Learning science includes learning to argue with "inscriptions": images used to symbolize information persuasively. This study examined sixth-graders learning to invest inscriptions with representational status, in a geographic information system (GIS)-based science investigation. Learning to reason with inscriptions was studied in emergent…

Evaluated the PREG conceptual model of human question asking. Found the model was sufficient as it accounted for nearly all of the questions produced by students, and was discriminating in that it could identify the conditions in which particular classes of questions are or are not generated. (Author/SD)