WK 30

Modeling in the Biology Classroom: Creating Opportunities to Build Connections and Assess Science Skills

Biology instruction should engage students in the practices and ways of thinking used by biologists while promoting students’ abilities to solve problems and reason about complex systems.  Biologists – and ecologists, in particular – regularly use models and modeling for organizing, representing, and evaluating ideas, and for explaining and predicting system behaviors. However, developing and implementing model-based instruction in undergraduate science classrooms can be challenging due to large class sizes, diverse preparations of our students, and minimal to no faculty training in the use of effective pedagogical methods.

In this workshop, we provide tools and support for incorporating conceptual modeling into biology instruction.  Unlike other modeling approaches, conceptual modeling is designed to help students better understand the nature of connections among related concepts in biological systems. Participants will learn (a) why modeling is a priority for biology learning, (b) how modeling can be used as an activity and/or assessment in diverse learning contexts, (c) how data from students’ models can inform us about what students are and are not learning, and (d) techniques for delivering feedback, even in large classes. Participants will work in small teams to practice adapting the modeling approach to their unique course contexts and applying scoring rubrics to student work.