Understanding Students’ Representations of Mechanism through Modeling Complex Aquatic Ecosystems

Abstract

This study examines how 5th grade students represent the mechanisms of a complex aquatic ecosystem in the Modeling and Evidence Mapping Environment (MEME), a software tool designed to support students in iteratively modeling the elements within a complex system, and their relationships to each other. We explore the various ways students represented mechanisms of an aquatic ecosystem through their models and present our findings on the patterns that emerged and the unexpected ways that mechanisms were utilized within student models.