Initial Models Gallery

1.C Develop an initial model of systems in space to describe patterns we observe in the sky.

Look for students who are including parts or interactions in their system that might not be necessary to explain the pattern they chose. For example, a student might have chosen to model seasons but included all eight classical planets in orbit around the Sun in their model.

In addition, look for students who are representing scale in their models by indicating “zooming” of perspectives. This is a sophisticated way to represent scale and will become part of our consensus model later in the unit. Make note of these models to highlight in Lesson Set 4.

If students need support choosing what to put in their models, begin the Scientists Circle with a review of bounding systems. If most students are not modeling interactions, push students to think more about them (i.e., forces, sunlight, movement) among the parts as the class develops a consensus model. Make note of students who are representing interactions between parts and bring attention to their representations as the class builds their initial models.

Revisit classroom norms. Take this opportunity to remind the class how we listen to one another, press on one another’s ideas, and ask questions of one another and that it’s OK to disagree with ideas but it’s important to be respectful. You can use slide S to remind students of the classroom norms (if you have developed your own set of norms, replace this slide with your norms).✱

Remind students of the Communicating in Scientific Ways sentence starters.✱ Make certain a Communicating in Scientific Ways poster or handout is visible. Emphasize that each individual has contributions to make to their community of learners. Ask them which sentence starters they might want to use to help them talk to one another. Examples include these:

Think of an idea, claim, prediction, or model to explain your data and observations:

My idea is ….

I think that ….

We could draw it this way … to show ....

Give evidence for your idea or claim:

My evidence is ….

The reason I think that this evidence supports this is ….