This article reveals how model-based inquiry (MBI) can be used in teaching about electricity in a high school conceptual physics classroom. Through multiple years of enacting MBI in the physics classroom, the authors have identified a cycle of modeling, focused inquiry, and iterations that has enriched learning through requiring students to develop understandings of physics concepts by collecting and making sense of data.2 And, in addition to enabling students to develop strong conceptual understandings documented in recorded mental models (Fig. 1), MBI also engages students meaningfully in the processes of scientific inquiry, so that focused instruction can also be applied to developing student processes and nature of science understandings.
Electricity is a centrally important concept that is outlined as foundational to understanding physics in all national and state standards documents.3–5 Specific to electricity, the AAAS Science Benchmarks3 identify the following focus as a beginning for developing...
