Modeling and meta-modeling in elementary science learning: Physical, diagrammatic, and computational models

Our science education system is responding to three simultaneous calls for fundamental change—to promote rigorous science learning, to leverage the power of computational thinking and modeling, and to broaden participation in STEM learning to serve all students, including English learners. This paper presents preliminary data from a project to create and test the feasibility of a year-long curriculum for 5^th grade science that responds to all three of these calls. We analyze student artifacts from the first (9-week) unit of this curriculum, exploring ways that students engage with three particularly challenging ideas: (a) using models to make sense of complex phenomena; (b) integrating findings from work with models across multiple (physical, diagrammatic, and computational) modes; and (c) articulating the strengths and limitations of computational modeling soon after it was introduced in the curriculum.