classroom interactions: Curriculum Topic Study
Communicating with drawings, maps, and physical models
Section I. Identify Adult Content Knowledge
General Questions:
The big ideas and major concepts that make up this topic include communication and models. Within models, physical, conceptual, and mathematical models, concept maps, and drawings are important concepts. The readings helped me improve my understanding of the flexibility of what can be considered a “model” usable for scientific communication. With communication, I learned that science communication is much more than verbal and written acuity. Communication of science also includes listening and comprehending, making sense of data and data analysis, and even using and feeling comfortable with maps and concept maps.
IA. Science for All Americans
Adults should understand that the concept of communicating with models is just explaining a system or object that is scaled up or down so that it can be manipulated and understood. From complex computer programs to simple mental images, models are used daily in wide varieties of contexts, and are often used to make communicating science knowledge easier. Models and modeling interconnects with communication and science to give a rich web of types and functions of models. Getting familiarized with communicating these models is the aim of K-12 education so that, as adults, students will be science literate in the aspects of obtaining and communicating science knowledge.
Section II. Consider Instructional Implications
General Questions:
As previously mentioned, there are different types and functions of models. As children grow, their cognitive abilities change and grow with them. As a result, the complexity level of models taught to students and used in classrooms should reflect the cognitive abilities necessary to manipulate them. Younger students should start by learning about and using simple, representational models (i.e. drawings, toys), and then progress to conceptual models as their ability to understand, manipulate, and connect complex concepts develops over time. Mathematical models are the most abstract of models, connecting formulas to science problems. These models should be reserved for older students who have both a firm grasp on the science concepts being investigated and the math concepts being used to investigate. Science communication presents similar difficulties. Accurate communication of science concepts is hugely reliant on technical vocabulary. This vocabulary will need to evolve along with the students’ fluency with language. Correct usage of the new vocabulary is also important, because misuse can cause misconceptions to arise and take hold. The student must also be able to think quantitatively in order to think critically about and take ownership of new science knowledge. This ability doesn’t arise until high-school, and it has to be strengthened and tested in order for the student to be able to discuss and form ideas for communication. Use of models, drawings, and maps ties directly into learning how to communicate science concepts across all grade levels if used appropriately as has been described. However, everyday items like newspapers, magazines, and television are also outlets for disseminating scientific communication.
IIA: Benchmarks for Science Literacy
The general essay on communication skills shows the big picture view of what communication skills students should obtain in order to prepare for an adulthood of science literacy. It shows how students need to be taught the specialized terms and critical thinking skills, like quantitative reasoning, necessary to make sense of general science information both in and out of the classroom. The general essay on models shows a more explicitly phased strategy for K-12 education. The big view presented is that curriculum focused on models and modeling should be focused on a rich variety of experiences with using models instead of vague generalizations about how models can be used.
IIB: National Science Education Standards
How do the essays and vignettes illustrate the central role inquiry plays in learning the ideas in the topic? Inquiry plays a central role within learning how to communicate with models. The common theme of gaining abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry and understanding scientific inquiry is investigation and experimentation. In grades K-4, students should be involved with simple investigations of aspects of the world around them without need for the scientific method or background research. Young students need to be urged to pursue their curiosities; they need to be taught about questioning why something happens or doesn’t happen, and then be led to investigate the cause. This simple cause and effect investigation system can be a great foundation for inquiry. In grades 5-8, students should begin getting engaged with full and partial inquiry. With full inquiry, students are tasked with coming up with a question, researching it, developing a hypothesis, testing the hypothesis, analyzing data, and drawing conclusions. All of these steps are communication intensive. Experimentation needs to be replicable, so being able to communicate the science concepts behind their idea and their research as well as their final conclusions is very important, and inquiry is the engine that drives all of these activities. Partial inquiry, however, is more focused on developing specific inquiry skills that make up a full inquiry. Models are perfect for this development because they allow students to be creative. This creativity can stoke curiosity, which inevitably leads to greater inquiry. This inquiry helps the student take ownership of their new science knowledge, which leads to stronger abilities of communicating and applying the concept.
