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Conceptual models serve as both as a design artifact and an object that communicates understanding about underlying systems. As such, conceptual modeling is considered as a crucial component of engineering design. Peer comparison and critique can help students develop conceptual models, yet little research explores how peer comparison activities can support conceptual model development in engineering settings. Therefore, we investigate why and how fifth-grade students made changes to their conceptual models after a peer comparison during a 4-week engineering design curriculum unit focused on water runoff at their school. Data sources included students’ conceptual models before and after the peer comparison, field notes, and student interviews after the peer comparison. To understand how students described their conceptual models and why any changes may have occurred, we interviewed twelve students and coded these interview transcripts at the utterance level. Results show that peer comparison activities can increase conceptual model quality. Further, peer comparison contributes to a diverse set of additional representations in students’ conceptual models. The study suggests peer comparisons of conceptual modeling may support students in realizing their peers are a great source of information, a critical realization to support positive engineering design experiences in K-12 and higher education. 

Recent science education reforms, as described in the Framework for K-12 Science Education (NRC, 2012), call for three-dimensional learning that engages students in scientific practices and the use of scientific lenses to learn science content. However, relatively little research at any grade level has focused on how students develop this kind of three-dimensional knowledge that includes crosscutting concepts. This paper aims to contribute to a growing knowledge base that describes how to engage students in three-dimensional learning by exploring to what extent elementary students represent the crosscutting concept systems and system models when engaged in the practice developing and using models as part of an NGSS-aligned curriculum unit. This paper answers the questions: How do students represent elements of crosscutting concepts in conceptual models of water systems? How do students’ representations of crosscutting concepts change related to different task-based scaffolds? To analyze students’ models, we developed and applied a descriptive coding scheme to describe how the students illustrated the flow of water. The results show important differences in how students represented system elements across models. Findings provide insight for the kinds of support that students might need in order to move towards the development of three-dimensional understandings of science content.