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Scientific argumentation and modeling are both core practices in learning and doing science. However, they are challenging for students. Although there is considerable literature about scientific argumentation or modeling practice in K-12 science, there are limited studies on how engaging students in modeling and scientific argumentation might be mutually supportive. This study aims to explore how 5th graders can be supported by our designed mediators as they engage in argumentation and modeling, in particular, model revision. We implemented a virtual afterschool science club to examine how our modeling tool – MEME (Model and Evidence Mapping Environment), provided evidence, peer comments, and other mediators influenced students in learning about aquatic ecosystems through developing a model. While both groups that we examined constructed strong arguments and developed good models, we show how the mediators played different roles in helping them be successful. 

Students in science education struggle with creating and iteratively revising models based on evidence. We report on an implementation of a “gallery walk” activity where 5th grade students used the Model and Evidence Mapping Environment (MEME) software tool to develop and then critique each other’s models of an algal bloom. MEME was designed to support students in creating visual models organized around the components and mechanisms of the target phenomena, linking evidence to those models, and then providing and responding to comments on the specific features of the model. Findings illustrate how this was a productive environment for students to make their ideas about modeling criteria visible, and how their ideas cut across normative dimensions of modeling expertise. 

The Modeling and Evidence Mapping Environment (MEME) was designed to support elementary students in using evidence to create a model of an ecosystem. While drawing inspiration from prior modeling environments, MEME is unique in combining the following: 1) MEME incorporates explicit systems scaffolds based on the Phenomena, Mechanism, Component (PMC) framework; 2) MEME supports collaborative, qualitative model building; 3) MEME directly incorporates evidence within the model and modeling environment, and 4) students and teachers can provide and reply to comments directly on the model itself. We will give participants an opportunity to use MEME and share models produced both by 5th grade students learning about ecosystems, and graduate students exploring cultural historical activity theory (CHAT). 

The design of most learning environments focuses on supporting students in making, constructing, and putting together projects on and off the screen, with much less attention paid to the many issues—problems, bugs, or traps—that students invariably encounter along the way. In this symposium, we present different theoretical and disciplinary perspectives on understanding how learners engage in debugging applications on and off screen, examine learners’ mindsets about debugging from middle school to college students and teachers, and present pedagogical approaches that promote strategies for debugging problems, even having learners themselves design problems for others. We contend that learning to identify and fix problems—debug, troubleshoot, or get unstuck—in completing projects provides a productive space in which to explore multiple theoretical perspectives that can contribute to our understanding of learning and teaching critical strategies for dealing with challenges in learning activities and environments.