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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). 

This study examines how 5th grade students represent the mechanisms of a complex aquatic ecosystem in the Modeling and Evidence Mapping Environment (MEME), a software tool designed to support students in iteratively modeling the elements within a complex system, and their relationships to each other. We explore the various ways students represented mechanisms of an aquatic ecosystem through their models and present our findings on the patterns that emerged and the unexpected ways that mechanisms were utilized within student models.