Telling is not enough: Modeling and the force concept inventory

The Force Concept Inventory measures students’ conceptual understanding of forces and motion.  The FCI has shown that even after a year-long physics course, many students still have not accepted the basic principles of Newtonian dynamics.  This fact has motivated many physics educators to adopt a modeling approach to teaching physics, in which students construct mental models about physical laws by performing guided investigations.  I will present the FCI results from my own modeling-based high school physics class and compare them to larger studies.  Although modeling is most commonly used in physical science classrooms, I will suggest some elements of the method which may be incorporated into life science teaching.