Section III. Identify Concepts and Specific Ideas
General Questions
Learning goals aligned with this topic include being able to read and write scientific content, being able to communicate science concepts via models, conducting scientific inquiry via models, and being able to understand, use, manipulate, and make a variety of models. Students should also acquire the skill of being able to diagnose and fix (if possible) the limitations of maps, drawings, and models. All of these goals intermingle and help to advance each other as students acquire higher levels of cognitive complexities. Each of these learning goals will attribute testable skills to the students, which can be shown when doing a full inquiry experiment or investigation. These goals eliminate emphasis on high levels of English grammar, as full understanding of these topics can be communicated simply, because if a student is using models to communicate, words should be used sparingly and concisely as not to take away from the model centerpiece.
The main difference between the ideas in the Benchmarks text and the National Science Education Standards (NSES) book is that the NSES is centered around science inquiry, where the Benchmarks text focuses more on the main concepts of communication and modeling. Though the concepts are all interrelated, the focus in each book is very different and needs to be synthesized to fully understand the scope of the “communication with models” curriculum.
IIIB: National Science Education Standards
The concepts and principles embedded in the strategies presented by the NSES text is all very inquiry-based. The goal of future science education is hugely inquiry based, so the related standards dealing with understanding what inquiry is, how to do inquiry, and how to communicate inquiry is very important for students. The organization of the topic is shown to be broken down by three grade level ranges: K-4, 5-8, and 9-12. These phases are organized so that inquiry develops with student cognitive ability for inquiry. It shows that organizing ideas in this topic (communication, modeling, and inquiry) should all be interrelated and should progress at the same rate with each concept being built both on top of and beside each other like bricks being laid for a wall.
Section IV. Examine Research on Student Learning
General Questions
One misconception about models is that they are infallible and constant. Students’ approach to science learning can sometimes keep them from being skeptical about information they are given. Since models are a great resource for teaching science content, teachers often use them. However, if the teacher does not explicitly inform the students that the model they used is not the only model for a given system, that it is not to scale, that the real thing or system is not similarly colored, etc., students will incorporate misconceptions about models with possible misconceptions about the system. Research shows that middle and even high school students typically think of models as physical copies of the real thing. They understand that models can be changed, but to them that just means a different way to manipulate it or an addition of new information, and the possibility that a bad part may need to be replaced doesn’t occur to them. Students usually also have alternative notions that models are purely physical. This is because a lot of the models that are pointed out as models (models of the solar system, models of the atom, and models of volcanoes) are physical models, and conceptual or mathematical models are not as clearly identified.
The concepts included in this topic need to be developed as inquiry is developed; that is, they need to start as education starts, and persist and grow to and through graduation from high school. As has been previously mentioned, there are complexities that need to be taught only at certain grade levels, but saying that models and modeling is only appropriate for certain grades would be a gross misunderstanding of what models are, how they can be used, and the predominant role they can play in science inquiry.
IVA: Benchmarks for Science Literacy
The research can be used to clarify the ideas of how students understand models. Research shows that there can be a severe disconnect between the ability of a student to use a model, and their ability to understand why it works and why it has limitations. Research is showing us how the cognitive abilities of students develop, and further research is clarifying levels of models appropriate for use in each grade level. There are four levels of student achievement based on their ability to understand a concept like modeling with traditional and specialized instruction, and students across a range of grade levels are tested on a concept and put into a category. It is important to clarify the progression of student abilities so that teachers don’t discourage students by teaching the concept to soon, or disengaging students who have advanced passed the complexity of the concept.
Section V. Examine Coherency and Articulation
A concept map is a form of communication that traces a concept or skill from its simple foundation to its higher, interconnecting main idea. It shows a web of steps and conceptual prerequisites with links from lower to higher orders of the topic, and can be broken down to show how long each level or order should take to accomplish.
