EDUC341 Chapter 6: Page 111-125
Document Summary
Students can use models to test ideas, make hypotheses, revise their thinking, visualize their thinking, etc. Models make reasoning more public to class and teacher. Modeling is not a one-and-done event - it can constantly be revised. Students change their understanding of events or processes. A representation of a system or a phenomenon. Drawings, diagrams, charts, equations, graphs, simulations, replicas, etc. Some models describe, others explain (explanatory models) Must change in response to new forms of evidence about the world. To illustrate accepted science ideas (in the classroom) 6 strategies for meaningful modeling in the classroom: About an event that happens in a specific place and time, under specific conditions. Visual resemblance between the real conditions being modeled and what gets put on paper. Less functional forms for classroom modeling = computer simulations, graphs, equations, physical replicas. Cannot readily test, evaluate, or revise over time. Explanatory models use unobservable features/events/processes to explain what we can observe.