When investigating a topic for a research project or simply hoping to understand an idea more deeply, it is very helpful to have students construct functional models of the processes involved. This may be done by collecting data from the natural world, or with modeling software that allows students to easily create and manipulate models of a wide variety of systems. When helping students do this, a series of steps outlined in the book Understanding Models in Earth and Space Science, can help you help them out.

Step 1: Identify the question

When students know what their goal is, they are ready to begin. This question will drive the entire process, so it is important to determine a useful question, but students need not fear; they will naturally revise the question as they continue.

Step 2: Record what you already know

Students should describe what they already know about the question to ground themselves more completely. This will also make clear what parts of the goal question they don't understand, so they know what the model can help them with.

Step 3: Find a title for the model

Creating a title can help make the model's goal more clear for students. Rather than just investigating what happens when they change plant fertilizers or use different temperatures for making gelatin, students are building models. "A model of the relationship between nitrogen level and plant growth" even sounds more focused and concrete, even if it's just restating the main question.

Step 4: Analyze the task and figure out how to construct the model

In this step, students should design the process they will use to collect information or data they need to build the model. This may involve a plan for how data will be collected, a list of materials or a set of steps for doing more research into other factors involved with the model.

Step 5: Identify the most important variables and separate them

Students should identify which variables need to be controlled and which need to be manipulated in order to answer the goal question. This step usually involves choosing only a few variables to focus on, and inevitably involves leaving something out -- there just isn't enough time to investigate it all.

Step 6: Assemble the model

Students should practice with the model until they are able to take data consistently and are happy with the results. In this step, students should note the assumptions they make and the variables on which they have focused.

Step 7: Run the model and collect data

After assembling the previous steps, students are ready to run the model and take data from which they can draw inferences. They can collect these inferences into some means for describing their finding to others, being careful at the same time to describe the model itself and its limitations.

For more about how you can help students build models and some tips about software you can use to do so, pick up a copy of Understanding Models in Earth and Space Science