Abstract
We present our work engaging elementary students in scientific modeling from the Modeling Designs for Learning Science (MoDeLS) project. First, we outline the MoDeLS approach, discussing our conceptual and methodological frameworks. Second, we report our efforts, as part of the larger project, to facilitate fifth-grade students’ participation in a model-centered curriculum unit on evaporation and condensation. We discuss the model-centered instructional sequence (MIS) that we developed and incorporated into our fifth-grade modeling-centered curriculum unit on evaporation and condensation and how the unit was implemented. Finally, we present the empirical outcomes of our approach in two fifth-grade classrooms (N = 34), examining the effects of MIS components on students’ modeling practices. Our findings indicate three components of MIS—empirical investigations, computer simulations, and social interactions—affected students’ modeling practices to varying degrees. We conclude this chapter by discussing our findings and how MIS can be further developed as a pedagogical tool for modeling.
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Notes
- 1.
Hereafter, we use “modeling practices” to refer to the components of modeling mentioned above.
- 2.
We analyzed data from one of the two teachers who implemented the unit during 2008–2009 because his pre–post assessments were identical to one another and to those used by the larger MoDeLS research group.
- 3.
Note that of the four features of MIS—“model evolution,” empirical investigations, computer simulations, and social interactions—we discussed earlier, we assess the last three features here. This is because our method does not include comparison of MIS with another instructional sequence that does not contain the feature of model evolution.
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Baek, H., Schwarz, C., Chen, J., Hokayem, H., Zhan, L. (2011). Engaging Elementary Students in Scientific Modeling: The MoDeLS Fifth-Grade Approach and Findings. In: Khine, M., Saleh, I. (eds) Models and Modeling. Models and Modeling in Science Education, vol 6. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0449-7_9
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