Developing students' understanding and thinking process by model construction

There is growing recognition that models play a fundamental role in the comprehension of science concepts. This paper aims at enhancing students' understanding and thinking by model construction. Seventh grade middle school students from an urban public school participated in this study as a part of their weekly science club that met after the regular school hours. During the course of the study, the students investigated several common environmental factors about animals by collecting data, made drawings, constructed objects, and wrote journals. The use of journals allowed them to reflect on their experience and the abstract concepts. It also allowed the researchers to have indirect access to the models underlying the meanings students were making every week. Students developed initial models, came up with analogies, and constructed newer models by improving the initial ones. The findings show that model criticism and modification processes are promising activities for science education.