Clear connections have been mentioned before in previous readings, and these maps reflect similar links. Communication, modeling, and graphical representation form a network of similar cognitive abilities such as being able to interpret graphs and mathematical models, being able to find limitations of models and being able to conduct scientific inquiry and research. These concepts apply to all areas of science, as all areas of science engage in inquiry. More specifically, models are used extensively in physical science education in areas like atomic theory, states of matter, geologic processes, and space processes and concepts. The concept of communication is also far-reaching, and is intrinsic to education itself. More specifically, literature based subjects like English and history are very reliant upon text-based communication, whereas science, math, and geography classes rely on graphs, maps, and models.
I am teaching an 8th grade physical science class this semester, so the students are on the precipice of being able to comprehend higher level modeling. What complicates things is that they are in an advanced program, so some of the students are cognitively advanced into a high-school level already, while some others are not. However, from conducting a clinical interview, I can tell that the students largely do not have a lot of background knowledge or experience with models. Based on the Atlas of Science Literacy, students in my class should have an ability to understand oral, written, or visual presentations that incorporate a range of carts and diagrams; they should be able to explain a scientific idea to someone else, checking understanding and responding to questions. Students should also understand that different models can be used to represent the same thing choosing which model to use depends on its created purpose. Students should also understand that models are used to think about processes that happen too slowly, too quickly, or on too small a scale to observe directly, as well as processes that are too vast, too complex, or too dangerous to study.
As is the case with most science concepts, visualizing the concept of models and communication has given me the skills necessary for easier manipulation of the topic. Seeing how communication and modeling are linked across science disciplines and other non-science subjects has improved my “big-picture view” of the concepts, including how the progression of communication and modeling skills is aligned with progression in other areas which require similar skills. This improvement in overall understanding of the topic resulted from the information being visually organized in the maps, and bolstered by the associated narrative sections, in such a way to make the abstract connections more tangible. The skill benchmarks included are very similar to the knowledge benchmarks previously discussed. However, the skill benchmarks are worded in a more detailed manner, resulting in them being easier to be tested or assessed than the broader, vaguer knowledge benchmarks.
Section VI. Clarify State Standards and District Curriculum
General Questions
A lot of information has been presented about what students need to know about communication with models. The Next Generation Sunshine State Standards that will be the framework of this lesson plan are SC.7.N.3.2 - Identify the benefits and limitations of the use of scientific models, and SC.8.N.3.1 Select models useful in relating the results of their own investigations. One suggestion from this research would be to make sure I teach a level of modeling equal to their cognitive abilities and experience with inquiry. I can make an estimate of those based on my previously performed clinical interview, and just need to create an activity and performance objectives that will align with those estimations. Another suggestion would be using concept maps as an educational tool to learn about communication with models. Concept maps will stretch what students consider to be models, they are flexible and can be worked into a huge range of scientific topics, and it can be a great tool for learning about unconventional, non-text communication for science knowledge. There are no gaps in this CTS, as the necessary background information to teach both of these content standards to their full extent is contained here.
The cognitive performance verbs associated with the standards are very strong, as one is a level 3 (Strategic Thinking & Complex Reasoning) and the other is level 2 (Basic Application of Skills & Concepts). This verb diction is appropriate for the nature and difficulties presented by this topic because understanding models in such a way that students can communicate through them or learn from them takes great cognitive ability for the students I will be teaching. The research findings show that this level of model manipulation may need to be held off until high school. Understanding, finding, and remedying model limitations is something that the research suggested be taught in high school, but here we see it is a standard for 7th graders to accomplish. I think the concept of models and modeling has been oversimplified, and as a result, standards are given too early to students and should be moved back to later grade levels.
The topic of modeling in the standards and in the curriculum guide does not explicitly incorporate communication, but does incorporate inquiry. The readings have improved my interpretation and understanding of this situation, because I now know that I have to extend my lesson to incorporate communication as well. If I teach inquiry and models, but not communication, I put the students at a disadvantage moving forward, and could temporarily stunt their growth and ability to move into higher orders of understanding within this topic.
