A review of science animation repositories for Australian Science Teachers

A review of science animation repositories for Australian Science Teachers

Science animations, simulations, interactives, and games represent a powerful teaching resource. Recent research suggests Australian teachers can spend substantial time looking for and evaluating science animations, some even searching for these resources every week (Morrison et al.,
forthcoming). The purpose of this article is to review and compare five user-friendly animation repositories that are available to Australian K-12 science teachers (Scootle, Inquisitive, STILE, Phet Interactive Simulations, and Arludo). A range of characteristics were compared across the repositories including discipline and year level coverage, curriculum links, type of animations, level of interactivity,
presence of built in questions, assessment applications, potential teaching approaches and cost. Results show four of the five repositories are linked to the Australian and state curriculums. All science disciplines are represented across the five repositories, including animations addressing science skills. Whilst a range of animations were observed
with varying degrees of interactivity, most animations had a high level of interactivity, thereby allowing teachers to plan for studentcentred, inquiry-based science lessons. This
comparative study will allow teachers to quickly compare the features and disciplines of animation repositories, and potentially decrease their searching time.