Episode 65 – Cynthia Passmore – “Models Are the Functional Unit of Scientific Thought”
In this episode, Mark talks with Cynthia Passmore, who is a professor of science education at the University of California, Davis. They talk about the differences between the approach to modeling developed at ASU and UC Davis, which seem to be more and more similar as time goes by. They talk about how all of our understanding in scientific study is based on models, even if we do not specifically hold those up as “models” per se. We use mental models to explain the world around us and to better understand how and why certain interactions happen the way they do. They talk about modeling instruction and the Next Generation Science Standards and how modeling really gets students to do the thinking as scientists and make the connections between what we see and the explanations for what we see. They talk about Cynthia’s new book, even get to talk about some of Cynthia’s recent research on effective teaching using modeling methods in the high school biology classroom.
Guest
Cynthia Passmore
Cynthia Passmore is currently a Professor specializing in science education in the University of California, Davis School of Education. She did her doctoral work at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and prior to that she was a high school science teacher. Her research focuses on the role of models and modeling in student learning, curriculum design and teacher professional development. She investigates model-based reasoning in a range of contexts and is particularly interested in understanding how the design of learning environments interacts with students’ reasoning practices. She has been the principal investigator of several large grants and is the lead on a collaborative curriculum design project that has created a full-year high school biology course. A key practitioner publication is the edited volume: Helping Students Make Sense of the World Using Next Generation Science and Engineering Practices from NSTA Press.
Highlights
[2:44] Cynthia “I think the inclusion of modeling as a practice in the next generation Science standards has also brought a lot more people to the work of modeling than used to be the case.”
[3:25] Cynthia “Models are the functional unit of scientific thought.”
[7:51] Cynthia “The depiction is important. I’m not trying to say it’s not, but if all we’re doing is asking kids to reproduce representations and depictions of things, then we’re losing the modeling practice, in my view.”
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