From Static to Dynamic: Investigating How Student Testing and Debugging Strategies Change When Integrating Stock and Flow Structures

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session Seven
  In Roundtable Session: Models, Strategies, and Interactions in Science Teaching and Learning (Table 7)

Abstract

Many phenomena involve processes substances changing over time. When constructing models of such processes, students should make use of stock and flow structures. However, previous studies have shown that students often have difficulty understanding and constructing stock and flow structures within computational models. To explore how to support students in constructing stock and flow structures we designed a unit where students initially built a model of evaporative cooling using causal relationships (static equilibrium modeling) and then transitioned towards including stock and flow structures (dynamic-time based modeling). Our results suggest that students had more difficulties understanding their dynamic models compared to their static equilibrium models based on changes to their testing and debugging strategies, demonstrating the limitations of this instructional approach.

Authors

• Jonathan Bowers, Michigan State University
  Presenting Author

• Emanuel Eidin, Michigan State University
  Non-Presenting Author