Students’ Meaning-Making of Nutrient Uptake in Relation to Organizational Levels - Using an Animation in Upper Primary School Science

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by hdkawk

The study examines how upper primary students construct scientific meaning about nutrient uptake when an animation is used as a learning resource in two different year-5 school contexts. It analyzes students’ signs of scientific meaning-making at the meso and submicro organizational levels in group discussions and written descriptions, and evaluates whether a teacher review changes students’ use of scientific terms and everyday expressions. Results indicate teacher review increases everyday expressions and often functions as a translation of scientific terms in students’ drawings.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages17

Reading Time43 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Research

Introduction

Learning about Digestion and Nutrient Uptake in Connection to Different Levels of Organization

Students’ Meaning-Making of Nutrient Uptake in Relation to Organizational Levels Using an Animation in Upper Primary School Science ALMA JAHIC PETTERSSON CARL-JOHAN RUNDGREN LENA A. E. TIBELL *Author affiliations can be found in the back matter of this article ABSTRACT Previous research suggests that everyday expressions are commonly used in students’descriptions of nutrient uptake. This study investigate a classroom context in year 5 with a focus on signs of scientific meaning-making about nutrient uptake with an animation as a resource in two different schools. In one of the schools there was also a teacher review. The aim of this study is to investigate the pedagogical affordances of scientific terms and everyday expressions in the animation and in classroom teaching. Further, students’ signs of scientific meaning-making at the meso and submicro organizational level in group discussions and written descriptions are analyzed and if taking part of a teacher review influenced the students’ use of scientific terms and everyday expressions.The results show that the students who had a teacher review use everyday expressions at the meso and submicro level to a greater extent than the students who did not have an teacher review. The everyday expressions are often used as a kind of translation from the scientific terms in the students’ drawings. RESEARCH CORRESPONDING AUTHOR: Alma Jahic Pettersson Linköping University, SE [alma.pettersson@liu.se](alma.pettersson@liu.se) KEYWORDS: biology; chemistry; science education; everyday expressions; scientific terms; group discussions TO CITE THIS ARTICLE: Jahic Pettersson, A., Rundgren, C.-J., & Tibell, L. A. E. (2022) . Students’ Meaning-Making of Nutrient Uptake in Relation to Organizational Levels. Designs for Learning, 14(1), 29–45. DOI: [https://doi.org/10.16993/](https://doi.org/10.16993/)[ ](https://doi.org/10.16993/)[dfl.175](dfl.175) INTRODUCTION Students in primary school appear to understand the digestive system better than most other systems in the human body (Garcia-Barros, Martínez-Losada, and Garrido, 2011) . Nevertheless, instead of describing digestion as a system involving several connected processes, many students describe digestion without mentioning the chemical breakdown. Instead food is [described e.g. as](described e.g. as) being converted to “liquid food”(Cakici, 2005) . Furthermore, previous research suggests that students generally find it difficult to connect processes relating to food digestion taking place at different organizational levels1 in the body (Carvalho et al., 2004; Rowlands, 2004; Teixeira, 2000) . Thus, we ask ourselves how we could help students to better understand digestion and nutrient uptake and to connect the processes taking place at different organizational levels to a meaningful whole. Research suggests animations might be useful to explicitly show how processes at different organizational levels are interconnected. However, research has indicated that animations often are too complex and contain too much simultaneous information to achieve meaningful learning for students (e.g., Tversky, Morrison & Betrancourt, 2002) . On the other hand, research also shows that animations could be used successfully in learning certain aspects of science (e.g., Rundgren & Tibell, 2010) . Another aspect of learning science is learning the language of science (Lemke, 1990) . Research has shown that everyday expressions (often using metaphoric expressions) are commonly used in students’ descriptions of nutrient uptake (Rowlands, 2004; Cakici, 2005; Jahic Pettersson, Danielsson & Rundgren, 2020) . However, how to make use of everyday expressions in a way conducive to learning the science content, while simultaneously teaching the language of science, can be a challenging task for the teacher. This study investigate how teaching using an animation describing nutrient uptake, created with the intention to connect events t

FAQs

What is the study’s main focus regarding nutrient uptake learning?

The study investigates students’ meaning-making about nutrient uptake in relation to organizational levels, using an animation as a learning resource.

Which classroom contexts are compared in the study?

Two schools are compared, and one school also includes a teacher review to see how it influences students’ language use.

How does a teacher review affect students’ use of scientific terms and everyday expressions?

Students with a teacher review use everyday expressions more at the meso and submicro levels, and these expressions are often used as translations of scientific terms in their drawings.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by hdkawk