A pilot study was conducted on a multimodal educational tool, Peruvian Food Chain Jenga (PFCJ), with 5th-grade students (N = 54) at a public charter school. The goal was to compare the effectiveness of the multimodal tool to a more traditional presentation of the same materials (food chain) using an experimental/control design. Data collection included a pretest/posttest and a “What I Did/What I Learned” response sheet. Quantitative analysis of pretest/posttest results showed both groups improved from pretest to posttest; however, there was no statistically significant difference between posttest results of experimental and control groups. Qualitative analysis of student open-ended responses indicated a difference between students who used the PFCJ and students in the control. The most striking difference occurred in how the students perceived the connectedness of species and the awareness of human impact. Our findings suggest that using a model such as PFCJ as a means of teaching and connecting scientific content with practices related to ecosystems is an effective method of engaging students in intelligent discussions about these topics.

中文翻译：

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秘鲁食物链积木：用互动模型学习生态系统

对一所公立特许学校的五年级学生 (N = 54) 进行了一项关于多模式教育工具秘鲁食物链叠层 (PFCJ) 的试点研究。目标是使用实验/控制设计将多模式工具的有效性与更传统的相同材料（食物链）的呈现方式进行比较。数据收集包括前测/后测和“我做了什么/我学到了什么”响应表。前测/后测结果的定量分析显示，两组从前测到后测都有所提高；然而，实验组和对照组的后测结果之间没有统计学上的显着差异。学生开放式回答的定性分析表明使用 PFCJ 的学生和对照组的学生之间存在差异。最显着的差异发生在学生如何看待物种之间的联系和对人类影响的认识上。我们的研究结果表明，使用 PFCJ 等模型作为教学手段，并将科学内容与生态系统相关实践联系起来，是让学生参与有关这些主题的智能讨论的有效方法。