We have developed activities to engage students in evaluating competing scientific models. Ford identified evaluation as a critical aspect of doing science, and it sits at the crux of the K-12 Framework and NGSS’s Science and Engineering Practices. Scientific evaluation often involves both the evaluation of the connections between evidence and the explanation and the evaluation of competing explanations. But how do we get students to engage with this process?
References
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Note that although we use the term “nonscientific” here, we acknowledge that some models may have been accepted explanations in the past (e.g., steady state model of the universe) or for other situations (e.g., gravitational capture of moons around other planets). In other MEL topics, the nonscientific models may not have ever been considered accurate; for example, the nonscientific model in the Climate Change MEL is a commonly proposed skeptic model of increasing solar radiation causing increased global temperatures.
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).© 2022 Author(s). Published under an exclusive license by American Association of Physics Teachers.
2022
Author(s)
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