VIA: State Standards:
The learning goals presented by the state standards that are most integral to learning the ideas in the topic are the skills of identifying and remedying limitations of models, and how to make and use models in inquiry. The research from the previous sections helped me to understand the core importance of the state standards, because they gave me breadth and depth of knowledge, with supporting research studies, about what should be taught and how the topic should be taught. The made a bridge between communication, modeling, and inquiry so that I could connect those large concepts into one lesson with specific, well-rounded learning goals.
The study also helped to show the misplacement of the learning goals. As previously mentioned, there is research that shows that these standards should probably be taught to students with higher cognitive abilities than 7th or 8th grade students. The articulation of these standards should be improved by asking for simpler versions of these standards, so that when the students are cognitively able to learn the concepts, they have some simpler background, foundational knowledge to build upon. The articulation of these standards should also be changed to explicitly incorporate communication and inquiry into the learning goals.
This study has also helped improve my understanding of students’ opportunity to learn and demonstrate the modeling skills included in the state standards. The detailed concept maps in the Atlas showed me what the students should already know, and what skills and abilities they should be able to learn and demonstrate when taught about communication with models.
VIB: District Curriculum Guide or Instructional Materials:
The lone skill essential to developing a coherent understanding of this topic included in the district curriculum guide is that testing models for their accuracy as they are being designed is important. Based on my study of this wide topic, I would suggest that the curriculum guide include more emphasis on what the purpose of models can be and how to make simple conceptual models. Both of those concepts are at a cognitive complexity in line with the students’ cognitive abilities, and will provide a basis for metacognition required while figuring out the limitations and inaccuracies of their own models. However, because of the study, I do now recognize the importance of understanding more about models before being asked to manipulate and understand them. Not only should this portion of the curriculum program not be skipped over, but it should be extended from one part of a 3 day lesson to its own 3 day lesson. The study has also shown that instructional opportunities about communication with models can be incorporated into any lesson, especially if the lesson is predicated on inquiry because the three concepts are so interconnected. Even larger than this organization though, is still the necessity for all of these topics to be introduced to students as early as possible and should be revisited and expounded upon as often as possible, taking into consideration cognitive abilities and background experiences with this topic.
General Questions:
The big ideas and major concepts that make up this topic include communication and models. Within models, physical, conceptual, and mathematical models, concept maps, and drawings are important concepts. The readings helped me improve my understanding of the flexibility of what can be considered a “model” usable for scientific communication. With communication, I learned that science communication is much more than verbal and written acuity. Communication of science also includes listening and comprehending, making sense of data and data analysis, and even using and feeling comfortable with maps and concept maps.
IA. Science for All Americans
Adults should understand that the concept of communicating with models is just explaining a system or object that is scaled up or down so that it can be manipulated and understood. From complex computer programs to simple mental images, models are used daily in wide varieties of contexts, and are often used to make communicating science knowledge easier. Models and modeling interconnects with communication and science to give a rich web of types and functions of models. Getting familiarized with communicating these models is the aim of K-12 education so that, as adults, students will be science literate in the aspects of obtaining and communicating science knowledge.
Section II. Consider Instructional Implications
General Questions:
As previously mentioned, there are different types and functions of models. As children grow, their cognitive abilities change and grow with them. As a result, the complexity level of models taught to students and used in classrooms should reflect the cognitive abilities necessary to manipulate them. Younger students should start by learning about and using simple, representational models (i.e. drawings, toys), and then progress to conceptual models as their ability to understand, manipulate, and connect complex concepts develops over time. Mathematical models are the most abstract of models, connecting formulas to science problems. These models should be reserved for older students who have both a firm grasp on the science concepts being investigated and the math concepts being used to investigate. Science communication presents similar difficulties. Accurate communication of science concepts is hugely reliant on technical vocabulary. This vocabulary will need to evolve along with the students’ fluency with language. Correct usage of the new vocabulary is also important, because misuse can cause misconceptions to arise and take hold. The student must also be able to think quantitatively in order to think critically about and take ownership of new science knowledge. This ability doesn’t arise until high-school, and it has to be strengthened and tested in order for the student to be able to discuss and form ideas for communication. Use of models, drawings, and maps ties directly into learning how to communicate science concepts across all grade levels if used appropriately as has been described. However, everyday items like newspapers, magazines, and television are also outlets for disseminating scientific communication.
