Collaborative Research: Supporting Secondary Students in Building External Models

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The Concord Consortium and Michigan State University will collaborate to: (1) develop and test a modeling tool and accompanying instructional materials, (2) explore how to support students in building and using models to explain and predict phenomena across a range of disciplines, and (3) document the sophistication of understanding of disciplinary core ideas that students develop when building and using models in grades 6-12. By iteratively designing, developing and testing a modeling tool and instructional materials that facilitate the building of dynamic models, the project will result in exemplary middle and high school materials that use a model-based approach as well as an understanding of the potential of this approach in supporting student development of explanatory frameworks and modeling capabilities. A key goal of the project is to increase students' learning of science through modeling and to study student engagement with modeling as a scientific practice. The project provides the nation with middle and high school resources that support students in developing and using models to explain and predict phenomena, a central scientific and engineering practice. Because the research and development work will be carried out in schools in which students typically do not succeed in science, the products will also help produce a population of citizens capable of continuing further STEM learning and who can participate knowledgeably in public decision making. The goals of the project are to (1) develop and test a modeling tool and accompanying instructional materials, (2) explore how to support students in building, using, and revising models to explain and predict phenomena across a range of disciplines, and (3) document the sophistication of understanding of disciplinary core ideas that students develop when building and using models in grades 6-12. Using a design-based research methodology, the research and development efforts will involve multiple cycles of designing, developing, testing, and refining the systems modeling tool and the instructional materials to help students meet important learning goals related to constructing dynamic models that align with the Next Generation Science Standards. The learning research will study the effect of working with external models on student construction of robust explanatory conceptual understanding. Additionally, it will develop a set of professional development resources and teacher scaffolds to help the expanding community of teachers not directly involved in the project take advantage of the materials and strategies for maximizing the impact of the curricular materials.