The Cocoa Microworld as an environment for developing modelling skills in physical science

Abstract

The development of the ability to construct models can provide a backbone structure of transferable skills that can aid learning in the physical sciences. In this paper, we present a process of modelling for middle school grades and we discuss modelling skills as a context for supporting the construction of meaningful knowledge by learners in physical sciences. We also present the application of this process to a middle–school science classroom studying the formation of shadows and images. In this context, we report on the use of student–constructed Cocoa Microworlds as models of physical phenomena in an authentic middle–school classroom environment and discuss the implications of computer–based tools for teaching and learning in physical sciences.