IIA: Benchmarks for Science Literacy
The general essay on communication skills shows the big picture view of what communication skills students should obtain in order to prepare for an adulthood of science literacy. It shows how students need to be taught the specialized terms and critical thinking skills, like quantitative reasoning, necessary to make sense of general science information both in and out of the classroom. The general essay on models shows a more explicitly phased strategy for K-12 education. The big view presented is that curriculum focused on models and modeling should be focused on a rich variety of experiences with using models instead of vague generalizations about how models can be used.
IIB: National Science Education Standards
How do the essays and vignettes illustrate the central role inquiry plays in learning the ideas in the topic? Inquiry plays a central role within learning how to communicate with models. The common theme of gaining abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry and understanding scientific inquiry is investigation and experimentation. In grades K-4, students should be involved with simple investigations of aspects of the world around them without need for the scientific method or background research. Young students need to be urged to pursue their curiosities; they need to be taught about questioning why something happens or doesn’t happen, and then be led to investigate the cause. This simple cause and effect investigation system can be a great foundation for inquiry. In grades 5-8, students should begin getting engaged with full and partial inquiry. With full inquiry, students are tasked with coming up with a question, researching it, developing a hypothesis, testing the hypothesis, analyzing data, and drawing conclusions. All of these steps are communication intensive. Experimentation needs to be replicable, so being able to communicate the science concepts behind their idea and their research as well as their final conclusions is very important, and inquiry is the engine that drives all of these activities. Partial inquiry, however, is more focused on developing specific inquiry skills that make up a full inquiry. Models are perfect for this development because they allow students to be creative. This creativity can stoke curiosity, which inevitably leads to greater inquiry. This inquiry helps the student take ownership of their new science knowledge, which leads to stronger abilities of communicating and applying the concept.
Section III. Identify Concepts and Specific Ideas
General Questions
Learning goals aligned with this topic include being able to read and write scientific content, being able to communicate science concepts via models, conducting scientific inquiry via models, and being able to understand, use, manipulate, and make a variety of models. Students should also acquire the skill of being able to diagnose and fix (if possible) the limitations of maps, drawings, and models. All of these goals intermingle and help to advance each other as students acquire higher levels of cognitive complexities. Each of these learning goals will attribute testable skills to the students, which can be shown when doing a full inquiry experiment or investigation. These goals eliminate emphasis on high levels of English grammar, as full understanding of these topics can be communicated simply, because if a student is using models to communicate, words should be used sparingly and concisely as not to take away from the model centerpiece.
The main difference between the ideas in the Benchmarks text and the National Science Education Standards (NSES) book is that the NSES is centered around science inquiry, where the Benchmarks text focuses more on the main concepts of communication and modeling. Though the concepts are all interrelated, the focus in each book is very different and needs to be synthesized to fully understand the scope of the “communication with models” curriculum.
IIIB: National Science Education Standards
The concepts and principles embedded in the strategies presented by the NSES text is all very inquiry-based. The goal of future science education is hugely inquiry based, so the related standards dealing with understanding what inquiry is, how to do inquiry, and how to communicate inquiry is very important for students. The organization of the topic is shown to be broken down by three grade level ranges: K-4, 5-8, and 9-12. These phases are organized so that inquiry develops with student cognitive ability for inquiry. It shows that organizing ideas in this topic (communication, modeling, and inquiry) should all be interrelated and should progress at the same rate with each concept being built both on top of and beside each other like bricks being laid for a wall.
