2018 - 2023
Collaborative Research: Building Enhanced Scientific Thinking through Modeling Ecosystems (Model-BEST)
This project explored how a modeling-based curricular approach advances 4th and 5th grade students' understanding of science as a way of knowing. By interacting with and creating simulations of real-world experiences with local ecosystems (e.g., garden ecosystems), students began to reason with evidence and to make connections between local and global environmental patterns. To support modeling as an instructional strategy, teachers participated in extensive professional developments to deepen their understanding of ecological content, use of technological tools, and pedagogical shifts that facilitate model-based inquiry.
NSF # 1513043
PI: Robert Coulter
Related Research
Cottone, A., Yoon, S., Shim, J., Bob, C., & Stacey, C. (2023). Evaluating the apt epistemic processes of data literacy in elementary school students. Instructional Science, 51, 1-37. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-022-09610-8
Cottone, A. M., Yoon, S. A., Coulter, B., Shim, J., & Carman, S. (2021). Building system capacity with a modeling-based inquiry program for elementary students: A case study. Systems, 9(1), 1-21. https://doi.org/10.3390/systems9010009
Cottone, A., Yoon, S., Shim, J., Coulter, B., & Carman, S. (2020). Investigating the development of data literacy through apt epistemic performance with elementary school students. In M. Gresalfi, & I. S. Horn (Eds.), The interdisciplinarity of the learning sciences, Proceedings of the 14th International Conference of the Learning Sciences - ICLS 2020, Volume 2 (pp. 763-764). Nashville, Tennessee: International Society of the Learning Sciences. https://repository.isls.org/handle/1/6752
Conference Presentations
Cottone, A., Yoon, S. A., Shim, J., Coulter, B., & Carman, S. (2021, April 9-12). Investigating the epistemic performance goals that support elementary school students’ data literacy [Paper presentation]. 2021 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (virtual).
Shim, J., Yoon, S., Cottone, A., Coulter, B., & Carman, S. (2020, April 17-21). Supporting evidence and reasoning through data collected from scientific modeling tasks in an elementary science classroom [Paper presentation]. 2020 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, CA. USA. (Conference canceled).
