Revising ideas over time, with evidence, counter-evidence, and multiple perspectives is important to designing explanations and critiques of science. This tool provides examples of how teachers have supported students in revising models over time and why it is important for science and society in light of new evidence.
Examples of students revising ideas over time
Examples of structured share-outs
Examples of students revising models with feedback
Here, you will find a range of instructional ideas that can help students bring their models to life and revise their thinking in collaboration with others over the course of a unit.
Engage students in structured share-outs. The purpose of a structured share-out is to help students learn from one another and develop a classroom community that shares and revises scientific ideas respectfully. Why is it important to engage in structured share-outs?
Below is a process for eliciting students’ ideas with models and supporting students in sharing their ideas with classmates as more than “show and tell.”
WHEN: Initial models should be created by students after they are introduced to the phenomenon that drives the storyline of the unit and before any evidence is gathered.
HOW:
1. Students should be encouraged to ask questions and discuss ideas about the phenomenon with one another. Encourage students to build on their lived experiences (“this reminds me of…”).
2. Remind students that at this point there is no wrong answers.
3. As you walk around the room, listen for all possible answers: What might it be? What questions do you have that would help you figure out the answer?
4. As you are listening, make a plan for sharing out. Select a few students to share their Initial Models with the class. Select student models based on:
a.) Content – Select models to highlight various ideas
b.) Features – How are students representing different ideas (arrows, color, size, etc.)
c.) Social Aspects – Which students profit from attention to their ideas?
5. Talk to students you selected, identifying content and features you would like them to share
6. Invite one student at a time to share their model under the document camera. As students share parts of their models, invite the class to share how their ideas are similar or different. Consider using the Discussion Stoplight.
7. With your students create an Idea/Question List or a consensus model on chart paper or the board: What are our ideas? What else could it be? Who has a different idea than what we have already heard?
8. Try to capture all ideas on your list. Don’t use student names.
9. As you go through the unit, come back to these questions and ideas to identify those we have figured out with evidence, add vocabulary, and refine ideas.
Teach students to agree and disagree. Kindergarteners through high school students benefit from explicit conversations about how to add to others’ ideas and how to disagree with ideas (not people) respectfully. In elementary classrooms, students often learn American Sign Language for agreeing, adding on, and disagreeing (see this video with structured share outs). In middle and high school, teachers might co-construct sentence starters with students.
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Teachers have also used agree/disagree T-charts when examining how evidence might support different models of a phenomenon in elementary classrooms (See this NSTA article).
Create a “Modeling Toolbox” anchor chart with students. As students identify different features in models that represent and communicate ideas, collect and house them on an ongoing “Modeling Toolbox” anchor chart. This chart reminds students of moves they can make as they model. Here are two “Modeling Toolbox” anchor chart examples:
 LEFT Teacher: Alisa Vinson-Ames, Kindergarten |
 RIGHT Teacher: Khristian Palmer, 2nd Grade |
Ask students to share their learning about modeling. Here is an example from 1st grade that also attends to the social and emotional dimensions of learning. You can also ask students to describe why they engage in modeling.
Invite students to reflect on how their thinking has changed when revising final models.
Treat students’ models as sensemaking spaces. Students can create and revise models collaboratively through multiple modalities (drawing, writing, etc.), and use models to spark and document connections. Below are some additional considerations for modeling with students.
| How is science done? Students’ ways of knowing are integrated into the class in ways that honor students’ collective knowledge-building processes as opposed to individualistic learning.
What counts as science? Discussing evidence to revise ideas helps break down the notion that science is about right and wrong answers and allows multiple entry points for students. Students take an active role in deciding what counts as important in their learning as they revise models, disrupting the notion that the teacher is the one who decides what belongs in a scientific explanation. Who gets to do science? Honoring the genius in all students interrupts the historical narrative that only white males can be scientists. Centering students’ evolving ideas creates a safe and inclusive learning community for all learners. Moreover, mindful selection of student work to be shared can counter inequitable narratives of “who is smart” in your classroom. |
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Questions to consider when supporting students in revising models:
Seeing a Kindergartener’s Model Evolve. One striking example I’ve seen of model revision in the primary grades occurred in Kaia Tomokiyo’s kindergarten class. The class was figuring out what happened to a puddle that appeared on the playground, and then disappeared. The picture below shows how one student modeled this at the beginning and end of the unit.
| Initial Model: | Final Model: |
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If you look closely, a lot of the main ideas remain similar — there’s a rain or lightning storm creating the puddle on the left side, and there is a red (hot) sun involved on the right side. In fact, the student’s initial model shows more ideas for where the puddle might go, including down into the ground. But the student became fascinated by the idea of evaporation during the unit and represented and discussed some pretty big ideas along these lines in their final model. For instance, the red or heat now moves from the sun to the puddle, and water moves from the puddle into a cloud (shown by arrows, a representation they learned from another student). It was cool to see how the student increasingly represented connections and processes in their model and how they coordinated their thinking with ideas from peers, experiments, and texts. (Jennifer Richards, Northwestern University)
1.) Find out what teachers know about modeling. In a partnership with a local school district, we asked about elementary teachers’ perceptions of students’ strengths. We learned that…
Given this data, we began professional learning by engaging teachers in conversations about why prior knowledge is important and challenging ideas about using models to assess vocabulary as teachers looked at student work.
2.) Discuss why modeling and model revision is important in science and for equity. You could used one of the resources to support teachers
3.) Analyze student models. You could provide several sample models (i.e., see elementary examples) or ask teachers to bring models from their classrooms. Consider the diverse ideas, experiences, and ways of representing ideas seen on and across models and how different parts of the scaffold seemed to help or hinder students in showing their thinking. The Rapid Survey of Student Thinking or Funds of Knowledge tools may be useful here.
4.) Design a year long plan for supporting teachers. Here is a six minute video example of a professional learning community for a secondary science team: Engaging Teachers in and With Modeling in a year-long PLC.
In this video, second-graders take on the...
Listen to Debbie Diaz describe her journey toward science, from being a student shut out from science, to a teacher who believed in her students, and now to becoming a science curriculum specialist for Seattle Public Schools.
Phenomenon- and modeling-based unit in a third-grade classroom.
This site is primarily funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) through Award #1907471 and #1315995