Section IV. Examine Research on Student Learning
General Questions
One misconception about models is that they are infallible and constant. Students’ approach to science learning can sometimes keep them from being skeptical about information they are given. Since models are a great resource for teaching science content, teachers often use them. However, if the teacher does not explicitly inform the students that the model they used is not the only model for a given system, that it is not to scale, that the real thing or system is not similarly colored, etc., students will incorporate misconceptions about models with possible misconceptions about the system. Research shows that middle and even high school students typically think of models as physical copies of the real thing. They understand that models can be changed, but to them that just means a different way to manipulate it or an addition of new information, and the possibility that a bad part may need to be replaced doesn’t occur to them. Students usually also have alternative notions that models are purely physical. This is because a lot of the models that are pointed out as models (models of the solar system, models of the atom, and models of volcanoes) are physical models, and conceptual or mathematical models are not as clearly identified.
The concepts included in this topic need to be developed as inquiry is developed; that is, they need to start as education starts, and persist and grow to and through graduation from high school. As has been previously mentioned, there are complexities that need to be taught only at certain grade levels, but saying that models and modeling is only appropriate for certain grades would be a gross misunderstanding of what models are, how they can be used, and the predominant role they can play in science inquiry.
IVA: Benchmarks for Science Literacy
The research can be used to clarify the ideas of how students understand models. Research shows that there can be a severe disconnect between the ability of a student to use a model, and their ability to understand why it works and why it has limitations. Research is showing us how the cognitive abilities of students develop, and further research is clarifying levels of models appropriate for use in each grade level. There are four levels of student achievement based on their ability to understand a concept like modeling with traditional and specialized instruction, and students across a range of grade levels are tested on a concept and put into a category. It is important to clarify the progression of student abilities so that teachers don’t discourage students by teaching the concept to soon, or disengaging students who have advanced passed the complexity of the concept.
Section V. Examine Coherency and Articulation
A concept map is a form of communication that traces a concept or skill from its simple foundation to its higher, interconnecting main idea. It shows a web of steps and conceptual prerequisites with links from lower to higher orders of the topic, and can be broken down to show how long each level or order should take to accomplish.
Clear connections have been mentioned before in previous readings, and these maps reflect similar links. Communication, modeling, and graphical representation form a network of similar cognitive abilities such as being able to interpret graphs and mathematical models, being able to find limitations of models and being able to conduct scientific inquiry and research. These concepts apply to all areas of science, as all areas of science engage in inquiry. More specifically, models are used extensively in physical science education in areas like atomic theory, states of matter, geologic processes, and space processes and concepts. The concept of communication is also far-reaching, and is intrinsic to education itself. More specifically, literature based subjects like English and history are very reliant upon text-based communication, whereas science, math, and geography classes rely on graphs, maps, and models.
I am teaching an 8th grade physical science class this semester, so the students are on the precipice of being able to comprehend higher level modeling. What complicates things is that they are in an advanced program, so some of the students are cognitively advanced into a high-school level already, while some others are not. However, from conducting a clinical interview, I can tell that the students largely do not have a lot of background knowledge or experience with models. Based on the Atlas of Science Literacy, students in my class should have an ability to understand oral, written, or visual presentations that incorporate a range of carts and diagrams; they should be able to explain a scientific idea to someone else, checking understanding and responding to questions. Students should also understand that different models can be used to represent the same thing choosing which model to use depends on its created purpose. Students should also understand that models are used to think about processes that happen too slowly, too quickly, or on too small a scale to observe directly, as well as processes that are too vast, too complex, or too dangerous to study.
As is the case with most science concepts, visualizing the concept of models and communication has given me the skills necessary for easier manipulation of the topic. Seeing how communication and modeling are linked across science disciplines and other non-science subjects has improved my “big-picture view” of the concepts, including how the progression of communication and modeling skills is aligned with progression in other areas which require similar skills. This improvement in overall understanding of the topic resulted from the information being visually organized in the maps, and bolstered by the associated narrative sections, in such a way to make the abstract connections more tangible. The skill benchmarks included are very similar to the knowledge benchmarks previously discussed. However, the skill benchmarks are worded in a more detailed manner, resulting in them being easier to be tested or assessed than the broader, vaguer knowledge benchmarks.
