INCORPORATING MODELS INTO SCIENCE TEACHING TO MEET THE NEXT GENERATION SCIENCE STANDARD

摘要

The role of models in science and science education is increasingly emphasized in national standards documents. Developing and using models is described as one of eight essential practices in the new Framework for K-12 Science Education (NRC 2012), and models are explicitly referenced in relationship to three other essential practices: Designing and Conducting Investigations, Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking, and Constructing Explanations. As a result, models are represented heavily in the final version of the Next Generation Science Standards (Achieve Inc. 2013)-of 59 performance expectations (PEs) at the middle school level, models are explicitly a part of 17 PEs, just over 1 in 4.