Scientific Modeling
Scientific modeling is a process where students create models representing a scientific concept to show a visualization of their knowledge. The purpose of scientific modeling is to help the students break down a complex concept into simpler forms for easier and better understanding of the concept.
To include scientific modeling into our unit, the students are required to use physical objects to represent a hurricane. In lesson 2, the students are using a funnel to represent the hurricane and label the different parts of a hurricane. Using a physical object allows the students to visually understand the different parts and its importance. The students are required to have an initial response to a specific question and then through the lesson, they are directed to revise their answers before being assessed at the end. This allows the students to learn to be active learners and teaches that doing an initial response activates their prior knowledge. For the EL learners, they will be shown an example of what is expected to provide more guidance than the English speaking students.
hands
Using modeling allows students to learn in a new way and to help them genuine learn the concept, instead of just memorization. Students can learn the parts of the hurricane just by looking at different pictures and diagrams but we wanted the students to genuinely learn through hands-on activities. For this lesson, there will be more teacher role at the beginning but once all of the students understand the expectation, it will be more student-guided, especially during the discussion at the end. The teacher will play the supporting role when needed but then the discussion will be lead by the students that are presenting and talk about why and how they revised their answers on their funnel using the resources that were provided.