[received on May 19, 2016. Please forward to
teachers in your network. -- Jane Jackson, ASU]
Dear science education community,
As the Outreach Coordinator of the American
Modeling Teachers Association (AMTA) I would
like to share the information below with you, and
I hope you will be able to share it within your
community.
Modeling Instruction, under development since
1990 under the leadership of David Hestenes
(Emeritus Professor of Physics, Arizona State
University), is an instructional approach that
corrects many weaknesses of the traditional
lecture-demonstration method of teaching,
including fragmentation of knowledge, student
passivity, and persistence of naive beliefs about
the physical world. Unlike the traditional
lecture-lab-discussion approach to teaching
science, in which students must wade through an
endless stream of seemingly unrelated topics,
Modeling Instruction organizes course content
around a small number of scientific models, thus
making the course coherent. Modeling Instruction
is a pedagogy that effectively embodies and
enacts the NGSS Science & Engineering Practices.
Modeling Workshops to train teachers in the use
of the Modeling Method of Instruction have been
hosted at Arizona State University for more than
2 decades. When ASU's NSF funding expired in
2005, a group of dedicated Modelers assumed
responsibility for sustaining and disseminating
Modeling Instruction by founding the American
Modeling Teachers Association (AMTA). This
organization provides a thriving virtual
community for modeling teachers, and coordinates
Modeling Workshops and curates an extensive
library of Modeling curriculum resources. In
2015, 60 Modeling Workshops in physics,
chemistry, biology, physical science, and middle
school science served over 1,000 teachers.
This summer, Modeling Workshops will be held in
Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia,
Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts,
Minnesota, Michigan, New York, North and South
Carolina, Ohio and Texas. The different workshops
are offered for physics (mechanics, E&M, CASTLE
electricity), chemistry, biology, physical
science, and for middle school.