Using slowmation to engage preservice elementary teachers in understanding science content knowledge

Slow motion animation ("slowmation") is a new teaching approach that uses a simple animation process to engage learners in creating their own comprehensive animations of science concepts. In this paper, preservice elementary teachers used slowmation, a form of stop-motion animation, to make models of science concepts and take digital still photos as the models were manually manipulated in the horizontal plane. A range of materials can be used, and the animations are played in slow motion at two frames per second. Importantly, the preservice teachers provided pedagogical prompts, such as narration, diagrams, music, and factual text in their animations to help explain concepts. Preservice elementary teachers learned how to create slowmations in their science method course and then made their own comprehensive examples in an assignment to represent a science concept. Slowmation is a use of technology that generates a "real need" for preservice teachers to understand science content so that they can represent and explain it accurately in their animation. The teaching of science in elementary/primary schools is problematic in many different countries because preservice teachers often lack a deep understanding of science content knowledge. In Australia, research and national reports indicate that this lack of science content knowledge decreases the preservice teachers ' confidence and results in science being one of the most neglected subjects in the primary curriculum (ASTE Committee