Modeling Instruction

After taking two courses with American Modeling Teachers Association I have changed my first year chemistry topic sequence (which you can explore by navigating the honors/regents chemistry pages on this site) and incorporated many aspects of the modeling philosophy such as socratic seminars, creating and evaluating models, and student argumentation/presentations, to name a few. The sequencing has been invaluable, in that students are witnessing a logical storyline of topics moving from macroscopic topics they can observe and try to explain to microscopic topics that are more abstract and rely on those earlier topics. Student in my classes now ask questions about the next topic in our sequence without even knowing it! And the modeling instruction not only aligns with NGSS but really allows student to demonstrate their thoughts in  a powerful and meaningful way but also allows me to identity misconceptions.