Section VI. Clarify State Standards and District Curriculum
General Questions
A lot of information has been presented about what students need to know about communication with models. The Next Generation Sunshine State Standards that will be the framework of this lesson plan are SC.7.N.3.2 - Identify the benefits and limitations of the use of scientific models, and SC.8.N.3.1 Select models useful in relating the results of their own investigations. One suggestion from this research would be to make sure I teach a level of modeling equal to their cognitive abilities and experience with inquiry. I can make an estimate of those based on my previously performed clinical interview, and just need to create an activity and performance objectives that will align with those estimations. Another suggestion would be using concept maps as an educational tool to learn about communication with models. Concept maps will stretch what students consider to be models, they are flexible and can be worked into a huge range of scientific topics, and it can be a great tool for learning about unconventional, non-text communication for science knowledge. There are no gaps in this CTS, as the necessary background information to teach both of these content standards to their full extent is contained here.
The cognitive performance verbs associated with the standards are very strong, as one is a level 3 (Strategic Thinking & Complex Reasoning) and the other is level 2 (Basic Application of Skills & Concepts). This verb diction is appropriate for the nature and difficulties presented by this topic because understanding models in such a way that students can communicate through them or learn from them takes great cognitive ability for the students I will be teaching. The research findings show that this level of model manipulation may need to be held off until high school. Understanding, finding, and remedying model limitations is something that the research suggested be taught in high school, but here we see it is a standard for 7th graders to accomplish. I think the concept of models and modeling has been oversimplified, and as a result, standards are given too early to students and should be moved back to later grade levels.
The topic of modeling in the standards and in the curriculum guide does not explicitly incorporate communication, but does incorporate inquiry. The readings have improved my interpretation and understanding of this situation, because I now know that I have to extend my lesson to incorporate communication as well. If I teach inquiry and models, but not communication, I put the students at a disadvantage moving forward, and could temporarily stunt their growth and ability to move into higher orders of understanding within this topic.
VIA: State Standards:
The learning goals presented by the state standards that are most integral to learning the ideas in the topic are the skills of identifying and remedying limitations of models, and how to make and use models in inquiry. The research from the previous sections helped me to understand the core importance of the state standards, because they gave me breadth and depth of knowledge, with supporting research studies, about what should be taught and how the topic should be taught. The made a bridge between communication, modeling, and inquiry so that I could connect those large concepts into one lesson with specific, well-rounded learning goals.
The study also helped to show the misplacement of the learning goals. As previously mentioned, there is research that shows that these standards should probably be taught to students with higher cognitive abilities than 7th or 8th grade students. The articulation of these standards should be improved by asking for simpler versions of these standards, so that when the students are cognitively able to learn the concepts, they have some simpler background, foundational knowledge to build upon. The articulation of these standards should also be changed to explicitly incorporate communication and inquiry into the learning goals.
This study has also helped improve my understanding of students’ opportunity to learn and demonstrate the modeling skills included in the state standards. The detailed concept maps in the Atlas showed me what the students should already know, and what skills and abilities they should be able to learn and demonstrate when taught about communication with models.
VIB: District Curriculum Guide or Instructional Materials:
The lone skill essential to developing a coherent understanding of this topic included in the district curriculum guide is that testing models for their accuracy as they are being designed is important. Based on my study of this wide topic, I would suggest that the curriculum guide include more emphasis on what the purpose of models can be and how to make simple conceptual models. Both of those concepts are at a cognitive complexity in line with the students’ cognitive abilities, and will provide a basis for metacognition required while figuring out the limitations and inaccuracies of their own models. However, because of the study, I do now recognize the importance of understanding more about models before being asked to manipulate and understand them. Not only should this portion of the curriculum program not be skipped over, but it should be extended from one part of a 3 day lesson to its own 3 day lesson. The study has also shown that instructional opportunities about communication with models can be incorporated into any lesson, especially if the lesson is predicated on inquiry because the three concepts are so interconnected. Even larger than this organization though, is still the necessity for all of these topics to be introduced to students as early as possible and should be revisited and expounded upon as often as possible, taking into consideration cognitive abilities and background experiences with this topic.