Where is animation particularly effective?
Animate things that change: the medium is dynamic, and best suited for showing dynamic processes.
Visualizing the unseen: chemical reactions, body systems, celestial motion – interacting with the things humans cannot typically interact with.
Modeling complex changes over time: many things change over varying times and distances, and animation can break those changes down, step by step. Students can make sense of the small, frame to frame, changes en route to understanding the larger ones.
Telling a story about science: bringing narrative into STEM classrooms provides students with relevance, creative outlets, and chances to express what they know and where they may still be confused.
Uncovering mechanisms: instead of using mathematics to model change, animation provides a chance to model change in more qualitative terms, which can help students make sense of the mathematics.