The Affordances of Augmented Reality in Delivering the Science Curriculum to Elementary Grades

The current science books for Palestinian elementary schools essentially consist of picture-based activities. Each lesson features images which students are asked to reflect on, and provide oral and written answers to questions linked to each image. This rich curriculum is being delivered in traditional methods, and few teachers have to date ventured into utilizing modern technologies that can be easily accessible. The present research effort measures the affordances of augmented reality in delivering the science curriculum to elementary grades in the West Bank. An interaction analysis study was used, in which activities from the third grade science textbook were demonstrated using AR technologies to identify their role in enhancing learners’ interaction with pictures in the science school books. A sample of 50 third grade female students, from a West Bank basic school for girls, was drawn from the study population (all third grade students in the West Bank). The 50 students were divided evenly into homogeneous control and intervention groups. Seven activities were delivered conventionally for the former and with augmented reality technologies for the latter. The findings suggest that students taught with augmented reality-enhanced procedures were particularly engaged and effectively responsive, both orally and in written tasks.

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