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Modeling

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in Science

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ANNOUNCEMENTS

•Q4 Assessments: May be longer (summative) and include questions from Q1-3. Feedback welcome.

•Continue to check email for announcements on PD, summer sessions. CT Science Center free (not paid) workshop on Science Inquiry, last week of July?, Peabody 8th grade geology workshop, 5th grade astronomy, etc

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•Q4 pacing: •Phychem: elect/energy, end with forum

•Bio: open, but structure/function, end with some project?

•Chem: reactions, applications, gas, organic

•Physics: energy: light/sound

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•Need help with data for TVAL?

•AP Training: available for lots of teachers

•DEP Commiss, wants to “teach in”, PhyChem, Cross, May 9 or May 16 9am

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•Next year: no openings likely until June, but possible 3 ms gen science, 1 hs biology (eng), 1 hs chemistry/phy chem (HSC), magnet resource BioMed (Hyde)..

•Talk to me if you have a reason for requesting a transfer. remember, best interests of the school system.

•MATERIALS/SUPPLIES: Make sure to make a list, use Frey, Fisher, etc and give to admins before the end of the year!

•May 10 drop off, May 11 Science Fair 9-12 (I do buses), Awards May 12

•SRC forms for projects? Bacteria/humans

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Why Science

• Follow up discussion: last time• Reviewed goals of science education,

jobs, how it aligns to courses and offerings in the district/your school.

• What skills, concepts we choose to emphasize in the science courses

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Where to go from here

• Survey of anonymous views…• Feedback to principals, guidance,

etc.. On course selection and requirements.

• Changes in course offerings?• Changes in focus of course content,

skills, grading?

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TODAY’S DISCUSSION

• How do students learn from models, diagrams, maps?

• What are some of the issues that research tells us about science learning and models?

• What are some of the ways we explicitly teach students modeling and how to learn from models?

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Modeling

• construction and test of representations that serve as analogues to systems in the real world

• representations can be of many forms

• useful in summarizing known features and predicting outcomes

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Modeling concepts

• models as representations of causal or explanatory ideas,

• there can be multiple models of the same thing,

• models do not need to be exactly like the thing modeled,

• models can be revised or changed in light of new data

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ModelingModeling:recognize data patternscreate models to account for phenomenaidentify components of modeldesign experiments to test modelsassess models for data fit and consistencyrevise models based on additional data (model extension) / effect to cause reasoninguse model to make prediction

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Student Issues with models

• models are not copies; they are deliberate simplifications

• Error is a component of all models• development of specific

representational forms and notations• role of geometry and visualization

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Children Model views

• Level 1: models merely copies of the world • Level 2 : models involve both the selection

and omission of features, but emphasis remains on the models themselves rather than on the scientists ideas behind the model.

• Level 3: models were regarded as tools developed for the purpose of testing theories

• A learning progression for understanding models as generative tools for predicting and explaining

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• 4 Students construct and use models spontaneously in a range of domains to help their own thinking. Students consider how the world could behave according to various models. Students construct and use models to generate new questions about the behavior or existence of phenomena.

• 3 Students construct and use multiple models to explain and predict more aspects of a group of related

• phenomena. Students view models as tools that can support their thinking about existing and new phenomena. Students consider alternatives in constructing models based on analyses of the different advantages and weakness for explaining and predicting these alternative models possess.

• 2 Students construct and use a model to illustrate and explain how a phenomenon occurs, consistent with the evidence about the phenomenon. Students view models as a means of communicating their understanding of a phenomenon rather than a tool to support their own thinking.

• 1 Students construct and use models that show literal illustrations of a single phenomenon. Students do not view a model as tool to generate new knowledge, but do see models as a means of showing others what the phenomenon looks like.

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Data Modeling

• what professionals do• data are constructed to answer

questions• Data are inherently a form of

abstraction• data are represented in various

ways

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Scale Models, Diagrams, and Maps

• make it possible for students to visualize objects or processes

• depends on the complexity of the relationships

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Diagrams

• comprehensibility of diagrams• three reasons why diagrams

miscommunicate: • some do not include explanatory

information (illustrative or not explanatory),

• lack a causal chain, • fail to map the explanation to a familiar

context.

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Maps

• preserve some analog qualities of the space

• omit or alter features of the landscape

• easier to represent objects than to represent large-scale space

• struggle with orientation, perspective

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Designing Models• Task: designing a model that works like a human elbow (Penner et al., 1997).

three consecutive 1-hour sessions.

• Discussed different types of models they had previously seen or made.

• Considered the characteristics of those models, and how models are used for understanding phenomena.

• Introduced to the task of de-signing a model that functions like their elbow.

• Discussed how their own elbows work,

• Worked in pairs or triads to design and build models that illustrated the functional aspects of the human elbow.

• Generated an initial model, then each group demonstrated and explained their model to the class followed by discussion of the various models.

• Modified their models or started over. • In interviews conducted after the session, students improved in their ability to

judge the functional rather than perceptual qualities of models com pared with non-modeling peers. Also demonstrated an understanding of the process of modeling in general that was similar to that of children 3 to 4 years older .

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Teacher’s Role

Provides historical examples of very important people changing their views and explanations over time

• Begins to use students’ external representations of their thinking as a way of evaluating their ideas/ beliefs (in terms of intelligibility, plausibility, and fruitfulness) in order to (a) create, when necessary, dissatisfaction in the minds of the learner to facilitate conceptual exchange or (b) look for ways of promoting conceptual capture in the mind of the learner

• SOURCE: Smith et al. (2000).

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Students’ Role• Begin to consider the implications and limitations of their

personal thinking• Begin to look for ways of revising their personal thinking• Begin to evaluate their own/others’ thinking in terms of

intelligibility, plausibility, and fruitfulness of ideas• Continue to articulate criteria for acceptance of ideas

(i.e., consistency and generalizability)• Continue to employ physical representations of their

thinking• Begin to employ analogies and metaphors, discuss their

explicit use, and differentiate physical models from conceptual models

• Articulate and defend ideas about what learning should be like

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