is seeking to develop stronger links between wildlife management within the Park, Anangu students, cultural knowledge and scientific research through an ongoing investigation of the ecology of thorny devils. It is proposed that students can be supported in engaging with the thorny devil research through an approach which guides students to construct their own explanations of a scientific question through student-generated multiple representations (verbal, pictorial and written). This approach, the Thinking Frames Approach (TFA) has been successfully used in a variety of contexts and age groups and has been shown to support adoption of scientific conceptual understanding, written explanations and improve students’ confidence in understanding and communicating that understanding. The approach also allows students to experience ‘thinking like a scientist’ as knowledge and understanding is not fixed, but there is recognition that all hypotheses generated by students are valuable, contestable and can be scrutinised and evaluated against the data collected. Students will engage with real-world data generated through the ecological project to develop scientific understanding of thorny devil behaviour. As part of this process, students will construct understanding through producing explanatory drawings. We will be examining data generated through ecological, science education and art lenses.