Modeling and construction of external representations of protein synthesis: A design studio in High School

Abstract

Different studies show that students usually give linear explanations between genotype and phenotype in which the role of proteins is overlooked. In this work, we characterise the learning associated with protein synthesis that is promoted by modelling and building animated digital external representations. Design-based research was developed during two consecutive years (2017-2018) in a 5^th year (16 or 17 years old) of secondary school in Córdoba (Argentina). In the first year, we studied the teaching proposal that the teacher had been developing, and in the second year we co-designed a sequence that proposed the modelling of protein synthesis and the construction of animated digital external representations. The results indicate that the creation of dynamic representations fostered model-based reasoning, and the students were able to connect genes with protein coding, beginning to overcome superficial notions associated with the genotype-phenotype relationship.