This article reports on a case study that aims to help students develop mechanistic reasoning through constructing a model based stop-motion animation of a physical phenomenon. Mechanistic reasoning is a valuable thinking strategy for students in trying to make sense of scientific phenomena. Ten ninth-grade students used stop-motion software to…

Interpreting and creating computational systems models is an important goal of science education. One aspect of computational systems modeling that is supported by modeling, systems thinking, and computational thinking literature is "testing, evaluating, and debugging models." Through testing and debugging, students can identify aspects…

Examines the cognition of five pairs of high school students over time as they built quantitative ecological models using STELLA software. Applies theories of the multifaceted nature of cognition to describe object-level, metalevel, and emotional dimensions of cognitive performance that help explain the observed differences among students'…

Reports on the Scientific Reasoning Series--10 computer programs that make the nature of scientific reasoning accessible to a wider group of students. The aim of this material is to make improvements in scientific reasoning for all students over 10 years of age. The programs are highly interactive and are motivationally strong. About 20 hours of…