Zoom Out
Engage students in activities that help them recognize system level properties and behaviors that emerge from the interactions between components and examine major factors affecting them
Once students have developed an understanding of relevant chemical models and mechanisms, they should have opportunities to apply those tools to make sense of the problem or phenomenon under analysis. For that purpose:
Involve students in the analysis of system properties and behaviors that emerge from interactions between main components and their activities and organization over different scales in space and time (causal mechanisms).
Help students identify physical and chemical factors that affect major underlying causal mechanisms and their impact on the properties of the system.
Once students model and understand the phenomena of interest at submicroscopic levels of granularity, it is important to "zoom out" using activities that help them recognize system-level properties and behaviors that emerge from the interactions between components.
For example, in this phase of the proposed module on greenhouse gases, students are asked to analyze the emission spectra for the Sun and Earth in combination with the absorption spectra of H2O and CO2 to infer consequences for our planet.
