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Evidence, Models, and Explanation Concepts

Initial perceptual naive misconceptions (any age)

Misconceptions (Explanations, Naive understanding, Misconceptions, or Perceptual responses)

Beginning (preschool - 7 years)

Concepts

Evidence

  1. Observation helps understand interactions and predict changes.
  2. Pictures and drawings can be used to represent features of objects being described.
  3. An object's motion can be described by tracing and measuring its position over time.

Models

  1. Models are structures that are similar to real objects in some ways.
  2. Models may be missing detail, different size, or not able to do all of the same things.
  3. A model though different from the real thing can be used to learn something about the real thing.
  4. One way to describe something is to say how it is like another thing.

Explanations

  1. Explanations tell how something does what it does.
  2. One way to describe something is to say how it is like something else.
  3. People are more likely to believe your ideas if you give good reasons for them.
  4. One way to understand something is to think how it is like something else.
  5. Strong feelings can affect a person's reasoning.
  6. How do I know is a good question to ask to try and understand what is or has happened.

Intermediate (7 years - 11 years)

Concepts

Evidence

  1. Evidence is something that is observed and can be used to understand what is happening and make predictions about future changes.
  2. Observation and inference are different.
  3. Pictures and textual information can be used as evidence, but is secondary and one should be skeptical about it as evidence without first hand observations.

Models

  1. Models are structures that correspond to real objects, events, or classes of events.
  2. Seeing how a model changes may suggest how the real thing works if the same were done to it.
  3. Geometric figures, number sequences, graphs, diagrams, sketches, number lines, maps, and stories can be used to represent objects, events, and processes in the real world.
  4. Such representations can never be exact in every detail.
  5. Models help people understand how things work.

Explanations

  1. Explanations are based on observation derived from experience or experimentation and are understandable.
  2. Reasonable conclusions can be made when a rule that always holds is related to good information about a particular situation.
  3. If then logic. (If a plants are green and this is green, then it is a plant. If John is not a plant and he paints himself green he will not be a plant.)
  4. Reasoning by similarities can suggest ideas but can't prove them.
  5. Practical reasoning may require several steps.
  6. People can invent a rule to explain something by summarizing observations.
  7. People tend to over generalize (imagine general rules based on a few observations).
  8. Sometimes people use incorrect logic when they make a statement such as If A is true, then B is true. But A isn't true, therefore B isn't true.
  9. A single example can never prove something true.
  10. Sometimes a single example can prove something is not true.
  11. An analogy has some likeness and some differences.
  12. I can check my ideas in books and see if other people have the same ideas as I do.
  13. Some tests are not fair if all variables are not kept the same.
  14. I should always seek good reasons for what I think is happening.
  15. A good way to know something is to try it out. An inference is an explanation based on observation.

Literate (11+)

Concepts

Evidence

  1. Evidence is something that is observed and can be used to understand what is happening and make predictions about future changes in natural and designed systems.

Models

  1. Models are structures that correspond to real objects, events, or classes of events that have explanatory and predictive power (physical objects, plans, mental constructs, mathematical equations, computer simulations...).
  2. Models can be used to think about events or processes that happen very slow, fast, or on a too small or large scale to change easily or safely.
  3. Mathematical models can be displayed on computers and changed to see what happens.
  4. Different models can represent the same thing.
  5. The kind of model and its complexity depend on the purpose of using the model.
  6. A model that is too limited or complicated may not be useful.

Explanations

  1. Explanations use scientific knowledge and new evidence from observation or models to create a consistent logical hypothesis, model, law, principle, theory, or paradigm.
  2. I should be skeptical of any claim that is not based on verifiable observable data and reason not presented in a logical manner.
  3. I should be skeptical on conclusions that have been based on small samples of data, biased collect or reasoning, or experiments where there was no control.
  4. There may always be more than one good way to interpret a given set of data. Analogy can be misleading and wrong.

 

Dr. Robert Sweetland's notes
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