Modeling is a core practice in science and a central part of scientific literacy. We present theoretical and empirical motivation for a learning progression for scientific modeling that aims to make the practice accessible and meaningful for learners. We define scientific modeling as including the elements of the practice (constructing, using, evaluating, and revising scientific models) and the metaknowledge that guides and motivates the practice (e.g., understanding the nature and purpose of models). Our learning progression for scientific modeling includes two dimensions that combine metaknowledge and elements of practice-scientific models as tools for predicting and explaining, and models change as understanding improves. We describe levels of progress along these two dimensions of our progression and illustrate them with classroom examples from 5th and 6th graders engaged in modeling. Our illustrations indicate that both groups of learners productively engaged in constructing and revising increasingly accurate models that included powerful explanatory mechanisms, and applied these models to make predictions for closely related phenomena. Furthermore, we show how students engaged in modeling practices move along levels of this progression. In particular, students moved from illustrative to explanatory models, and developed increasingly sophisticated views of the explanatory nature of models, shifting from models as correct or incorrect to models as encompassing explanations for multiple aspects of a target phenomenon. They also developed more nuanced reasons to revise models. Finally, we present challenges for learners in modeling practices-such as understanding how constructing a model can aid their own sensemaking, and seeing model building as a way to generate new knowledge rather than represent what they have already learned. ß 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 46: 632-654, 2009 Keywords: scientific modeling; learning progression; scientific practice; student learningResearch-based reforms in science education have emphasized the importance of engaging learners in scientific practices-social interactions, tools, and language that represent the disciplinary norms for how scientific knowledge is constructed, evaluated, and communicated (Duschl, Schweingruber, & Shouse, 2007). Involving learners in developing and investigating explanations and models leads to more sophisticated understanding of key models in science, as well as helping learners understand the nature of disciplinary knowledge (e.g., Lehrer & Schauble, 2006). Yet, scientific practices require shifts in traditional classroom norms that involve learners in knowledge building and negotiation (Berland & Reiser, 2009; Jimenenez-Aleixandre, Rodriguez, & Duschl, 2000;Lemke, 1990). For effective participation in scientific practices, teachers and students need support with the practices as well as with the scientific ideas addressed by the practice (Duschl et al., 2007).The MoDeLS project, Modeling Designs for Learning Scien...

Recent research and policy documents call for engaging students and teachers in scientific practices such that the goal of science education shifts from students knowing scientific and epistemic ideas, to students developing and using these understandings as tools to make sense of the world. This perspective pushes students to move beyond the rote performance of scientific actions or processes and engage instead in purposeful knowledge construction work. This raises parallel questions about how to go beyond characterizing student performance of scientific process to understand their engagement in scientific practices as a goal-directed activity. To that end, this article offers a framework-the Epistemologies in Practice (EIP) framework-for characterizing how students can engage meaningfully in scientific practices. This framework emphasizes two aspects of student engagement in scientific practices: (1) the students' epistemic goals for their knowledge construction work and (2) their epistemic understandings of how to engage in that work.

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Water is a crucial topic that spans the K‐12 science curriculum, including the elementary grades. Students should engage in the articulation, negotiation, and revision of model‐based explanations about hydrologic phenomena. However, past research has shown that students, particularly early learners, often struggle to understand hydrologic phenomena and that scientific modeling remains underemphasized in elementary science learning environments. More research is, therefore, needed to understand and promote early learners' engagement in domain‐specific modeling practices. To address this need, we are engaged in design‐based research to foster and investigate 3rd‐grade students' model‐based explanations for the water cycle. Here, we report on the development of a set of empirically based learning performances that integrate core discipline‐specific concepts and the practice of scientific modeling. This framework (i) grounds the iterative adaptation and enhancement of a commonly used curricular unit focused on water and (ii) lays the foundation for ongoing development of an associated learning progression that spans K‐12 grades. Second, we report on findings from research investigating 3rd‐grade students' model‐based explanations within the context of the water cycle. Results illustrate epistemic features of mechanism‐based causal claims elementary students generate and highlight both target concepts and modeling practices emphasized in students' model‐based explanations for hydrologic cycling. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 52: 895–921, 2015.