III Modeling Phases: Evaluate Model
The goal of this modeling phase is for the class to evaluate a model or an element of the model.
This modeling phase helps support several different classroom modes. It is crucial during Model Improvement and Model Competition modes and, in slightly different form, during the Model Application mode. What characterizes this modeling phase is that the focus of classroom activity is on students evaluating the ideas for models that have been previously generated and trying to rule some ideas in and others out. If it is a complex model such as a model of human circulation, then separate model elements may need to be evaluated to decide whether to include, improve, or remove them from the model. There are many different Level II Creative Reasoning Processes that can help students, with the help of the teacher, evaluate a model.
This modeling phase can rapidly alternate with the Modifying a Model phase. However, at times a teacher may want the class to focus on evaluating, especially if students are jumping ahead to suggest modifications suggesting changes to the model without having first evaluated it sufficiently.the model being discussed on the table.
|
One option at this point would be for the teacher to make a direct request for model evaluation: "Does anyone see any advantages or problems with this model?" If no student mentioned the need for a separate tube to go to the stomach, the teacher could ask a more focused question, “What happens to food in this model?” |
In a lesson where students were asked to draw the structure of the throat (without having studied throat diagrams ahead of time), one model showed connections from the mouth and nose to the throat but only one tube extending down from the throat, and it went to to the lungs.|
In a lesson where students were developing a model for the human circulatory system, different small groups had generated different models. Some students drew a model that had air going from the lungs through a vessel to the heart. Other students had an issue with gas from the lungs going straight to the heart and mixing with the liquid blood. There are a number of creative reasoning processes that could help the students at this point. For instance, if any of them recall problems with air bubbles getting into the blood (giving you the 'bends'), then the teacher can suggest that they evaluate the model in light of that remembered empirical information (Evaluatory Observations). Discussion about the 'bends' should indicate that air in the blood would be a critical problem. |
Supporting and Contributing Strategies
Other reasoning processes and strategies that support this phase of the modeling sequence are found in:
II. Creative Reasoning Processes to Support Model Evaluation
Suggestions for managing a type of discussion that can be very useful here are included under:
There are many Visualization strategies that may be helpful. Among them:
I. Depictive Gestures
I. Scientific Drawings
I. Mental Simulations
Background
A discussion of this modeling phase in the context of a classroom example is in Core of this Approach.
For how this phase fits into the larger framework, see the Level III section in the Educator's Tour.
For more discussion on the theoretical underpinnings of the framework, see the Introduction to the Full Theory page.
Articles, Papers and Websites
More in-depth discussion of this modeling phase is found in the following paper by our team:
Large scale scientific modeling practices (Nunez-Oviedo & Clement, 2019)
