Revision and manipulation of physical models as tools for developing the aquifer model by Preservice Elementary Teachers

Abstract

Citizens show misunderstandigs about groundwater that hinder making informed decisions about problems like the deterioration of aquifers. Science education should address this, including modelling practices about the aquifer model. Physical models (PM) have been extensively used in geology teaching, but students rarely construct, evaluate or manipulate them. This study addressed how the revision and manipulation of PMs contributed to the construction of a complete aquifer model by 80 Preservice Elementary Teachers (PETs) of two cohorts (subsequent years) that participated in a modelling teaching sequence that included fieldwork and the construction of a PM The model representations (drawings, writings, oral expressions, PMs) were analysed, based on systems thinking framework, through a constant comparison method. In Year 2 PETs that constructed a complete model tripled those of Year 1. The conversations in groups and the model representations throughout the sequence show that the evaluation of the PM when comparing it with reality during the field trip, and their manipulation guided by teacherś scaffoldings to encourage PETs to make representations and predictions, led them to revise their models in Year 2. Therefore, we conclude that it is the manipulation and revision of PMs that facilitates the revision and improvement of the aquifer model.