ABSTRACT
WHY SHOULD STUDENTS CONSTRUCT MODELS? “Scientific practice involves the construction, validation, and application of scientific models, so science instruction should be designed to engage students in making and using models” (Halloun & Hestenes, 1987, p. 455). The same assumption applies to all disciplines. Constructing models of phenomena being studied is perhaps the most powerful strategy in support of meaning making. In this chapter, I demonstrate how important modeling is to problem solving. One of the most powerful methods for clarifying the nature of a problem is to construct a model of it. In Chapter 7, I described how designers necessary construct increasingly complex models of the designs that they are working on.
