Modeling
Translating abstract concepts into tangible representations
Translating abstract concepts into tangible representations
Use a digital modeling or simulation tool to construct an explanation of a scientific phenomenon relevant to your classroom content. This activity encourages students to apply scientific reasoning, visualize abstract processes, and connect evidence to conceptual understanding.
Select a modeling tool such as PhET, Explore Learning, Concord Consortium, Habitable Planet (Annenberg), EduMedia, or O-Physics. or other possible modeling apps and resources.
Choose a phenomenon aligned with your curriculum (e.g., motion of planets, photosynthesis, heat transfer, chemical reactions, or forces).
Develop a short investigation where students manipulate variables in the model, collect or record data, and use observations to explain the phenomenon.
Construct an explanation using the 5E, Claim–Evidence–Reasoning (CER) framework or similar structure, supported by data from the model.
Include reflection questions prompting students to connect the model to real-world systems and to consider the model’s limitations.
Example: Pendulums
SEP-2 Developing and using models - Use and construct models as helpful tools for representing ideas and explanations. These tools include diagrams, drawings, physical replicas, mathematical representations, analogies, and computer simulations.
CCC-4 Systems and system models. Defining the system under study—specifying its boundaries and making explicit a model of that system—provides tools for understanding and testing ideas that are applicable throughout science and engineering.